fruit pizza Archives - Good Food St. Louis

8 Quick and Easy Summer Desserts

June 18, 2021

Tri-Color Sherbet Cups

The secret of this sherbet dessert is using beautiful heirloom serving pieces and topping off the colorful scoops with a mint sprig.

I’m not getting complicated with this post. These are swiftie desserts and my go-to summer favorites when I want a sweet, colorful finale to a meal without having to turn on the oven. Most of these dishes require only that you scoop, slice or swish them into being.

Presentation is key, so be willing to put aside the paper and plastic and use a few of grandma’s beautiful, old serving pieces. They don’t even have to match.

Watermelon Basket

For this Watermelon Basket, use all melon chunks or mix in other colorful fruit for a winning center piece and light dessert.

Fruit Pizza

This colorful Fruit Pizza is made with a frozen cookie dough base that’s topped with a smear of sweetened cream cheese and dotted with a fruit pattern of your choice.

Mango Lassi

This Mango Lassi, or smoothie, is one of the most refreshing of summer drinks. It can be served with a meal or afterwards as a light finale. All it takes is a blender and a few ingredients.

Lemon Berry Tartlets

Using store-bought puff pastry makes these Lemon Berry Tartlets a cinch to create. Top with the berries of your choice.

Fruit Kabobs

It doesn’t get any easier than these Fruit Kabobs.

Old-Fashioned Icebox Cake

Old-Fashioned Icebox Cake, an oldie from your grandmother’s kitchen. This all-time favorite is made with layers of graham crackers and vanilla pudding topped with Cool Whip and cracker crumbs. Photo from Brown-Eyed Baker

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake (can easily become Peach Shortcake by swapping out the fruit). It’s best when you make the shortcake base yourself. True, it’s slightly more trouble. If you’re in a hurry, cut up chunks of store-bought angel food cake or slices of pound cake. As to the topping, use the prefab whipped cream, if you like, but I’ve always thought that whipping whole cream was easy and fun.

Fresh Fruit Pizza

July 4, 2016

Moving the Fruit Pizza with a pizza peel.

One of my fond memories of political campaigning during the summer months was coming upon a roadside stand of local produce. Traveling in the Bootheel, it was always a special treat to pass through Campbell, Missouri, during peach season. I remember heading home after several days on the road with baskets and bags of melons, berries and peaches, enough to bring a ripe aroma to the inside of the vehicle.

This past weekend at the farm, I thought about the abundance of fruits we enjoyed after those campaign journeys. Just like then, my counter tops were covered with bowls of fresh fruit, heaped up like colorful Christmas ornaments. But this holiday was the 4th of July and we were preparing a very patriotic looking Fruit Pizza.

Start the design in the middle and turn your creativity loose. Or search Google Images for more ideas on designing Fruit Pizza.

The simple, but beautiful dessert starts with a huge sugar cookie that forms the crust and is easily made from store bought dough. Top the cooked crust with a sweetened cream cheese and a bright design of fresh fruits, such as bananas, peaches, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries.

The design for the Fruit Pizza comes together quickly.

Composing the design is fun for kids or anyone lounging in the kitchen who asks, “What can I do to help?” To seal your culinary art work, use apricot preserves thinned with a bit of water. Paint the mixture over the pizza to preserve the fruit and give it a baker’s gloss. There are a number of recipes on the Internet, but the one at Pillsbury is the old standby.

Fruit Pizza with Apricot Glaze

For the patriotic themed weekend, we used strawberries and blueberries on the creamy, white background, with a few peaches, well. . . because we had them. The festive dessert is suitable for any occasion, slices well, but stores poorly. Sadly, the cookie gets soggy when refrigerated overnight. So be sure to eat it all—which shouldn’t be any problem.