It seems like barbecues and gatherings happen at a moment’s notice during the summer. As a lover of dessert, I often find that these gatherings are full of all kinds of delicious salads and entrees but are often lacking on the sweet side of the palate.
Obviously, I’ve taken it upon myself to fix this issue.
Unfortunately, making dessert quickly can sometimes be tough, so this week’s recipe is a great one to file away for a time when you need something sweet and don’t have a lot of time to make it.
And I even bought a pre-made graham cracker crust rather than making my own. I decided to
make this a true no-bake experience.
(Although you can easily make a graham cracker crust in the microwave with a glass pie plate if you want to. Just melt one-quarter cup of butter in a nine-inch glass pie plate in the
microwave. Stir in one-quarter cup of sugar and a cup of finely crushed graham crackers into the butter and then press the mixture into the pan. Microwave for about three minutes and cool before filling.)
This recipe for a no bake pineapple cheesecake came from the blog “The Shabby Creek Cottage.” You can find it at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/pineapplecheesecake-in-a-jar.html.
No Bake Pineapple Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 graham cracker pie crust
- 2 3.4- ounce boxes cheesecake instant pudding
- 20 ounces crushed pineapple in pineapple juice
- 8 ounces whipped topping
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the instant pudding and pineapple (juice included). Mix well.
- Fold in the whipped topping and then pour the mixture into the pie crust.
- Smooth until it looks nice and refrigerate at least two hours or until completely set up.
If you want the pieces to come out of the pie perfectly, I’d suggest freezing the pie rather than just refrigerating it. We ended up with big, delicious globs of cheesecake on our plates rather than perfectly formed pie slices (but no one complained about that one).
This was a very refreshing dessert, and if you like pineapple, you’ll like this. I also wondered if placing just a few maraschino cherries on top wouldn’t be good, too, with its nod to pineapple upside down cake, but it doesn’t really need anything more to be absolutely perfect.
Also, if you can’t do the graham crackers, just make the filling and refrigerate it. It’s good all on its own, or you could put the filling out as a dip with graham crackers on the side if you wanted a smaller dessert option.
No matter what, you can’t go wrong with a yummy homemade dessert that you can make with almost no effort so you can go out and enjoy time with family and friends.
This piece first appeared in print on July 7, 2016.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
