The rolling pin went back and forth again and again. The stubborn dough would not roll out and sprung back like elastic. Gentle pats could not coax it into a thin even disk. Stretching gave it the largest surface however oddly shaped. An attempt at spinning it caused it to fly off my hand and into the trash can. I am pizza rolling-out dough challenged. I have great respect for those who can make a perfectly thin and round pizza. Mine have more of a rustic appearance. At least you know it's homemade.
Summer Berry Pizza is my first dessert pizza. To clarify, the first one I've made but not the first one I've eaten. Most of the sweet or dessert ones I've had are simply pie filling spread over a crust and topped with a glaze. I wanted something fresher and less gloppy sweet. Some gorgeous berries at the market inspired me to create this summer pizza. The color of the berries pop against the white of the mascarpone cheese. The glaze adds a small amount of sweetness to balance any tartness of the berries.
Independence Day is coming soon. I've teamed up with some very talented blogger friends to share recipes for the holiday. We have everything from beverages to desserts including my Summer Berry Pizza. It's a fabulous July 4th Holiday Food Party for sure! Special thanks to Jen at Jen's Favorite Cookies for hosting this event. Check out what we have to share:
- Berry Cheesecake Crumb Tart from Hungry Couple NYC
- California Burgers from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- 4th of July Ice Cream Cones from Roxana's Home Baking
- Red, White & Blueberry Parfaits from Cravings of a Lunatic
- Red, White & Blue Deviled Eggs from Created by Diane
- Summer Berry Pizza from Magnolia Days
- Sparkling Pineapple Cake Martini from The Messy Baker
- Red, White & Bleu Mac 'N Cheese from Juanita's Cocina
- Red, White & Blue Vanilla Bean Spritzers from Pineapple and Coconut
- Red, White & Blue S'mores Pies from Big Bears Wife
- Lemon Raspberry Sugarless Cookies from What Smells so Good?
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Squares from Chocolate Moosey
- Berry Trifle from Jen's Favorite Cookies
- Watermelon Mojito Ice Pops from The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
Are you ready to celebrate? Holidays are so much fun. Independence Day is so festive and cheerful. It can be hot so cool down with some ice cream, sorbet, or frozen yogurt. That is, after enjoying a nice dessert pizza. Double sweets? Why, yes! It is a holiday so splurge away.
Summer Berry Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 store-bought or homemade pizza dough
- Cornmeal or flour
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 16 ounces mascarpone cheese at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cups mixed berries
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Place a pizza stone on the bottom oven rack.* Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- If making smaller pizzas, divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.
- Roll, stretch, or pat out the dough to about ¼-inch thickness on a rimless sheet or pizza peel lightly dusted with cornmeal or flour.
- Brush the dough with melted butter.
- Transfer the crust to the stone and bake until golden brown, about 7 minutes.
- Cool baked crust completely on a wire rack.
- Stir together the mascarpone cheese, lemon juice, and honey in a bowl.
- Spread cheese mixture over the cooled crust. Top with berries.
- Stir together confectioners sugar, vanilla, and enough milk for a drizzling consistency.
- Drizzle glaze over berries.
Your rustic dessert pizzas look perfect to me! Love the mascarpone and berrry combo...totally irresistible!!!
Thanks Liz! Mascarpone is such a great thing for desserts. It seems lighter to me than cream cheese.
I'm going to need to experiment with this...a lot. 😀
Experiment away Jen and I can't wait to see what you come up with. Keep me posted.
My kids are a huge fan of homemade pizza and berries. I need to make this for them one of these days as a surprise. I know they will love it - me too!!
What a fun pizza night to have a regular one and then surprise them with a dessert one.
Your dough looks pretty darn good to me, Renee! I have the same problem every time I roll out dough. It always curls back in and it's always in odd shapes. Oh well, as long as it tastes good, right? And I can just imagine how amazing this tastes - homemade dough is the best and you can't beat fresh summer berries with mascarpone.
One day I'll find that perfect pizza dough or the right technique. Until then, rustic it is.
This looks soooo good.
Thank you!
Oh my goodness the colors of this! I just love this recipe Renee, what a fabulous Patriotic treat! (or really just anytime you feel like berries, because I do all the time!)
You really can't beat the beautiful colors of fresh berries.
Yum! I can not wait to try this with some fresh strawberries and blueberries. Thank you for sharing!
I can see even more types of berries and fruit for this pizza. Endless topping combinations.
Who would have thought?! Will definitely have to try this. Thanks!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.
I like the rustic look. 🙂 Plus I can never get it round, I'm lucky if it's even in a circle. Love all the toppings on this, especially that you put it on after the dough has been cooked.
I couldn't stand the thought of cooking the berries so I had to find a way to keep them fresh and juicy.
Pizza dough can be tricky. I found the perfect recipe after several attempts. If you want, I can email it to you. This is one gorgeous pizza. Seriously, your photos are stunning, Renee!
I would love to have your perfect pizza dough recipe. Thanks Jennie!
I like rustic. Rustic works for me. And that dessert looks stunning!
Thanks Anita!
Pizza begs to be rustic imo. It looks sensational Renee, very patriotic of you! I´ve yet to try a fruit pizza, but can see myself eating it greedily...
I will admit I ate this pizza quite greedily too.
These are beautiful! I love the idea of a fruit pizza that's, you know, an actual PIZZA instead of just a dessert in pizza disguise. What a great 4th of July idea.
I've seen some recipes with a cookie crust and thought it would be too sweet. I do love the real pizza crust for this one.
This looks fabulous Renee! Love the use of the berries and so festive.
I am also rolling out-challenged! It's a big club, I fear.
Glad I'm not the only one. It's a good club to be in though.
Marscapone, honey, berries... I'm dying Renee! This looks so delicious!
Thanks Jen. And thanks for putting this event together. I love all the recipes. So festive and fun.
my homemade pizzas look "rustic" too haha, but I think it gives them character lol. Love the berry pizza!
Character - I like that word. Thanks Angie!
This is an amazing looking recipe! I am so trying this one out with the kidlets this weekend.
Thanks Diane and I hope your kitlets enjoy it.
Marry me and let's run away together. Pack a couple of these pizzas while I grab the getaway car. M'kay.
Oh Kim you crack me up! I'm already married though so maybe we could just have a girls vacation and pack the pizzas to take with us.
That's my kind of pizza!
If dough is giving you problems with elasticity, let it rest about 10-15 minutes then try again. I, too, have trouble rolling out dough into a circle. Actually, rolling isn't too bad. It's transferring it to the pan where it becomes deformed haha I'm hoping to get fresh cherries soon, so I may need to play around with this dessert pizza idea 🙂
I'll give the rest period a try next time. I roll it out on a pizza peel sprinkled with corn meal so it slides off easily to the baking stone. I'm sure if I picked it up it would get even more out of shape.
What a great looking pizza. I really love dessert pizzas and this one looks like a great one for summer. Thanks for sharing this one!
Thank you Bill!
Your berry pizza so yummy! This weekend I am going to try this for my kids. Thank you for the recipe!
This looks so good I must try. Have never made a sweet pizza before but I have friends in Italy that make Nutella pizza and thought oh yum! If you'd like to stop fighting with your pizza dough can I make a suggestion? If you look for typo 00 flour from Italy it has no anti caking agents or additives and that's what's creating part of the problem I think. It's also specially milled very fine and it's an Italian favorite! Also, I am a blog contributor at Aurora Importing, you might find videos I made for them REALLY helpful for making dough and its just so easy once you know a few tips. Let us know what you think, I'd love to see you stop fighting with your dough LOL. (wink) Can't wait to try this , it's strawberry season!!! Yay!
Thank you Liana! I'll look for the 00 flour next time I'm at a specialty store. It is not available in my local markets. I'll take a look at your videos for Aurora Importing and hope it helps me with better my pizza dough rolling out skills.
PS. Had to remove the links to the videos in your comment. It made it go into my spam folder.
np Renee, I hope they help. My sister the professed "non-cook" has been making pizza dough every weekend at the cottage since she watched the videos and can't believe how easy it has been. I'll be making Strawberry pizza this weekend because of you!! Thanks!! : ]
I really liked the dessert spin on the pizza. I featured it on my Friday Five - Pizza addition over @ Feed Your Soul
Thank you so much for featuring it on your Friday Five Pizza addition.