Patriotic Fruit Pizza

This is a fun recipe for the 4th of July holiday! Fresh fruit is a hit on desserts during the summer months! Making this dessert is as fun as eating it!

Ingredients

• 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• ½ cup margarine, softened
• 1 ½ cups white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large bananas, sliced - or as needed
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, or as needed
• 1 (16 ounce) package fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1 (6 ounce) container fresh blueberries

Directions

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350℉ (175℃). Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, mash the vegetable shortening and margarine together until thoroughly combined, and beat in 1 1/2 cup of sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix in the flour mixture to make a workable dough, and spread the dough out in a rectangle shape.

Step 3: Bake in the preheated oven until very lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Step 4: While the cookie base is cooling, mash the cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Place sliced bananas in a bowl, and gently toss with lemon juice to prevent browning.

Step 5: To decorate the pizza, spread the cream cheese filling all over the cookie base in an even, smooth layer. Place the blueberries in a square in neat, closely-spaced rows, in the left upper corner for blue stars. Arrange alternating stripes of white bananas and red strawberry slices across the pizza. Refrigerate leftovers..