Fruit Pizza is an easy year round dessert that everyone loves. The cookie crust is similar to shortbread and the filling softens it slightly so it can easily be cut into wedges and served like pizza. Any combination of fresh fruit creates a colourful presentation and when the fruit is added in a random fashion it looks fun and casual.

So why call it pizza? Just our North American fascination for pizza I think.

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Fruit Pizza vs Fruit Tart

The people I serve dessert to always appreciate the fact they’re getting dessert and have never commented on the name I chose. Although I do occasionally make a beautiful fresh fruit tart I think a Fruit Pizza is slightly different.

When I call it a Fruit Pizza I like to honour the name and make it look like a pizza. Instead of the edge that a tart pan has I simply use the bottom of the pan making the crust flat right to the edge, like a pizza. I also arrange the fruit in a scattered fashion the way I would add toppings on a pizza. To me a fruit tart would have concentric circles of carefully placed fruit with no filling showing through.

When you make dessert in your kitchen you can do whatever you want. It’s good to know the basics of baking, the ‘rules’ you might say. Then you can make anything and name it what you want.

Best Filling For A Fruit Pizza

Every recipe I have ever seen for a Fruit Pizza has a cream cheese filling. If you prefer the vanilla custard filling typically used in a bakery Fruit Tart then go for it. I’ve served many variations of Fruit Pizza and Fruit Tart over the years. If you prefer to use a custard filling be sure to use a tart pan so there is a pastry edge to hold in the filling.

Should I Glaze Fruit Pizza

A sweet glaze gives fruit pizza the finished look you’d expect tp come from a fancy bakery. More importantly it keeps the fruit looking fresh allowing you to prepare this dessert hours in advance. The glaze can be brushed over the fruit only or the entire top surface, see which you think looks better.

Here is the comparison of mine; no glaze on the left and glazed on the right.

The glaze makes it look finished but here’s one situation where you might skip it.

For a casual dinner party (when timing is off and they’ll be lucky to just get a dessert) invite one or more people to spread on the filling, cut the fruit and assemble the pizza giving them the creative license to do it as they wish.

The skill of a good host is to act like it was all part of the plan. Don’t even mention this dessert can sometimes have a glaze…and you would definitely do that for a fancy party.

What Pan Do I Use To Make Fruit Pizza

A 12-inch pizza pan is perfect for this recipe but my pizza pans are well-used (quite black looking) so I don’t use them for dessert. Instead I use my 12-inch tart pan with removable bottom.

A tart pan has low sides but I just use the bottom piece to get the pizza look. I simply rolled the dough right to the edges of the base and baked it like that. After it’s completely cooled I easily transferred the crust to a pizza board covered in parchment paper (to avoid any garlic taste that might linger). You can serve the pizza right on the pan if you want and transfer it to a serving platter like that. I do this method when the crust is not easily coming away from the pan or when I just couldn’t be bothered with that step.

Have you made a fruit pizza? In the comments below I’d love to hear about it.

More Recipes – Summer Desserts

Click on the (hard to see) text on the bottom of each image to go to the recipe/blog post.