Recipe: Fourth of July Dessert Pizza

With Independence Day just around the corner, you may be wondering what you can bring to a potluck cookout. And of course, with our busy lives, we all want to prepare something that is quick, simple and patriotic. Enter the flag-themed dessert pizza! It's quick, easy, somewhat frugal and impressively themed. Oh, and it tastes pretty darned good. With all it's got going for it, this dessert is sure to be a hit. So here's all you need to know to make and decorate a patriotic dessert pizza:

Ingredients:

2 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
3 cups sliced bananas, preserved with lemon juice (optional)
1 cup fresh blueberries

Optional sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread cookie dough in an even layer across a 9x12 greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until dough is set. Let cool completely.

Combine the whipped topping with cream cheese and spread over cooled cookie. Use strawberry slices and blueberries to decorate the pizza in a flag pattern, using blueberries for the stars and strawberries for the red stripes. The white cream cheese/Cool Whip mixture can serve as the white stripes, or you can use banana slices (make sure to dip the slices in lemon juice so the bananas don't brown).

Optional Sauce Directions:
Combine all of the sauce ingredients In a saucepan except the orange rind. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, remove from heat and add grated orange rind. Cool for a few minutes, and then spoon the sauce mixture over the fruit pizza. Chill for at least two hours.

Recipe Source

Photo Source Note:this photo is an example of fruit pizza. Simply change the design to a flag theme, and voila: a patriotic dessert!