I love fruit any time of the year, but it’s definitely at it’s best in the summer. Between the fresh peaches, tropical pineapple, and cool watermelon, I probably eat more fruit in the summer than throughout the other three seasons combined! So when Social Fabric asked me to make the Tropical Fruit Pizza recipe by Dole, it was completely perfect!

First I had to head out to the store to pick up the ingredients {you can view my whole trip in my G+ album} and saw that there was an awesome sale on Dole canned fruit- many items were Buy 1 Get 1 Free with your Vons {Safeway} card! Combine that with the great coupon from last weekend’s newspaper for 50 cents off two cans of Dole Tropical Fruit & you’ve got a great deal!

I did have to make one substitution- our store didn’t carry cream cheese with pineapple {they weren’t just out- they don’t carry it} so I used cream cheese with strawberry instead. I figured it’d be a safe bet since there are strawberries in the recipe and I was right, it tasted great! It makes it a little less tropical though, but you can just add some extra Dole Tropical Fruit!

Once I got home, I got to making the recipe. It sounded difficult when I read it ahead of time- I’d never toasted coconut, and I was skeptical about using cream cheese as a “crust”. But I followed the directions & it came out perfectly!

Tropical Coconut Pizza

Ingredients:
-1 container {8 oz.} cream cheese with pineapple, softened
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 cup thawed whipped topping
-1/2 cup flaked coconut, toasted
-1 can {15.25 oz} DOLE Tropical Fruit, drained
-1 cup sliced DOLE strawberries
-1 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced

First, I toasted the coconut {which apparently is done by putting coconut on a baking sheet in the oven for 10 mins at 350- while stirring often}.

Then I mixed the cream cheese & sugar until light and fluffy- you could totally do this with a hand held mixer but it was just way easier to use the Kitchenaid! After that, add in the whipped topping & coconut.

Next, I lined a baking sheet with waxed paper, and then spread the cream cheese mixture into a circle, and built the edges up slightly with the back of the spoon. This part intimidated me reading about it, but it took all of one minute & gave me no trouble at all. Then just freeze it for about 4 hours {or until firm}.

After it’s done and has become a “crust”, place it onto a serving plate. Garnish the crust with extra toasted coconut if desired, and then arrange the tropical fruit, strawberries & kiwi on the crust. Serve immediately.

Other than having to wait for four hours {which was torture, because this sounded SO good}, the recipe was super easy to make. &It was well worth the wait- I loved it {and may have picked off some extra fruit once my serving was gone} and Justin couldn’t stop eating it! It’s definitely a very Summery treat and I’m definitely going to be making it again. It looks like I’ll have to make another trip to the store to stock up on DOLE Tropical Fruit while the sale is still on!

You can find more great recipes from Dole on their website- and be sure to follow them on Facebook & Twitter, too!

What’s your favorite summer fruit?

Note: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Dole #CBias #SocialFabric. All experiences are authentic & all opinions are my own.