Fruit Pizza for Toddlers (lower sugar recipe)
This healthy fruit pizza recipe is a fun, lightly sweetened dessert that's perfect for warm months. Made with a soft, lower-sugar crust and topped with a naturally sweet date-based sauce, this fruit pizza is designed with little ones in mind. Fresh, colourful, and easy for little hands to help assemble, it's the perfect fruit pizza for kids - and one the whole family will love.
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"Love this recipe and my family thought it was so fun. Love the limited sugar in it as well!" - Kathlyn
We didn't nail this one on the first try.
Or the second.
When we set out to create a fruit pizza that felt like a true summer treat-light, fresh, not too sweet, and something we'd genuinely want to share with our kids, because we're the kind of dietitians who enjoy dessert-we knew we wanted to start with a cookie-style crust that didn't rely on loads of added sugar. Our first versions with oat flour held some promise… but let's just say the crumbs were flying.
After a few more test rounds (and a lot of crust tweaking), we finally landed on a version that holds together beautifully, slices cleanly, and lets the natural sweetness of summer fruit really shine. One of the star ingredients is dates, which is also what helped to shape our recipe for the ultimate baby smash cake.
This low sugar fruit pizza has become a fast favorite in our homes-easy to slice and serve at barbecues, kid-approved, and honestly…it's just so good. If you're like us and have kids who do really well with fruit, you might also want to prepare a batch of these healthy peanut butter and jam oat bars or even make a stash of fruit salsa with fresh cinnamon chips.
It's also a great recipe to make with your kids. Whether they mix the dough, shape it into a pizza crust, or "decorate" it with fruit, there are plenty of chances for your kiddos to dive in hands-first with this one.
Why this recipe works
✅ At least 50% lower in sugar compared to other recipes
🍓 Exposes your child to fruit in a fun way, including as a dessert
🔄 Easily customizable - use whatever fruit you might have at home
🧑🍳 Gets your child involved in the kitchen with rolling, slicing and decorating
💕 Family friendly recipe, perfect for the summer
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Key ingredients
Flour: for this recipe you can use a blend of all purpose and whole wheat flour, or just all purpose flour. If you only use whole wheat flour, your crust will have an earthy taste.
Eggs: you'll need one egg for the crust to help act as a binder for the dough.
Cocoa powder: this is totally optional, but if your kiddos enjoy a choclatey flavor for their "pizza sauce" then don't skip on the cocoa! Speaking of cocoa powder, you can also put it to good use in this amazing peanut butter chocolate smoothie that honestly tastes more like a milkshake!
Fruit: since they are extra pretty, we opted to make this fruit pizza with a variety of berries. But, we've also made it with mandarin oranges and for an even more simple idea, sliced banana.
Cream cheese: look for a full fat cream cheese. This is an important part of the pizza sauce.
Dates: you'll need to use some dates to help naturally sweeten the pizza sauce.
Allergen information & substitutions
This recipe for fruit pizza does contain a few top priority allergens as identified by Health Canada including eggs, wheat, and dairy.
While we haven't tested it, you are welcome to replace these ingredients with other alternatives that you find work for your family. Instead of an egg, you can trial a flax egg or egg replacement. To replace the wheat, you can use a wheat free flour blend, though, you may want to expect more of a crumbly dough. And finally, instead of butter made from cow's milk, use a dairy free alternative which is fairly easy to find.
For the "pizza sauce", you'll be needing a combination of cream cheese and yogurt. If you have dairy free alternatives that have worked for you in the past, feel free to try those out!
How to make this recipe
The full recipe is below, but here are a few key steps to visualize the process.
- Here's what the dates paste should look like before adding to the rest of the "sauce" ingredients. To make the date paste you'll microwave pitted dates with water and mash with a fork until there are no longer any large chunks.
2. Prepare the pizza cookie crust dough. You'll knead this together, place in the fridge once wrapped in saran wrap and chilled. Roll out the pizza cookie dough when you're ready to prepare the toddler fruit pizza. Bake in the oven until it's starting to get golden brown on the edges.
3. Spread prepared "pizza sauce" on top of the cooked cookie crust. The crust should be cooled before this step.
4. Have fun and decorate with sliced fruit as you wish. Don't forget to get your kids included in this step too!
Recipe FAQ
While we did keep this fruit pizza lower in sugar, it does have some added sugar in the crust. And as it's recommended to avoid offering added sugar until after two years of age, we'd suggest holding off on serving it until then.
One option is to simply serve it as a dessert you enjoy together. This could be after OR with a meal. Yes, you read that right - we said with a meal.
Here's our philosophy - by serving dessert with the main course we put all foods on the same playing field. In our own homes we've found this actually helps remove the "magical" allure from foods like cookies, cake, and ice cream, allowing children to eat what their bodies truly want and need. While we don't do this daily, it's a practice we like to do every now and again.
Serving fruit pizza as a balanced snack is another option. As a general guide we like snacks to:
a) include at least two food groups and
b) include a fruit or vegetable. This pizza has you covered with both those suggestions
If there's only added sugar in the "pizza crust", you may be wondering what makes the sauce sweet. The answer - dates! Dates are actually a dried fruit and the natural sugars in them aren't considered added sugar.
You better believe they are! There's a reason they've been consumed for centuries around the world and it's not just because they are naturally sweet, delicious, and perfectly chewy.
Dates offer fibre, minerals (like magnesium and potassium), and antioxidants.
While berries, stone fruit (peaches, nectarines), kiwi, mango, mandarins, and even bananas (just be aware they may brown over time) have worked well for us, this recipe is a great place to get creative!
Let your imagination be your guide! If you're here for inspo, here's some of our favorite combos:
- Chocolate Covered Berry - chocolate fruit pizza sauce with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
- Rainbow Pizza - Strawberries, mandarin orange segments, banana, green grapes (halved), and blueberries
- Tropical Pizza - Kiwi, passionfruit, and mango
As always we'd love to see what you and your littles come up with in the kitchen. Feel free to tag us with photos of all the fruit pizzas you make this summer!
CAUTION: the round shape of grapes and large blueberries are a choking hazard. These fruits should be cut into quarters when served to young children. Aesthetically, quartered fruit isn't as pretty on a fruit pizza - so for a "pretty pizza" you may want to skip these ones.
Why do we love this fruit pizza for toddlers?
We like to use this idea to our advantage, and aim to offer a variety of nutrient dense foods (like fruit!) to our kiddos on the regular. The idea being the more exposure our kids have with a food, the more comfort and safety they will feel with it, which ultimately leads to more willingness to actually eat and enjoy the food. To add, we've found incorporating an element of "fun" to new or less-accepted foods exposures goes a long way with little eaters. And what's more fun than pizza?!
Another thing - keeping this fruit pizza lower in sugar was top of mind for us when developing the recipe. Here's why - kids need plenty of room in their tummies for key nutrients that help them grow, play, and learn. Offering lower sugar desserts helps ensure there's plenty of room for those nutrients. Don't worry though - thanks to the natural sweetness of fruit, nothing was lost in the flavour department.
With the summer weather in full swing, we hope you make some space to enjoy some good eats with your children and keep this fruit pizza on the top of your "to make" list. Every time you prepare a recipe we've developed, you make our dream of feeding families come true.
Play + books that match this recipe
When kids get the chance to interact with "food " during playtime, they become more comfortable with the food, and are more likely to want to eat it at mealtimes! Another tip: read books to your baby and toddler about food! This also helps create a sense of familiarity with food, plus we're all about literacy!
Here are some options to include fruits and veggies during play and story time.
If you tried this toddler fruit pizza recipe or any other recipe on our blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Health[ier] Fruit Pizza (toddler friendly)
Ingredients
Fruit Pizza Crust
- 1 cup butter softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg keep at room temp
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour if you prefer to use only all purpose, that's fine too
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Fruit Pizza Sauce
- ½ cup dried dates packed
- ¼ cup water
- 4 oz half a brick cream cheese
- ¼ cup plain greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
Toppings
- Fruit to dress the pizza *see note
Instructions
Crust Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Then add the egg and vanilla
- Add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Divide the dough into two equal pieces.
- Chill for 20 min in fridge before rolling out (there will be two servings so one can be frozen or left in fridge for another day).
- Roll out into a 9 to 10 inch circle, or about ⅓ inch thick.
- Bake for 15 - 20 min - or until crust edges start to turn golden brown.
Sauce Instructions
- In a small microwave safe bowl, microwave the dates and water on high at 1 minute intervals.
- After each interval, mash with a fork.
- Once the dates have softened, continue to mash until a paste forms.
- In a medium sized bowl, soften the cream cheese in the microwave.
- Add in the dates, yogurt, and cocoa.
- Using a hand mixer, mix until well combined.
- This recipe makes enough to dress one pizza crust (ie: half of the dough recipe above).
Assembly Instructions
- Spread the sauce on one pizza crust. Top with sliced fruit.
Video
Notes
- For more of a caramel sauce, leave out the cocoa powder.
- Freeze half of the crust dough for your future self. When freezing, wrap in plastic wrap very tightly. This will keep in your freezer for three months and longer in a deep freezer. When you're ready to use it again, thaw in the fridge and then let it set out for at least 1-2 hours at room temperature so you can roll it out.
- If your child isn't ready to combine different foods, then deconstruct their slice - they can dip the cookie crust into the sauce and then have fruit on the side.
- The sauce can also be used as a fruit dip, or, serve it to your kids with some graham crackers!
We've made this recipe probably 5-6 times now and even bring it to play dates--everyone is so happy! The best is watching my kids creations, the mess and all!
Love this recipe and my family thought it was so fun. Love the limited sugar in it as well!
Thank you, we've loved having it our rotation as well.
The crust was tasty but pretty fragile. Happy to have a lower sugar option to share with my kiddos.
Thanks for that feedback! Yes - we're here for the YUM and love it when it's lower in sugar than a traditional recipe.
This looks so beautiful, I have it printed and ready to try.