Fruit Pizza Strawberry – plain or chocolate covered

Serve a Fruit Pizza Strawberry plain or chocolate covered for your springtime or summer party. Each strawberry shaped chocolate cookie is topped with a creamy cheesecake filling, fresh strawberries and kiwi, and can be coated in dark chocolate ganache and drizzled with white chocolate.

A fruit pizza is such a wonderful dessert for a springtime or summer party. Fruit Pizzas look great when fresh fruit is simply scattered over a sweetened cream cheese topped sugar cookie, but I always like to make mine look even more fun. Over the years, I’ve shared ideas for making a fruit pizza shaped like a beach ball, a watermelon, swirly pops, a playing card, a butterfly, Uncle Sam’s hat, and now a strawberry.

For this recipe I started with a chocolate cookie crust and topped it with a blend of slightly sweetened cream cheese and whipped cream. Then I carefully arranged kiwi to create the leaves and strawberries to make a vibrantly red strawberry.

The plain strawberry shaped fruit pizza looks and tastes great, but this recipe creates enough for two Fruit Pizza Strawberries, so I simply had to dip one of the strawberries in chocolate. Well actually I  poured chocolate ganache over top of the fresh strawberries then drizzled on some white chocolate so my dessert looked like a chocolate dipped strawberry.

Watch this video to see how to make your own Fruit Pizza Strawberry and a Chocolate Dipped Fruit Pizza Strawberry…

How to make a strawberry shaped Fruit Pizza Strawberry

• Print and cut out the strawberry template.
• Make chocolate cookie dough using the recipe below.
• Roll out the dough, set your template over top of the dough, and cut out around the template.
  • I like to dust a silicone mat lightly with cocoa powder so that the chocolate cookie dough doesn’t stick.
  • I dust my rolling pin with cocoa powder too.
  • Then I cut directly on the silicone mat using a paring knife.
  • I remove the excess dough and pop the strawberry shaped cookie dough into the freezer for about 10 minutes so that the cookie holds it’s shape once baked.
  • I can bake the cookie directly on the silicone mat, so I do not need to try to pick up the dough and move it.
  • If you don’t have a silicone baking mat, or two, you can roll your dough out onto parchment paper.
    • If using parchment paper, I suggest taping down all four corners of the paper to your work surface. This will help keep the paper taught so it won’t wrinkle while you are rolling out the dough.
• Re-roll the remaining dough and cut out a second strawberry shaped cookie.
  • I found it best to try to shape this dough into a strawberry shape then cut out around the template.
  • I had to cut and piece the dough together in a few spots but they baked together fine.
• Spread the cream cheese topping over each of the cookies then top with strawberries and kiwi.
  • Arrange the kiwi first, creating the shape of the leaves.
    • You don’t have to be exact when creating the leaves. You just want some green at the top of each strawberry.
  • If your strawberries are really big and they have a lot of white on the inside, you might want to cut off the white parts, leaving just the nice red outer part of the berry.
    • Cut the strawberries into small pieces so that you can piece them together like a puzzle so you can cover the entire top of the fruit pizza.
• If you want, make chocolate ganache and spread it over one of the strawberries.
  • Chill your fruit pizza in the fridge for about 30 minutes before pouring the ganache over top.
  • Also, be sure the ganache has cooled off before pouring it over the fruit pizza.

Chocolate Covered Fruit Pizza Strawberry and a Plain Fruit Pizza Strawberry

PRINTABLE STRAWBERRY TEMPLATE

5 from 6 votes

Print

Fruit Pizza Strawberry & Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Fruit Pizza

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

Strawberry shaped chocolate cookie crusts topped with cheesecake filling are decorated with freshly cut strawberries and kiwi to look like giant strawberries. The fruit pizzas can be covered in chocolate ganache too. 

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: fruit pizza, fruit pizza strawberry

Servings: 16

Author: Beth

Ingredients

Chocolate Cookie Crust

• 10 tablespoons butter softened slightly
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cup flour

Cheesecake Topping

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups whipped topping or whipped cream

Fruit

• 1 pint fresh strawberries, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 kiwi, peeled, sliced, and cut in half

Chocolate Ganache (per fruit pizza)

• 4 ounces dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 ounce white chocolate, melted

Instructions

Chocolate Cookie Crust

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar. Cream until light and fluffy. 

3. Mix in vanilla and eggs. 

4. Combine cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and flour. Stir in to wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated.

5. Dust silicone mat or parchment paper lightly with cocoa power. 

6. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. 

7. Set the paper strawberry template over the tough and use a sharp knife to cut out around the template.

8. Remove the template and remove excess dough.

9. Re-roll remaining dough and repeat cutting out a second strawberry shaped crust on another silicone mat. 

10. Freeze strawberry shaped cookie dough for 10 minutes .

11. Bake for 18-22 minutes until the top of the cookie no longer looks wet and the edges feel set. 

Cheesecake Filling

1. Use an electric mixer to beat cream cheese until light and fluffy.

2. Add sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.

3. Add whipped topping and beat just until combined. 

4. Spread half of the filling over top of each of the two strawberry shaped cookie crusts .

Assemble Fruit Pizza Strawberry

1. Arrange kiwi slices to form the leaves at the top of each strawberry shaped cookie.

2. Arrange the strawberry pieces over the remainder of the cookies.

Chocolate Ganache Topping, OPTIONAL

1. Pour chocolate and heavy whipping cream into a glass measuring cup. 

2. Pop the fruit pizza in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before topping with ganache.

3. Heat in the microwave on high power for 30 seconds. 

4. Let sit in microwave for 3 minutes.

5. Remove and stir until smooth. 

6. If needed, heat for 10 second increments, stirring after each until melted. 

7. Allow the ganache to cool slightly. You still need it to be pourable but you do not want it hot.  

8. Pour the ganache over the bottom 3/4's of the strawberry fruit pizza.

9. Drizzle melted white chocolate over the chocolate covered strawberry.

Recipe Notes

You can use frozen whipped topping that has been thawed, or make fresh whipped cream using heavy whipping cream, for the cheesecake filling.
....
Be sure the Chocolate Ganache is NOT hot when you pour it over the fruit pizza or you will melt the cream cheese filling and your strawberries will slide off the top of the fruit pizza.

If you recreate these Fruit Pizza Strawberries be sure to link back to this blog post, mention Hungry Happenings, and use #hungryhappenings.

If you are excited about making these Fruit Pizza Strawberries, then be sure to check out all my other Fun Fruit Pizzas.