Festive Mini Fruit Pizzas

Three years ago, I found a recipe on Pinterest, changed it up a bit, and created some fun and festive mini fruit pizzas for the 4th {of July}!  Every year since, I haven't been able to not make them.  They're that good.  But it's taken me four attempts and a running list of notes in my iPhone to perfect the process.  So now I'm blogging about it so that I can remember for next year!

First of all, here is the recipe I was first inspired by.  However, it wasn't quite as easy as the author suggests, so here are my tips to improve upon the process!

Mini Festive Fruit Pizzas

What You'll Need:

1 tube of sugar cookie dough

8 ounce block of cream cheese

Regular size (8 ounce) container of cool whip

Festive fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries)

Pam spray

A large Ziploc baggie

Mini muffin tins

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350. 

 

2. Spray the muffin pans with Pam.  This is my own suggestion and super important.  I used to lose a good number of cookie crusts (and get really mad) because they fell apart as I was removing them from the pans.

3. Roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls and place in greased mini muffin pans.  Use a teaspoon to ever-so-slightly press down on the cookie balls.  This helps them take the form of the muffin pan and hence, act like a bowl once baked.  (They will continue to take this shape as they bake.)

4. Bake for exactly 8 minutes.  They won't look completely done, but trust me and take them out at this point.

5. Cool significantly (otherwise you'll lose some) before removing from the muffin pan.  Remove with the help of a butter knife and place them on a cooling rack.

6. As they continue to cool, use a mixer to beat together cream cheese and cool whip.  Place the mixture in the large Ziploc, cut the corner of the baggie, and then squeeze baggie to fill each crust with frosting.

7. Top with festive fruits!  I cut the blackberries and raspberries in half and cut the strawberries in fourths to ensure each fruit fit on one pizza.  These mix of fruits are to-die for and the perfect flavor for summer!

Note: One tube of cookie dough makes approximately 24 mini pizzas.  I definitely had leftover frosting, but I'm not sure there's enough frosting for two batches

P.S. These are toddler-tested and toddler-approved.  The proof is in the pictures! ;)