Have you ever tried a Fruit Pizza? It’s a brilliant combination of Sugar Cookie Crust + Vanilla Custard + Fresh Fruit that is both stunning and taste bud tickling.
My first encounter with Fruit Pizza was in high school when my best friend, Alison, and I baked one using boxed sugar cookie mix, instant vanilla pudding and fresh fruit. We were so proud of how pretty it turned out, with neat little rows of berries and sliced kiwi. We scarfed it down and made it time and time again. Never mind the crazy sugar content!
These days I wouldn’t touch a boxed cookie mix or an instant pudding box with a ten-foot pole — WAY too much refined sugar, grains, gluten and processed ingredients — however the nostalgic dessert goal of making another beautiful Fruit Pizza landed in my mind. Turns out it’s just as simple to make a wholesome Fruit Pizza, using only real food ingredients, as it was to make the mainstream one…I already had created recipes for Coconut Sugar Cookies and Vanilla Custard and simply needed to combine them and top with gorgeous fresh fruit.
This Fruit Pizza is the kind of dessert that you make to serve to a group – proudly displaying your creative and colorful decorating skills. Depending on the size of the group and the setting, you may want to bake these in muffin tins as little individual Fruit Tarts, to save yourself from having to slice into your creation, and the pressure of trying to make each serving still look pretty after slicing! I’ll put instructions for Individual Fruit Tarts below.
Step One: Make a Batch of Real Healthy Custard the night before (recipe BELOW).
It’s important that your custard has a chance to chill overnight so that it’s nice and creamy when you spread it over the cookie crust (running custard is no bueno) so plan to make it the night before. It’s a pretty painless recipe, lots of stirring the ingredients as it comes to a boil, and then whisking the hot ingredients into an egg yolk+honey mixture. Nothing you can’t do in your PJ’s with an episode of Scandal on…
Step Two: Make the Coconut Sugar Cookie Crust, then cool completely.
Bake the cookie crust at least a few hours before you plan to decorate the Fruit Pizza so that it has time to cool completely and then spend an hour or so in the fridge just chilling. You can use the crust-chilling time to wash and slice the fresh fruit.
Step Three: Assemble the Fruit Pizza, then chill or freeze.
It’s really important that both the custard and the cookie crust are nice and cold when you assemble your Fruit Pizza. Spread a generous layer of custard over the crust, leaving an inch of crust visible around the edge, and then decorate with the fresh fruit in a circular pattern. Have fun with the decorating part! Or obsessively swipe through Google images of fruit pizzas for ideas. Whichever method floats your boat :-)
4 egg yolks
½ cup raw honey
1 teaspoon coconut flour
1½ cans (13.66oz) coconut milk, full fat
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon Lemon Zest
½ cup coconut oil
½ cup palm shortening
1 cup coconut palm sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
3 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blanched almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot starch
2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
1 Mango, peeled, pitted and sliced into ½ inch strips
½ cup raspberries
½ cup blueberries
½ cup blackberries
½ cup Red Grapes
1 cup strawberries, thinly sliced
Mint Leaf, for garnish
Separate the yolks from the whites. Use the whites for something awesome, like Fluffy Egg White Biscuits or Angel Food Cake. Or make yourself a yummy egg white omelet with bacon. Mmmmmm, bacon.
Combine the egg yolks and honey in a saucepan. Whisk together until smooth. Mix in the coconut flour.
Combine the coconut milk, vanilla extract, and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Place the milk mixture over medium heat. Bring to a boil and then remove from the heat.
Pour the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture, stirring while you pour. Place the mixture on low heat, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Don’t boil; just simmer.
Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Continue to stir occasionally as it cools. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a pie pan with parchment paper and generously grease with coconut oil.
In a large mixing bowl beat the coconut oil and palm shortening with an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds. Add coconut palm sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla until combined. Beat in the almond flour, coconut flour and starch. Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Press the chilled cookie dough into the bottom of the pie pan and 2 inches up the sides. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until the crust is golden and browned on the top and the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Place the cooled crust in the fridge for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. It’s important that your crust is fully chilled before assembling the fruit pie.
Spread 1 cup of the custard over the chilled crust. Decorate the top with the fresh fruit in a circular pattern. Chill for 30 minutes before serving. It’s also possible to freeze this fruit pie for an hour before serving. This will help to keep all of the toppings in place. Remove from the freezer and set out at room temperature for 20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
Calories: 238
Fat: 17g
Carbohydrates: 19g
Sodium: 76mg
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 2g
Sugar: 12g