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No Refined Sugar | Gluten-Free | and So Good

#DoneWithFun Daddy looked at me on Saturday and asked, “How could there be a thing as too much Easter?”

The real question is, how could there be too much Easter before it was even Easter?

I knew there could be too much Easter. A year ago, an Easter weekend of excess inspired me to write about the ‘holiday hangover’ phenomenon.

I’d love to tell you I learned from my mistakes and embraced my “more basic-less extra” mantra of 2019 this past weekend, but that’s only partially true.

However, I did do some things right: I brought a healthier Easter dessert option to our family gathering because I knew by 6 pm on Easter Sunday, everyone was already going to be on sugar overload fueled by Cadbury mini eggs and Peeps.

At first, I was just going to bring a sugar cookie fruit pizza, rationalizing that at least the dessert would include fruit and no chocolate. But then I decided to take it one step further and get inventive to create a recipe with no refined sugar that actually tasted good. (If such a thing exists.)

It’s possible, you guys. This clean Honey-Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting is to die for. So good that I might start frosting birthday cakes with it.

The cookie cake base is gluten-free, made from almond butter and almond flour, lightly sweetened with raw honey and pure vanilla extract. To be honest, the cookie cake on its own is not quite sweet enough for my taste, but topping it with fluffy cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit was the perfect pairing.

And oh, the frosting. Grass-fed butter is a necessity for that silky texture, and choose a good raw honey (local if possible). But don’t pick anything dark … look for the lightest option. I chose a combination of honey and comb because I love the extra complexity the honeycomb adds.

P.S. Because I just can’t break my #soextra tendencies, I shaped my pizza into an oval and decorated it like an Easter egg. But it works just as well in a regular pizza pan!

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Healthier Fruit Pizza

No refined sugar | Gluten-free | Clean eating

Ingredients

Almond Butter Cookie Crust

• 2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt (fine ground)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
• 1/4 cup smooth almond butter
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp butter extract
• 2 large eggs

Honey-Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2 cup grass-fed butter softened
• 8 oz Neuchatel or light cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp raw honey
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Fruit Garnish

• Berries and fruit of choice to top

Instructions

Almond Butter Cookie Crust

1. In a large bowl, mix together almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt.

   

2. In a separate medium bowl, add coconut oil, almond butter, honey, vanilla, and butter extract.

   

3. Microwave wet team ingredients in 30-second intervals until coconut oil is melted and almond butter stirs easily.

   

4. Whisk melted wet ingredients together to thoroughly combine. The almond butter mixture will be thin enough to pour.

   

5. Add wet ingredient mixture to dry ingredients and stir until moistened.

   

6. Add two eggs and stir until thoroughly combined, forming a thick dough.

   

7. Chill dough in refrigerator 30 minutes.

   

8. While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a pizza pan or pizza stone with parchment paper. (Tip: Use a spritz of cooking spray to secure the parchment paper to the pan.)

   

9. Press the dough into the pizza pan evenly and uniformly. Dough will be about 1 cm thick. (If you are making an Easter egg, form an oval rather than pushing dough to the edges of the pan.)

   

10. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven, 13 to 15 minutes, rotating one time halfway through if your oven cooks unevenly at all. Do not overbake! Cookie should be just golden on top.

    

11. Remove to a cookie rack to cool completely before frosting.

    

Honey-Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

1. In stand mixer or large mixing bowl, add softened butter, softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, and honey.

   

2. Mix on High speed until smooth but fluffy frosting consistency is achieved.

   

3. Spread cookie pizza with 1.5 cups of Honey-Vanilla cream cheese frosting (use more or less as desired; some frosting will be unused).

   

4. Top with your favorite fruits as desired. Berries and grapes are my favorite combination; I added slices of fresh pineapple for a little pop of yellow.

   

5. Chill at least 1 hour and keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

   

Recipe Notes

• Don’t skip the butter extract! It adds the buttery cookie taste that makes the recipe seem more sinful than it is.
• I cooked mine on a simple 16-inch metal pizza pan because my pizza stone was nowhere to be found. I usually opt for the pizza stone when working with any sort of dough or crust because the stone heats more evenly.
• The almond butter cookie crust could also be made into individual cookies to make individual fruit pizzas instead of a large cake that requires slicing. Adjust baking time to 7-10 minutes for cookies; check frequently to prevent overbaking.

I’m proud to say this healthier treat held its own at Easter dessert, against a citrus cheesecake and some s’mores mini pies. By the time it was dessert at our celebration, I had eaten so much already that all I had room for was a small slice.

The good news is, it holds up well enough after 24 hours, as the frosting softens the cookie crust just a little. I think beyond the 24-hour mark, it might start to get soggy from all of the juices of the fruit. But we didn’t have any left over after 24 hours!

The fun thing about a fruit pizza is you can decorate it to match the season or occasion. A red, white, and blue version for Fourth of July is on the horizon…

And expect this frosting to make a reappearance in some future recipes. When something tastes that good without even a pinch of white sugar, you go with it.

What was the most delicious thing at your Easter table? Share in the comments below! Tag me on social media with #NeverDoneWithFun if you give this recipe a try — I’d love to know what you think. And keep following on Instagram and Pinterest for more ideas and inspiration for #theeverymom!