This weekend, my friend had a cookout, and I figured, what better to welcome in the warm weather but fruit pizza? It’s berry season, and this delicious vegan pizza, with any kind of fruit you want on top (but especially berries) is colorful and looks a lot harder to make than it actually is. That’s my favorite kind of recipe.

There are a couple different ways you can make this fruit pizza. I used from-scratch cookie dough and vegan cream cheese, and that recipe will be first. Alternatives will be listed afterwards. Mix and match to make your favorite!

Ingredients

Crust

1 ¼ cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 stick Earth balance vegan buttery sticks, softened

¾ cup vegan white sugar

¼ cup applesauce

Topping

½ cup vegan sugar

1 package Tofutti vegan cream cheese

2 tsp vanilla

Fruit

Anything goes, but here are my favorites:

Strawberries

Blueberries

Raspberries

Kiwi

Blackberries

Banana (if you serve quickly since they get brown)

Pineapple

Peaches

Plums

Tangerines

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate larger bowl, take a hand mixer and beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the applesauce and blend again. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix one more time.

Spray a pizza pan and spread this dough evenly out on the sheet. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until light brown.

You want the crust to cool before you spread the topping on, so while you’re waiting for it, prepare the topping and the fruit. Cut fruit into slices if necessary (leave small berries intact, obviously) and decide if you’ll make circles or if you’ll be sprinkling different fruits in a more freeform style across the pizza.

For the topping, blend together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Make sure you do it long enough so that most of the grittiness goes away. Spread evenly on the top of the cooled crust. It’s that easy.

Top the pizza with fruit and chill for a bit before serving. Your piece of art will go fast so make sure to take pictures!

Crust alternatives

Pre-made sugar cookie dough: There are vegan or just dairy-free versions of this

OR

1 tube crescent rolls

Spread out the cookie dough on a sprayed pizza pan. If you’re using crescent rolls, patch them together and roll them out slightly to fit the circumference of the pan. This takes a little creativity but it’s not too hard. Make sure it’s close to one level, however, because crescent rolls rise a lot and can come out a bit lumpy if you’re not careful. Cook crescent rolls or cookie dough as directed on the can, but take the directions minus a couple minutes so that the dough is still a little soft. Aim for light brown.

Topping Alternative – Vegan Marshmallow Dandies

1 bag Vegan Dandies

Start with 4 tbsp butter, increase if needed

2 tsp vanilla

Melt the Vegan Dandies like you would for Rice Krispie treats – Put them in a saucepan with butter at med-low heat and cook until it reaches a marshmallow fluff consistency. This was a topping I made after lousing up some cream cheese topping once, so I don’t have exact amounts or times – it was done in sort of a panic – but if I can make it up as an acceptable topping, it can’t be too hard to intuitively create.