Vegan Fruit Pizza

A good friend had a baby shower yesterday! In planning for it, she and I decided a mid-afternoon shower, full of light snacks, no awful games, and some fun activities would be best. So, we played Baby Shower Bingo, Baby Shower Trivia, painted onesies, and had a competition to see who would not say the word "baby." Prizes of small indoor plants were given to the winner of the bingo, trivia, "don't say baby" activities, as well as to the person who had her/his creepy little baby-in-an-ice-cube melt first. Good times.

Another faculty member in my department and I did all the food for the shower. She made vegan cupcakes and mini non-vegan quiches. I brought veggies & dip, pita chips and pretzels with hummus, and fruit pizza.

with the glaze

Whole thing, before adding the glaze

The first time I made this fruit pizza was actually for my dissertation defense. I was incredibly nervous and decided to deal with my nerves by cooking things. Plus, since it's traditional to bring food to your dissertation defense at my school, I had stuff to bring with me. This fruit pizza got rave reviews (as did my dissertation - coincidence?), but I hadn't made it in so long that it was time to bring it out again. The baby shower was the perfect opportunity!

Vegan Fruit Pizza
Ingredients
1 recipe sugar cookies, unbaked
1, 8 oz tub vegan cream cheese
4-5 T. strawberry preserves/jam
2-3 T. powdered sugar
fresh fruit of your choice (see Helpful Hints)

Optional Glaze
1/4 c. water
2 T. lemon juice
1/4 c. sugar
scant 1 tsp. cornstarch

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
1. Press sugar cookie dough into a 12" pizza pan, aiming for an even thickness and relative smoothness.

2. Bake crust for 15-17 minutes, or until just starting to get golden in some places. Let cool.
3. Cream together the vegan cream cheese, strawberry preserves, and powdered sugar until well mixed.
4. When crust is cool, spread cream cheese mixture over crust, leaving a small space at the edge of the crust (you may not use all of the cream cheese).

5. Lay fruit on base in desired pattern.

This has kiwi, raspberry, strawberry, banana, and blackberry.

6. If making the glaze, whisk together water, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a pot and then bring to a boil.
7. Let cool until easy to handle, but still slightly warm to the touch, then use a silicone basting brush to gently brush glaze over fruit.
8. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Helpful Hints

• For this recipe, I used most of one banana, two kiwis, most of a small container of raspberries, less than half a small container of blackberries, and just about half the container of strawberries. You can use other fruits, too, such as other berries, mango, apples, starfruit, grapes, or maybe even the denser melons. However, if you use apples and bananas, you must make this the day of your event, not the night before. 
• When I press the crust in the pan (which is a foil disposable one, because I'm awful), I make sure to keep the edges of the crust the same level as the rest of the crust. I do this on purpose because I don't want the edges to get super crispy and/or burn. I know that most store-bought tarts have pretty edges, but I'm just not that talented. 
• This glaze recipe makes a TON of glaze. You can certainly put it on more thickly than I did, but it's fairly tart, so it might overpower the other fruits. Thus, you could cut it in half if you want to do so. I saved the remainder of mine and am thinking about adding powdered sugar and using it as a glaze for a pound cake. I'll keep you posted. 

The post "Vegan Fruit Pizza" originally appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.