Fruit Pizza

Friday office meetings for me mean that I am going to eat extremely unhealthy breakfast foods paired with coffee while we talk about all the happenings of our work week. I tend to feel guilty when it comes to Fridays because I do indulge, but as many of all you know once I indulge there's no way out of it. dun dun dun But I love this recipe because I don't feel as guilty indulging because of all of the beautiful fruit! The recipe is a simple recipe that you can make ahead of time. I didn’t want to buy something from the store because I love the chance to cook for others. I'm thinking that this beats our usual donuts. Don't you? 

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookie Crust

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch

Frosting Topping

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1-2 Tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• assorted sliced fresh fruit

DIRECTIONS

MAKING THE CRUST

1.    In a large bowl using cream the softened butter .
2.   Add the sugar on medium speed until fluffy.
3.  Beat in egg and vanilla.
4.   In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cornstarch. Slowly mix dry ingredients to cream mixture in 3 parts. Cover the dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Without chilling, your cookie dough may spread over the sides of the pan. (I didn’t let me dough chill. )
5.   Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 12-inch pizza pan with cooking spray. Remove chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator and press onto the pizza pan in an even flat circle.
6.    Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the edges are very lightly 

MAKING THE FROSTING

1.   In a medium bowl cream the cream cheese and butter together until smooth, about 2 minutes.
2.   Add the confectioners’ sugar and 1 Tbsp cream.
3.   Add the vanilla (1 more Tbsp cream if needed to thin out.)  
4.    Spread in a thick layer over the cooled sugar cookie crust.
5. Decorate pizza with fruit however you’d like.
6.  Cut into slices and serve.

**Fruit pizza may be made 1 day in advance, covered tightly, and stored in the refrigerator before serving. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.**

Adapted from: Sally’s Fruit Pizza.