Sweet Cookie Pizza
From Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering
The base is a gluten-free sugar cookie I made from a Better Homes and Gardens wheat snickerdoodle cobbler recipe. When the cookie dough is cooked on its own cooking sheet, it cooks up thin and crispy. The original topping was three 8 oz packets of cream cheese. I used only one 8 oz and we liked that quantity the best. The original recipe added circles of kiwi fruit, but I used circles of strawberries to look like pepperoni. I chopped fresh mango to imitate yellow bell peppers and drizzled chocolate sauce to imitate balsamic glaze. We also preferred just the sweetened cream cheese topping without the key lime juice and lime zest.
Ingredients
Crust
- ¼ cup (2 oz, 56 g) butter, softened
- ⅓ cup (2+1/2 oz) sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup (2+1/2 oz, 70 g) all-purpose gluten-free flour that doesn’t contain baking powder or xanthan gum
- 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
Topping
- 1 (8 oz) packet cream cheese, softened. I use “lite” which is also softer
- ¼ cup (60 ml) powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon key lime juice – optional
- Zest of ¼ lime – optional
- Fresh fruit; I used strawberries and mangos, but you could also use kiwi, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, or any other soft fruit
Chocolate sauce
- ¼ cup (60 ml) semi-sweet chocolate
- ¼ cup cream
Directions
- In a medium bowl beat all crust ingredients together for 2-3 minutes until soft and fluffy. This is a very soft mix, not stiff cookie dough.
- Draw a 9” circle (measure a dinner plate and use that for circle size) on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
- Make outer circle of dough blobs on parchment paper, about 1 inch apart, and then space out the rest of the dough inside the circle. I use a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop. Wet your fingers and flatten slightly.
- Bake in preheated 350°F oven for about 18-20 minutes. Every oven differs and cookies will cook faster if over flattened. Cookies should merge together as a complete ‘pizza’ base and be a golden color, but not dark, and just under ½ inch deep. Remove from oven, let cool and then remove from parchment paper and lift onto serving dish. Don’t worry if it cracks, cream cheese and fruit will hide cracks. Cookies will soften if left out, from humidity and from the topping.
- Beat cream cheese and sugar together (and lime juice and zest, if adding), and spread carefully on cooled base.
- Make chocolate sauce by melting chocolate and mixing with cream until smooth.
- Decorate with fruit slices and chocolate sauce.
You can find Chef Oonagh Williams at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh on Facebook, LinkedIn or her website. Chef Oonagh has a culinary arts degree, celiac disease and other food allergies. Remember most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers ‘mess’ around with it and only baking really needs changing.
