Hi folks:

If you have a sweet tooth, we are siblings, for certain. Cookies are a delight when they are soft. When they are hard enough to draw blood, crack a tooth, or require extensive dental work, not so much.

So how do you keep them moist and soft? A piece of bread will do the trick. Here’s how: Put your cookies in a Tupperware-type container and add a piece of bread. Seal the container and there you go. If your cookies have gotten concrete-like, it may take a couple of days to soften them up, but this works like a champ. [Please note that you do not want to reuse the bread. it will become as hard as a rock. When rigor mortis has set in on the bread, replace it with a new slice (if any cookies remain; at my house, the chance of cookie leftovers is slim to none).]

On to the fruit pizza recipe. You need to make a batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe, rolling out the dough and placing it on a pizza pie pan. If you are in a hurry or don’t have a favorite sugar cookie recipe, you are a more lazy cook than I am- or time efficient. The ready-made cookie dough works just as well, if you can roll it out. Bake as directed. Chop up your favorite fruit, such as strawberries, grapes, kiwi, blueberries (don’t chop the blueberries; leave them whole), and the like. Set them aside.

As the cooked cookie cools (say that three times fast!), heat one bar of Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese in your microwave until it gets soft. When you are able to stir it (usually after 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in the microwave), stir in one box of confectioner’s sugar.

Once those ingredients are totally mixed, spread the mixture onto the cooled cookie (leave the cookie on the pizza pie pan or you will regret it).

While you are decoratively putting your fruit on the fruit pizza, heat up one small jar of apricot jam in the microwave (about one minute). When you have your fruit arranged in a pleasant way (circles work best, here, but be creative), stir the apricot jam and then spread it on top of the fruit pizza. (Note: The apricot jam cuts the feeling of too much sweet in the fruit pizza). Refrigerate your fruit pizza until you are ready to eat it.

Please note that you cannot make this a day ahead or it will become soggy. You must eat it the day it is made, so either eat a lot of it or send it home with friends. It does not keep well overnight. It should be refrigerated, even if you try to beat the odds and eat it over two days. It will be very wet the second day and following, but it is still edible.

Best,

Dr. Sheri