Food Friday: Vegan Fruit Pizza

When I was growing up my mom’s signature dessert to bring to parties was fruit pizza. And since it was so easy to make, she usually let me put it together, which made me love the dish even more. All I had to do was get one of those Pillsbury rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough and bake it on a large round pan for the crust part of the pizza. Then I whipped up instant vanilla pudding and added that as the sauce, and topped with chopped fruit.

Zach and I were asked to bring a vegan dessert to a dinner party last week, so I thought I’d try to veganize the fruit pizza I always loved as a kid.

I found this amazing chocolate chip cookie dough recipe that I used for the base of the pizza. Instead of pouring into a pie pan like the recipe says, I just poured it onto a round pizza pan and kept the baking time the same. I used 1/2 cup less sugar than called for in the recipe. Don't worry about over baking the dough, since the cookie is going to be topped with pudding and fruit, it needs to be extra crisp. Allow the cookie to cool completely before topping (I made mine the night before and let it sit on the counter all day to cool and dry out a bit).

I was initially worried when I saw how runny the batter was, but it ended up working out.

Since the batter is so runny, it ends up spreading out on the pan on its own.

I found some instant vanilla pudding mix at the grocery store that had all vegan ingredients. I subbed in almond milk for whole milk and added ½ cup less milk than called for. I also added 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer powder to the mix. I boiled it for 5 minutes to get the pudding extra thick, then let it chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

This is the instant pudding I used.

Right before we headed over to dinner I topped the cookie with the pudding and chopped fruit (I used about ½ pkg of strawberries and 3 kiwis for this pizza).

 My pudding had a lot of lumps, but you can't really tell once all the fruit is added.

Pretty pizza...

This is a very yummy dessert and is great for summer. It tasted just like I remembered as a kid, but I definitely have to wait for special occasions to make it - otherwise Zach and I will eat the whole thing in one sitting.