“Foods” was the name of our high school cooking class. It along with “Sewing” and “Parent and Child,” the class in which we carried around a heavy, conspicuously floppy plastic baby that would cry at night and in the middle of class, were the three home economics classes offered by my high school. I’m not sure what my college admissions officers thought when they read “Foods” listed directly beneath “AP Calculus” on my transcript. I did receive a few acceptances, so I can only assume they viewed me as well rounded. Or they heard I bake a serious batch of fruit pizza cookies.

About These Fruit Pizza Cookies

If you aren’t familiar with “fruit pizza,” best clear your plans, soften a block of cream cheese, and load up on fresh fruit, because you need to try this Midwestern staple. A dessert “pizza” comprised of a sugar cookie crust, sweet cream cheese sauce, and fresh fruit toppings, fruit pizza is a simple but stunning dessert. Separately, the fruit pizza cookie components taste lovely. Together, they taste of that heavenly, eternal bliss so particular to summer: blue skies, long afternoons, and fruit so juicy it runs down your chin.

In place of a single, giant sugar cookie crust, I made individual fruit pizza cookies, which are easier to serve at summer get togethers and oh so cute. A touch of cream cheese in the dough makes the sugar cookies melt-in-your-mouth tender, and lemon zest adds bursts of summery freshness.

Though fully cream cheese-frosted and berry-topped is how I love these fruit pizza cookies best, the sugar cookies still taste outstanding with only the cream cheese frosting, or even plain with a cup of coffee or tea. In the summer, I plan to keep piling the fruit high, but in months when fresh berries are less widely available, this recipe will still be my sugar cookie go-to.

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Tools Used to Make This Recipe

Offset spatula. Makes frosting cookies and cakes a breeze and is perfect for smoothing batter in baking pans too. Beater blade (a must for bakers using a stand mixer). This handheld mixer is wonderful too. Cookie sheet

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