Our fruit pizza combines a homemade cookie crust, silky-smooth cream cheese frosting, and fresh seasonal fruit for the ultimate summer dessert! With its beautiful array of colors, irresistible flavor, and the perfect level of sweetness (not too sweet!), this crowd-pleasing treat is guaranteed to be the hit of every party. As someone who’s been involved in making this family recipe over the past 30+ years, I’ve learned all kinds of tricks and tips that make the difference between a good fruit tart and an absolutely amazing one.

You Will Love This Simple Recipe for Fruit Pizza

I’ve been making this exact fruit pizza recipe since I was old enough to help my mom arrange the fruit topping as a kid. Back then, I was always on “fruit duty”, carefully placing each piece of fruit on top to create the prettiest designs (insert many ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from my very patient mother).

What makes this fruit pizza the very best is it’s perfect balance of textures, flavors, and sweetness. The sugar cookie base is almost a blend between a shortbread cookie and a sugar cookie, which stays tender and chewy with just the right amount of crispness. The cream cheese frosting gives this treat just the right amount of tangy sweetness, balancing out the sweetness from the cookie crust and fruit. And my mom’s apple juice glaze gives our tart that gorgeous, bakery-style shine.

You can make this recipe circular with a pizza pan OR rectangular on a cookie sheet, giving you flexibility to use the pan(s) you have.

Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza Ingredients

Sugar Cookie Crust

Powdered sugar AND granulated sugar. The combination of powdered and granulated sugars not only sweetens our dough, it helps us achieve the perfect balance of a light and crumbly texture that’s still soft, chewy, and a bit sturdier.
Vegetable (or canola) oil AND salted butter. We’re using a combination of oil and butter to create the perfect sugar cookie base for our fruit tart that’s rich, sturdy yet soft, and yummy.
Large egg. The egg adds richness, structure, and leavening to our cookie base.
Vanilla extract. Used to flavor our dough and enrich the other flavors as well.
Salt. Used to balance out the sweetness and enrich the other flavors.
Baking soda AND cream of tartar. Used as our main leavening agents helping our cookie base rise. Mixing in cream of tartar also adds just a little tang, which is a lovely compliment to the sweet frosting, fruit, and glaze.
All-purpose flour. All-purpose flour is a widely used and versatile flour option that’s perfect for our sugar cookie base! Because of it’s moderate protein content (10-12%), it helps create the perfect texture for our cookie base with a softer middle and crisper edges.

Fruit Pizza Frosting

Cream cheese. The star in our cream cheese frosting layer!
Powdered sugar. A must when making a smooth frosting.
Sour cream. Sour cream does a lot to amp up our cream cheese frosting! It adds depth of flavor, helps create a silky-smooth texture, and it’s slight tang balances the sweetness of our frosting (and our dessert as a whole).
Vanilla extract. Just the right amount of vanilla to add flavor to our frosting, enriching the other flavors of our dessert too.

Fruit Topping

Fresh fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces as needed. The best fruits to use on fruit tart include: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, seedless grapes, kiwi, cherries that have been pitted, canned mandarin oranges, and stone fruit (like peaches). Avoid fruits that brown too quickly (like apples, pears, and bananas) or ones that are too watery.

Glaze

Apple juice, lemon juice, and granulated sugar. The combination of apple and lemon juice plus sugar create a glaze that’s balanced, and delicious. While the glaze is primarily to make your fruit tart extra beautiful, adding a shiny finish on top, the apple and lemon compliment the other fruits used, adding just a little pop of flavor and sweetness.
Corn starch and water (to create a cornstarch slurry), to help thicken our glaze. This helps to thicken our glaze as needed.

See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for measurements and full recipe instructions.

Helpful Equipment

In addition to the typical measuring spoons, cups, bowls, etc. to mix up your dough and things, you’ll need either a 12″ – 15″ pizza pan or a 10″x15″ cook sheet to bake your crust. If you’re curious, the size of the rectangular pan is smaller than a half-sheet (trust me, I tried mine and the crust wont’ go across the entire pan). A hand mixer is also helpful for the frosting. A pastry brush is also helpful for spreading the glaze evenly over the tart (but you can also gently spoon it if needed).

How to Make Fruit Pizza

Prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease your baking sheet and it set aside. Wash your fruit, pat it dry, and chop any kind that needs to be smaller into bite-sized pieces. Store the fruit in the fridge until you’re ready to add your design to your fruit tart.

Process shot showing the crust wet ingredients and sugars being added to a large mixing bowl.

Make the crust. Add the butter, sugars, oil, egg, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl.

Process shot showing the crust wet ingredients and sugars being mixed together.

Mix to combine.

Process shot showing the sugar cookie crust dry ingredients being added to the bowl.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients.

The sugar cookie crust dough formed in the mixing bowl.

And mix until a dough is formed.

Process shot showing the sugar cookie crust dough transferred to a greased pizza tin.

Transfer the dough to your prepared baking sheet.

Process shot showing the sugar cookie crust dough pressed into an even layer in a pizza tin.

And press it into an even layer, out the the edges of the pan. I like to start with a spoon, then use my hands to finish.

The fruit pizza sugar cookie crust baked until lightly golden and cooled.

Bake the crust until lightly golden. Allow to cool fully.

Process shot showing the fruit pizza frosting ingredients being added to a medium mixing bowl.

While the crust is baking and/or cooling, make the frosting. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl.

Process shot showing the fruit pizza frosting ingredients being mixed together with a handheld mixer.

And use a hand mixer to blend until smooth, scraping down the sides with a rubber scrapper as needed.

Process shot showing the completed fruit pizza frosting.

Place the frosting in the fridge to stay cool until you’re ready to assemble.

Process shot showing the fruit pizza glaze ingredients being added to a saucepan.

Make the glaze by placing the juices and sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Process shot showing the cornstarch slurry being added to the other fruit pizza glaze ingredients being in a saucepan.

While the juices and sugar cook, whisk together the water and corn starch until no lumps remain. Pour about half into the saucepan, stirring to combine.

Close up of the cooked fruit pizza glaze.

Cook until the glaze has thickened and is clear. Add more cornstarch slurry for a thicker glaze if desired (it will thicken as it cools too). Remove from the heat and let cool.

Process shot showing the fruit pizza frosting poured onto the baked and cooled crust, beginning to be spread into an even layer.

Assemble the tart. Start by transferring the frosting onto the cooled cookie base.

Process shot showing the fruit pizza frosting spread into an even layer over the cookie crust.

Spread it into an even layer.

Process shot showing the fruit being arranged into circles on top of the frosting.

Then arrange the fruit into the design of your choice.

Process shot showing the fruit pizza glaze being brushed over the fruit design.

Brush the cooled glaze over the top of the fruit.

A slice of sugar cookie fruit pizza on a small serving plate.

Serve immediately if possible. Otherwise store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Fruit Pizza Designs

The design possibilities for a fruit pizza are endless! Here are a few of our favorite ways to layout our fruit:

On a circular fruit pizza:

Circles, alternating the fruit to create “stripes”. We like to start at the outside and work our way towards the center when doing this.
Make a spiral, with one fruit as your main line, filling in between with one or more fruits
Stripes, alternating fruits to make the lines pop.
Create a star (like an asterisk mark: *), using one color of fruit to really highlight the star shape and fill in the gaps with other fruits.

On a rectangular fruit tart:

Stripes, running either the long way or the short way, both are fun!
Diagonal stripes (this is how my mom always did it when I was growing up!), starting with a fruit line running corner to corner.
Make a USA flag, using blueberries and either raspberries or strawberries, leaving a gap for the white frosting to create the flag’s stripes.

Make a rainbow:

You can turn either shape into a rainbow! Selecting fruit tart friendly fruits is the key to success. Here’s what we recommend for each color:

Violet: Purple seedless grapes.
Red: Strawberries, raspberries, cherries (pits removed).
Orange: Canned mandarin oranges, peaches, nectarines, mango.
Yellow: Yellow Kiwi (“gold” or “golden” kiwis).
Green: Green seedless grapes.
Blue: Blueberries, blackberries (although they’re technically dark purple, they often look best in the blue line).

Storing Fruit Cookie Pizza

While fruit pizza is best right after assembling, you can cover it with plastic wrap (or transfer it to an airtight container) and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Please note, the crust will begin to get soft (maybe even soggy) due to the fruit releasing it’s juices and the frosting sitting on top of it. It’s best to eat your fruit tart ASAP.

Cookie Pizza Recipe FAQs

Can you use premade cookie dough for fruit pizza?

Yes, if desired, you can used premade cookie dough for your fruit pizza’s crust. This is a great option if you need a little short cut / timesaver. Simply press the premade dough into the pan like the recipe card describes, and bake until lightly golden.

How to keep fruit pizza from getting soggy?

There are a few things you can easily do to help prevent your fruit pizza from getting soggy.

Our #1 tip to preventing a soggy fruit tart is to assemble it as close to serving as possible. If you’d like to get some prep done early, bake the cookie crust, cool it fully, and store it covered. Then mix up the frosting and prep your fruit, storing everything separately in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble.
Be sure to fully cool the cookie crust after baking. A warm crust will cause the frosting to melt, increasing the chances of sogginess.
Dry your fruit after rinsing it to remove excess moisture.
Glaze it. Not only is the glaze shiny and pretty, it can help prevent the fruit from releasing too much moisture onto the frosting and crust.
Choose the right fruits. Avoid fruits with high water content like watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, or ripe bananas. Select fruits that won’t become watery and ‘bleed’ onto the frosting when cut.

How to make mini fruit pizza?

You can do this in a couple of ways. Personally, I’ve used this recipe to make individual fruit tarts using larger, 8oz ramekins to make individual cookie crusts. Then I frosted and decorated each of them when it was time to serve dessert.

You can also form the dough into individual sugar cookies, and top them with the frosting, fruit, and glaze.

The trick is watching the bake time on your mini crust, as it will vary from the recipe card and be dependent on the size of your mini fruit pizzas.

Love This Recipe? Try One of These Easy Fruit Desserts Next!

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Comments

5 from 3 votes

Sugar Cookie Pizza Recipe

You Will Love This Simple Recipe for Fruit Pizza