4th of July Desserts and Patriotic Fruit Pizza

Everyone loves festive 4th of July Desserts and Patriotic Fruit Pizza tops the list of our favorite way to celebrate the 4th! We love to gather with family and friends, eat, play, and end the day with a few of our favorite 4th of July desserts. This Patriotic Fruit Pizza is easy to put together and requires minimal work for a big bang of a dessert!

Fruit pizza, in case you aren’t familiar, is basically a cookie crust topped with cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit. They were huge in the late 70’s early 80’s. Everyone loved a good fruit pizza back then and it was a standard wedding and baby shower dessert.

We made them for years until they slowly faded away and now it seems, you hardly ever see fruit pizza served. I love sugar cookies and frosting and fresh fruit. A few years ago, I put a fresh twist on this dessert and updated it for our 4th of July Desserts and Patriotic Fruit Pizza post!

This sugar cookie crust sets this dessert apart from others. It’s an all butter recipe, made with powdered sugar and a bit of cream of tartar to keep it light. I love to put a little bit of almond flavoring in the dough to give it a little extra flavor.  

The crust is patted into either two round pizza pans, or a standard jelly roll pan (12x17x1). After the dough is distributed in the pans and patted in, I use a mini rolling pin to get the crust out to all of the edges. If you don’t have a mini rolling pin, you may use a regular rolling pin.  Be careful to not over handle the dough or it will become tough. This crust is light and just like a sugar cookie!

4th of July desserts are often made to resemble the American flag, but I like to use the colors of the flag and distribute the fruit a little more evenly, so every bite is filled with strawberries (and/or raspberries) and fresh blueberries. The combination of these fresh fruits in the summer is hard to beat, especially when paired with a sugar cookie base and a bit of cream cheese frosting! I leave off the traditional glaze topping, which gives the dessert a glossy finish. I like it better without the glaze because it’s a little bit of an updated approach to this classic dessert.

If  Patriotic Fruit Pizza doesn’t get you excited for the 4th, give one of our other favorite 4th of July desserts a try… Fresh Strawberry Pie,  Perfect Apple Pie (with step by step tutorial),  Classic Strawberry Cheesecake , Blueberry Buckle,  Frozen Strawberry Dessert, Fresh Strawberry White Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, Apple Cherry Pie for a Crowd,  Bountiful Blueberry Pie, or  Raspberry Pie.  

If you want to make Patriotic Fruit Pizza into a tart, you’ll love this recipe for Red,White and Blueberry Tarts – same basic ingredients, different pans.  Hope you have a safe and festive 4th of July!

Patriotic Fruit Pizza

4.67 from 6 votes

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Author: Si Foster

Course: Dessert

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 15 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

Servings: 20 servings

Ingredients 

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons soda
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar

cream cheese layer:

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• dash of salt
• 2-3 tablespoons milk, cream or half and half

fruit layer:

• 1 lb fresh blueberries, washed and dried
• 1  1/2 lb fresh strawberries, washed with tops cut off, dried and sliced and/or raspberries 

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Instructions

• Pre heat oven to 325 degrees and position rack in center of oven.
• Cream together butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl. Add the almond flavoring and egg, beat until combined and smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape bottom of bowl before adding flour. 
• Add the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar all at once. Mix just until flour disappears and wet and dry ingredients are combined. Scrape bottom of bowl again to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. 
• Using a standard jelly roll pan (12x17x1) or two 12 inch pizza pans, lightly grease the pans with cooking spray and flour the pans. Tap any extra flour out of the pans into the sink.
• Scoop the dough into the pan, and press into the pan lightly with hands. Use a small rolling pin to smooth the dough and distribute evenly. 
• Bake the crust for 15-18  minutes or until crust is set and top is lightly golden. Do not over bake!
• Remove and set on rack to cool. Let cool completely. This step may be done up to two days ahead if kept covered after baked and cooled.
• Make frosting layer by beating all ingredients together.  Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl half way through mixing to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. 
• Spread evenly on top of cooled crust. 
• Decorate the top of the frosted cookie crust with fruit as desired. I layer the strawberries one way, then spread on a layer of blueberries (or blackberries) and then layer the strawberries the opposite direction. You may also decorate the top in the pattern of the flag, or make wavy stripes. 
• Store the finished, decorated fruit pizza in refrigerator  until ready to serve .

Notes

• Make sure the fruit is washed and dried thoroughly before decorating top of fruit pizza or the fruit will bleed onto the frosting layer. 
• Do not assemble this dessert more than 6 hours before serving. 
• The cookie layer and the frosting layers can be made a few days ahead and assembled on the day  of serving. 
• The cookie layer freezes well for up to two months. Bake, let cool completely, and then wrap tightly with Saran Wrap.