Fruit Pizza

We were invited to a BBQ for Memorial Monday, and I offered to bring dessert.  I haven't made fruit pizza in years, but once I thought of doing it, I was sure it would be a winner in my boys' book.  I make it with sugar cookie dough, bake in a pizza pan and cover with cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit.  But like I said, my boys weren't familiar with this treat, so when I mentioned it, they imagined the dessert pizzas at Malawi Pizza in the Provo Riverwoods.  Then I thought, okay I'll give it a try.  We'll have a fruit pizza taste testing night.

I found a sweet dough recipe that kneaded 4 teaspoons of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar into the basic pizza dough recipe.  Next, I used frozen berries and mixed with sugar, cornstarch, and water, just as if I was making a filling for a strawberry tart.  The dough recipe made enough for two pizzas, so the experiment continued further.  One would be baked an empty shell, the filling topped on after the oven.  The other was baked with the filling and came out looking like a pie.   I had a little left over cream cheese frosting and placed a dollop right in the center on top of the berries.

What were the results?  The cookie pizza was too pretty to resist, it was devoured in  half an hour.  The other two pizzas sat there feeling rejected.  But I made sure I tasted both, just for verification purposes.  I much preferred the baked berry pizza, and made the boys try it the next morning for breakfast.  Two out of three said they preferred the baked berry over the cookie, while the one pleaded his case stating he had gone back for several slices of the cookie.  

Next time, my only change will be to add an extra cinnamon/sugar mixture to the crust edges - for taste and for more attractiveness.  Also the frosting was a great addition, so I'd use more.