Alright y’all, here’s the first official post for my month-long fundraising campaign, #LiketoKnowaCure! If you missed my post explaining the fundraiser, you can check it out here.
With 4th of July less than two weeks away, I wanted to share a post to celebrate this special, summer celebration. Regardless if you’re hosting a get together this year or attending a bash, I have a recipe AND outfit that you can feel good about!
Let’s start with my current sweet treat obsession: Healthy Fruit Pizza!
I always love making fruit pizzas for summer parties or barbecues because they’re bright, colorful, easy to serve to a crowd, and full of summer flavor. Now, I’ll be honest, in years past, I have never made a “healthy” version of a fruit pizza. But for some reason (I think it’s the crazy hot weather we’ve had lately), a lighter, better-for-you version of this treat is what I’ve been craving!
I played around with several recipes, and after a couple trial runs, found that this recipe for the sugar cookie base worked perfectly! My favorite part about this recipe is that it’s only a handful of ingredients- all of which I already had on hand! This is just a sugar cookie dough recipe that I rolled into one giant cookie to use as the base for the fruit pizza, but you could totally use it to cut out normal-sized cookies, as well.
Paleo Sugar Cookie “Crust” :
Ingredients:
-3 cups almond flour (here’s my favorite brand)
-1/4 cup honey (preferably local)
-1 egg (preferably humanely raised)
-2 teaspoons coconut oil (here’s the brand I use– it’s a little pricey, but lasts for so long!)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-a pinch of salt
Instructions:
Throw all the ingredients into a food processor, and process until a smooth ball of dough forms. You could mix by hand or with an electric mixer, but I think the food processor makes it extra smooth like conventional sugar cookie dough. Turn out the dough onto a layer of plastic wrap, and form the ball into a disk. Wrap it up in the plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes (but you could leave it in there overnight if you wanted).
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. To avoid sticking and waste, I unwrapped the dough, but left if laying on top of the plastic wrap. I put a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough (so the dough is sandwiched between the parchment paper and plastic wrap), and then rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick circle.
Then I simply filled the dough over (so that the parchment paper was on the bottom), and slid the parchment paper and dough unto a baking sheet. I peeled the plastic wrap off the top, and stuck it in the oven for about 12-15 minutes (depending on your oven- you want it to just get golden on the top, like a normal sugar cookie!). Make sure you let it cool completely before frosting.
When it comes to the frosting, you can use whatever frosting or spread you like (I was thinking a Nutella-type product could be really yummy for a chocolate version).
Confession: I really wanted to make this fruit pizza completely paleo (no refined sugar), but I fell a little short. I tested TWO different coconut cream frostings that were sweetened with stevia, but I just couldn’t get them to turn out right! So, I caved and went with the very best store-bought option…judge me for it!!
This Simple Mills frosting is so delicious, and really is the healthiest frosting option on the market. There is a little bit of organic powdered sugar in it, but it’s still just 8 grams of sugar per serving- which is incredible compared to conventional frostings.
So after a spreading a nice layer of frosting over the top of the “pizza”, top it with whatever fresh berries and fruit you like! I always go with whatever looks best and is in season at the time.
Okay, now here’s my final touch and little trick to make it extra pretty:
Spoon a couple tablespoons of apricot jam into a little bowl, and mix it with a coupe tablespoons of warm water. Brush that over the top of the fruit as a glaze, and it will make the fruit pizza glisten like a proper fruit tart! This is my favorite jam to use, because it’s one of the only one I can find that doesn’t have added sugar.
Now let’s move on to the comfiest, softest, tee-shirt dress that I found and will be living in all summer long.
I love something easy and comfortable like this for such a hot holiday! Paired with a little red neck scarf, and you’re ready for fireworks! Shop this look and the products for fruit pizza below:
What are your plans for the 4th this year?? Let me know if the comments below!
REMINDER: A percentage of anything you purchase through the links on this blog post will be donated to the Sarcoma Foundation of America as part of my LiketoKnowaCure campaign! Thank you so much for your support and for shopping with purpose!
xoxo,
Carson
