Tea Time Treats: Mini Pizza Cookies

Pinterest is unhealthy. You feel an urge to make pretty things. You can’t resist. Productivity and work vanish. Your inner housewife/Martha Stewart/XX chromosome traits explodes uncontrollably. There is no cure.

Thus, I organized a Tea and Cookie Party for my friends, where everyone brought tea/cookies/dessert. I wanted to make something that looked fancy, and stumbled across mini pizza cookies. I was going to use frozen sugar cookie dough, when I realized (gasp), I never even made sugar cookies from scratch. This had to be remedied.

So I made found a lovely sugar cookie recipe from Joy of Baking, and pressed the dough into muffin pans for a cute and easy tart shape. Add topping and fruit, and voila! Pinterest cuteness in your own kitchen!

Bonus: A Pinterest tea party requires pinterest flowers as well! I made White Peonies using paper clips and put it inside a tall glass mug lined with colored paper as a centerpiece.

So instagram is not the best way to take high quality pictures…

Mini Pizza Cookies

Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Base:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Filling:
1 oz package neufchatal cheese (yay healthiness)
sugar to taste
whipped cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Fruit topping:
sliced mandarin oranges, grapes, berries, kiwis, etc

Directions 
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. 

Press dough into muffin spaces (make sure the spray well) so that you line the bottom and a little up the sides. Don’t add too much since the cookies expand and you want a tart, not a cookie muffin! Bake cookies for about 10-14 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges are just starting to brown. Let them cool thoroughly, and they’ll jut pop right out

Combine the filling ingredients together and spread on top of the cooled cookie bases. Add fruit on top.

Notes: I made a 1/2 batch of the sugar cookie recipe, which is enough for ~14 tarts in a normal sized muffin tray. I had extra filling, but I also used it sparsely one 12 tarts since I only had one muffin tray.