Fruit Pizza

I love fruit.  I dig pizza.  Combine the two and it’s magic!  We’re headed to an Easter party this weekend and I decided this would be a winner.  When my husband found out, he said I should make it look like an Easter egg.  This man is a genius.

Most fruit pizza recipes call for a sugar cookie crust, but between that and the sugary sauce, it’s a sugar overload.  So I made mine how my mom made it when I was little – with a crescent “roll” crust.  I also reduced the amount of sugar that is typically called for in the sauce.

You’ll need:

1 8oz package of cream cheese, room temperature

1 can of crescent rolls

3/4 C powdered sugar

Any variety of fruit you want (I used strawberries, kiwis, grapes, mandarin oranges, blueberries, and cherries)

1/2 C white chocolate chips optional

1t vegetable oil optional

I preheat the oven to 375, per the crescent roll instructions.  You could use either type of crescent rolls, I just chose the jumbo kind so I’d have fewer seams to worry about.  Roll the dough onto a sprayed cookie sheet.

Pinch all the seams together.  You’ll want to pay extra attention to the outer seams.

Then flatten the pinched seams to make a smooth surface.

To make my easter egg shape, I cut the corners off.

Then I rolled all the corners together into a ball, divided the ball in two, then stretched them out and added them to the side of the former rectangle to give it some width – like an egg.  Don’t worry if it’s not perfect, eggs aren’t either.

Be sure to pinch the seams of these new additions, too.

The crescent instructions will say something like bake 14-16 minutes.  Since we’re using it in flat formation, rather than rolled up like a crossaint, we actually need less time.  I baked it about 11 minutes.

While your crust is baking, cut all the fruit.  You can make the fruit as big or small, thick or thin as you’d like.  I chose just to cut the strawberries in half, slice the kiwi, halve the grapes, and I left the blueberries and cherries the size they were.  I found it easy to get the skin off the kiwi with a potato peeler.

Normally, I’d use only fresh fruit, but I didn’t have any cherries or clementine oranges.  Thankfully, I found mandarine oranges that were packed in juice, rather than syrup.  I also rinsed and drained the cherries and let them dry while wrapped in a paper towel so the red juice doesn’t run all over the white sauce.

After the crust is finish baking, allow it to cool completely.  You don’t want the sauce to run off the crust.  Notice some seams came apart.  Don’t fear!  Cream cheese covers a multitude of mistakes!

While the crust is cooling, time to make the icing.  You could use a hand-mixer, but I got to use my baby…the KitchenAid.

I love my KitchenAid.  I registered for one in three different stores for our wedding but we didn’t get one.  Much to my surprise, my husband gave this to me last Christmas.  I actually cried when I tore off the wrapping paper.  He’s so thoughtful.

Isn’t it beautiful?

On the lowest setting, begin to mix the cream cheese,

add the powdered sugar,

and mix on high to ensure everything is thoroughly combined.  Don’t over-mix.

Yummmm.

Once the crust and the cookie sheet are cool to the touch, spread the sauce on top and smooth it out.

Add the fruit in whatever pattern or random order you’d like.  For the Easter egg, I did a stripey chevron-ish pattern.

The last step, which is really more for looks and only a little for taste is the white chocolate topping.  In a small glass ramekin microwave the white chocolate chips for 30 seconds.  Mix well.

Add the oil which will make it thin enough to use for decorating the pizza.  Stir well so the oil is incorporated.

I didn’t have a pastry bag, so I used a sandwich size ziploc bag and barely snipped the corner.

The hole was tiny and could have been made larger, but I liked how thin the lines turned out.  Drizzle to your heart’s content.  Or until you run out of chocolate.  Chill until ready to serve.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Adapted from worthhersalt.com

Once upon a time a cute, ambitious girl who loved to cook had a food blog.  Then she studied abroad in Israel, got married, and started her Master’s program.  This is the relaunch of that blog.

I figured I’d restart this blog with a BANG! My husband is a cookie aficionado, and these are his favorite.  I even made this as his birthday “cake” last year.  Because who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies?

So, here’s what you need:

2 cups of flour (I’ve used both white and whole wheat before – both work!)

10 T of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

½ cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 t of vanilla

½ t of baking powder

salt (about ½ t)

1 12-16 oz bag of milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 first. Melt butter and combine it with the sugars, eggs, & vanilla until well mixed. Fold in the remaining ingredients (except chips) with a spatula.

Once you’ve got the white clumps mushed in, (yeah, I made that word up) fold in the chocolate chips.

Spread in a greased 9×13 pan and bake like you like your brownies. (The middle should be somewhat soft, and the edges golden kissed.) It will be about 25-30 minutes.

And then! They look like this. Tada!!!