Fruit Pizza

My family has a fish fry every summer, and Fruit Pizza has become our traditional dessert for it.  Made from scratch, it's light, cool, and refreshing.  A soft sugar cookie-type crust is topped with a creamy cream cheese frosting, fresh, seasonal fruit, and a sweetened fruit juice glaze. 

A 15 oz. can of mandarin oranges is pictured, but you only need an 11 oz. can.

Fruit Pizza

Crust:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup Crisco

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 3/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the butter, Crisco, sugar, and eggs in a 4 qt. bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar, soda, salt, and flour.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture mixing well.  Press the dough into an ungreased half sheet pan (18x13--see link and photo below) pressing it flat across the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned, and then let it cool completely.  The crust will puff while baking and then flatten while cooling leaving raised edges.

Frosting:

1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. fruit juice (from canned fruit used for topping)

In a 2 qt. mixing bowl, blend frosting ingredients on medium speed of an electric mixer.  Spread on cooled crust.

Topping:
1 (20 oz.) can pineapple chunks in unsweetened juice (drain and reserve juice)
1 (11 oz.) can mandarin oranges (drain and reserve juice)
1 pound fresh, ripe strawberries, sliced
1/2 pint (1 cup) blueberries
2-3 bananas, sliced (dip in lemon juice before placing on pizza to prevent browning)

Arrange fruit on top of frosting.  I put all the pineapple chunks on first, then the mandarin oranges, and so forth ending with the bananas.

Glaze:
3 tbsp. cornstarch
Remaining fruit juice
Sugar to taste

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with just enough fruit juice to make the mixture a liquid.  Pour the remaining fruit juice into a 2 qt. saucepan; stir in the cornstarch mixture.  Add sugar to taste.  Heat over medium heat to boiling until thick and translucent adding more sugar if desired.  Immediately drizzle over the top of the pizza and refrigerate several hours before serving.

Click here for printable format

Note:  I buy my half sheet pans at Sam's Club, but they are readily available online at Amazon and other retailers.  Here is a link to the ones I use: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/half-size-aluminum-sheet-pan-2ct/132731.ip?navAction=

Fruit Pizza 101:  Press the dough into an ungreased half sheet pan pressing it flat across the bottom of the pan:

Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned, and then let it cool completely.  The crust will puff while baking and then flatten while cooling leaving raised edges: 

My mom gave me this Fruit Pizza recipe in 1988, so I have been making it for a long time!  :)  She got it from family friend Debbie Caffey.

Many thanks to my niece Shelby for making the Fruit Pizza for this blog post. ♥