With a shortbread cookie crust and a delicious cream cheese frosting, this Fourth of July Fruit Pizza is full of fireworks of flavor. The crust is thick and crumbly, the frosting sweet and smooth, and strawberries and blueberries are coated in a berry preserve.
Why This Recipe Works
The Fourth of July is often a fun gathering of family and friends circling around food that can be enjoyed throughout the day. After a day full of heavy backyard barbecue-style foods this light dessert is the perfect finish to the holiday.
With a soft but crumbly shortbread crust, coated in a layer of sweet cream cheese frosting, and topped with fresh seasonal fruit you and your guests won’t be able to resist the delicious taste and the adorable holiday-themed look of this Fourth of July fruit pizza.
You can also save time and make it ahead. This fruit pizza can be made up to 2 days in advance of when you plan to serve it.
I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe as a base for this fruit pizza, which I first made using these thumbprint cookies, and they were a huge hit.
What Goes into this Recipe
- Cream Cheese: any version of creamy cheese, full fat, reduced fat, or fat-free will work. A version with more fat though will turn out with a richer flavor.
- Strawberry Preserves: tossing the strawberries and blueberries in the strawberry preserve gives the fruit a beautiful glossy and sweet layer that shines in the sunlight of any picnic table. This is purely optional, but it does add an extra layer of sweet flavor.
- Fresh Fruit: to keep the fruit from bleeding onto the frosting fresh fruit is best. Frozen fruit also tends to be mushy when it thaws.
Ingredient Swaps
- Make it gluten-free by swapping the flour for measure-for-measure gluten-free flour and check the other ingredients to make sure there’s no hidden gluten.
- Use other types of fruit. While this is a Fourth of July recipe you don’t have to use strawberries or blueberries. Any fresh fruit will work and if you’d prefer to keep. If you’d like to keep with the same colors you can use raspberries or cherries and even pomegranate seeds for a unique design.
- Add some crunch by swapping the fresh fruit for dried fruit like these dried strawberries or these dried blueberries.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step 1: Make the crust. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy in a mixer and add the egg yolks, vanilla, and salt, and mix. Add in the flour and mix until a soft dough forms. Chill for 30 minutes.
- Step 2: Bake the crust. Heat the oven to 350ºF and roll the dough out onto a parchment-lined pizza pan or sheet pan. Bake 12 to 14 minutes until the edges are golden.
- Step 3: Prepare the frosting. Beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together in a mixer until smooth. Spread onto the cooked cookie crust and chill for 15 minutes.
- Step 4: Layer on the fruit. Press the preserves through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl and then whisk in the water. Add the fruit and toss to coat. Place the strawberries and blueberries in the design you prefer.
Tools You’ll Need:
- An electric mixer or a handheld mixer. I prefer to use the paddle attachment on my KitchenAid mixer, but if I’m in a hurry I use the handheld version. Both work great and are tools I constantly rely on in my kitchen.
- Some Mixing Bowls. I love fun mixing bowls and these are some cute ones for any kitchen.
- A good rubber spatula. Any rubber spatula will work, but I’ve learned that sometimes getting nicer utensils helps and lasts longer.
- Some parchment paper. Again, I’ve learned the better the quality of the parchment paper the better it works.
- A good kitchen knife. This is one of my favorite knife brands that we use in our kitchen.
- A sieve for straining the fruit preserves.
Storing Information
I don’t think we’ve ever had any leftovers of this fruit pizza, however, if you end up with a few slices you can store it in an air-tight container in the fridge and it will last up to 3 days before the fruit begins to soften. Unfortunately, this dessert can’t be frozen.
You can make it up to 2 days ahead of when you plan on serving it and keep it stored in your fridge. Leave the fruit topping off until you plan to serve it because the fruit juices will bleed onto the cream cheese frosting and you won’t have that clean appearance anymore.
Recipe Notes and Expert Tips
- Save time separating the egg yolk from the egg white with this egg separator that makes dividing them a cinch.
- Both the butter and cream cheese needs to be at room temperature before incorporating them into this recipe. Either leave them out 45 minutes prior to preparing this recipe or use your microwave settings to soften them if it has this feature.
- For a softer crust bake the cookie layer for only 12 minutes, but for a crispier layer let it bake for 14 minutes.
- Let the crust cool completely before spreading the cream cheese frosting on top.
- This is a great recipe for other holidays such as Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Fourth of July Fruit Pizza FAQ’s
You definitely don’t have to make your own cookie dough crust for this Fourth of July fruit pizza and instead can purchase a tube of sugar cookie dough from the store.
Unfortunately, no. While it does have a decent amount of fruit on top it’s still coated in preserves and sitting on top of the frosting and a cookie base. Go ahead and indulge in this one.
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Fourth of July Fruit Pizza
Equipment
- Electric Mixer or Handheld Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
- Rubber Spatula
- Parchment Paper
- Chefs Knife
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Crust
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter softened
- 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 large Egg Yolks room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 2⅓ cups All-Purpose Flour spooned and leveled
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 12 ounces Cream Cheese softened
- 1/4 cup Butter softened
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1¼ cup Powdered Sugar
Fruit Topping
- 20 – 25 Strawberries sliced
- 1 cup Blueberries
- 1/4 cup Strawberry Preserves pressed through a sieve to remove lumps
- 1 tablespoon Water
Instructions
- Make the crust: Using a mixer cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes until fluffy. Add the egg yolks, vanilla, and salt and mix until combined. Add the flour and continue to mix until a soft dough is formed for, about 4 minutes. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
- Bake the crust: Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a round pizza pan on a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it. Roll the dough out in a disc shape leaving room around the edge. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the edges begin to turn a golden brown.
- Prepare the cream cheese frosting: Using an electric mixer beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth. Spread the frosting on top of the cookie crust and place it in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up.
- Layer on the fruit. Press the preserves through a fine sieve into a large mixing bowl to remove any lumps. Add the water and whisk together. Then add the fruit and toss to coat. Place the strawberries and blueberries in whatever design you like.
Notes
- Save time separating the egg yolk from the egg white with this egg separator that makes dividing them a cinch.
- Both the butter and cream cheese needs to be at room temperature before incorporating them into this recipe. Either leave them out 45 minutes prior to preparing this recipe or use your microwave settings to soften them if it has this feature.
- For a softer crust bake the cookie layer for only 12 minutes, but for a crispier layer let it bake for 14 minutes.
- Let the crust cool completely before spreading the cream cheese frosting on top.
- Use fresh fruit as opposed to frozen. When the frozen fruit thaws it’s not as bright and pretty as fresh fruit, plus it tends to bleed onto the frosting layer.
- This is a great recipe for other holidays such as Memorial Day and Labor Day.