Recipe Review - Fruit Pizza

Over the Christmas holiday, we had a big get-together with my husband's large family.  It's usually a covered dish affair, with one of his cousins, who is a professional chef, doing the main dish and the rest of us bringing sides.  The cousin who hosted the get together this year made a fruit pizza that was such a big hit my husband insisted she print off the recipe for me before we left.  She found the recipe on My Darling Days.

I made this for my husband and me on New Years Day to enjoy while watching the bowl games.  It would also be great for the "big game," and I'll probably make it again for the Super Bowl in a couple weeks.  Just the icing alone is worth making.  I could have eaten it by itself out of the bowl.  While I'm not especially fond of bananas, they went very well with the icing and added a smoothness to the more tart fruit.  I'll probably continue to add them each time I make this.

One thing I didn't like about the original recipe is that it's not written very well.  I've rewritten the recipe below to be easier to follow.  I also cut the original recipe in half, as reflected below.  While I did use a sugar cookie mix a few weeks ago because I had several things too cook that day, normally I'd use a scratch recipe to give it a fresher flavor.


Fruit Pizza

1 batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe or 1 packet of sugar cookie mix, plus ingredients to follow pouch directions
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
4 ounces Cool Whip (half a container)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
fruit of your choice, sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare sugar cookie dough and press into cookie sheet with sides or 9x13 sheet pan.  Bake for 14 minutes.  Let the crust cool completely.

Meanwhile combine cream cheese, Cool Whip, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat on medium with an electric mixer.  Chill for 15-20 minutes.

Once crust is cooled, spread cream cheese mixture on the crust.  Cut the crust into squares or other desired size.  Arrange fruit on individual squares.

Refrigerate leftovers.