Category: Dessert

Recipes for desserts.

Categories
Cookies Dessert Snack

Make cookies almost too cute to bear

Bear paw cookies are cute but also have a rich flavor with a touch of coffee paired with chocolate.
Bear paw cookies are cute but also have a rich flavor with a touch of coffee paired with chocolate.

It might be a side effect of becoming an aunt, but my eyes seem to be drawn to all kinds of cute things lately.

The cookie recipe I’m sharing with you this week was one of those cute items I found online and just had to try. I then immediately messaged my sister with a photo, noting that they’d be good child’s birthday party fare.

Considering my niece is only five months old, I might be jumping the gun a bit, but luckily, my sister never stifles my unbridled, “I’m going to spoil the stuffing out of you” attitude.

Of course, aside from being cute, these cookies were also super delicious, so even though I still have over six months to wait for my niece’s first birthday party, they were still worth making in the meantime.

This comes from the blog “Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons.” You can find the original at https://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.com/bear-paw-cookies/. I didn’t change the amounts on the ingredients, although I do think I ended up with a bit more than a teaspoon of instant coffee in mine.

Print

Bear Paw Cookies

Bear paw cookies are cute but also have a rich flavor with a touch of coffee paired with chocolate.
Course Dessert
Keyword bear paws, chocolate, coffee, cookies

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee I used a single serving of Via from Starbucks
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 bag dark chocolate melting wafers
  • 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Cream the butter, brown sugar and sugar for a couple minutes until smooth and creamy.
  • Beat in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.
  • Beat in the instant coffee, baking soda, cornstarch, salt and flour.
  • Scoop the dough by about a teaspoon-size onto the prepared cookie sheets, placing them about an inch apart (I started with much larger scoops—probably about tablespoon size—but my cookies spread quite a bit and were a lot larger than I wanted. You might need to experiment.).
  • Bake each batch for about 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned.
  • After pulling the cookies from the oven, lightly press a melting wafer in the middle of each and then place three chocolate chips in a semi-circle along to the top of the wafer to create “claws.”
  • Let the cookies cool completely (the chocolate will need to set back up) before placing them into an airtight container.

If you’re not into coffee flavor, it does come through a decent amount in the finished cookies, so this may not be the recipe for you. But this same technique should work with any cookie dough that you wouldn’t mind having chocolate chips added into, so you’re not completely out of luck.

I’ve also seen white melting wafers, so if you would rather make polar bear paw prints instead, it would be easy to substitute in some white chocolate, too.

To be fair, I’m not sure if my little niece will be into bears at any point in her childhood, but since she’s related to me, I can guarantee she’ll be into cookies, so I think I’ll probably be able to talk her into eating a few either way. Of course, first I’ll have to wait on that set of teeth to come in.

This piece first appeared in print on April 12, 2018.

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.

Categories
Dessert Uncategorized

You’ll love this recipe from the bottom of your ‘tart’

A rustic apple tart is easy on the eyes and the taste buds. It would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream.
A rustic apple tart is easy on the eyes and the taste buds. It would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream.

There’s something intimidating about pastry. It’s hard to roll out perfect circles or to put it into pie pans without it cracking.

Plus, there are just too many people online who are true artists with dough, and that is extremely intimidating when I start hunting for new recipes.

The recipe I tried this week, though, is meant to look a little rough around the edges, and I managed to create something that looked delicious without worrying at all about getting fancy with my crust.

This recipe’s author is Jenn Segal. She used to work as a professional chef and has a cookbook, “Once Upon a Chef.” You can find this on her blog by the same name at https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/rustic-french-apple-tart.html. I doubled the vanilla and cinnamon in my version.

Print

Rustic Apple Tart

A rustic apple tart is easy on the eyes and the taste buds. It would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream.
Course Dessert
Keyword apple, pastry, tart

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 12 tablespoons cold butter
  • 1/4 cup cold water

Filling Ingredients

  • 4 cups peeled baking apples cut into 1/8-inch slices (I used honeycrisp)
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 rounded teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Topping Ingredients

  • About 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 egg beaten
  • About 1 tablespoons sugar turbinado or regular
  • 1 tablespoon apricot jelly

Instructions

  • For the crust, pulse the flour, salt and sugar together a couple times in a food processor to combine them. Cube the butter and add it to the food processor and process until it’s about pea size. Add the water and pulse a few times until it’s just combined. (The dough will look very crumbly, but it’ll come together.)
  • Dump the dough mixture onto a floured counter and knead it until it comes together smoothly, adding more flour as necessary. Form it into a disk. Roll it out into about a 10-inch circle on the floured surface and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a rim.
  • Put it in the refrigerator while you peel and prep the apple mixture. Place the apple slices, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, butter and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine.
  • Remove the dough from the fridge and slide the parchment onto the counter. Roll it out to about 18 inches and about 1/8-inch thick, and slide it back onto the pan (it won’t fit very well, but that’s no worry).
  • Sprinkle about a tablespoon of flour onto the dough and then place the apples in concentric circles, overlapping them as you go. Leave about two inches around the edge of the circle.
  • Fold the sides of the dough towards the center of the tart. It’ll create a two-inch rim around it and an opening in the middle. Pinch it together at the seams so it’ll stay put. Brush the dough with the beaten egg and then sprinkle the whole tart with the sugar.
  • Bake for about an hour or until the apples are soft and the crust is a golden brown.
  • Transfer the tart to a rack and let it cool. Combine the apricot jelly with 1-1/2 teaspoons water in a small bowl and microwave for about 20 seconds. Stir and brush onto the tart.
  • Cut into slices and serve warm.

Our whole house smelled amazing while this tart was baking, and I was so proud of myself when it came out of the oven. It looked fantastic.

I’ll have to keep this one in my recipe box for any time I want to impress guests with a “fancy” dessert but don’t want to stress over making one.

And I suppose if someone thinks it looks a little too unpolished, I’ll remind them that the word “rustic” is right there in the recipe title, so I clearly did everything right.

This piece first appeared in print on March 29, 2018.

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.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

It’s time to sprinkle in some sugar cookies

If you want a quick cookie recipe that holds its shape, look no further than these sugar cookies.
If you want a quick cookie recipe that holds its shape, look no further than these sugar cookies.

I have a bad habit of skipping over steps in recipes when I look over them, trying to decide whether or not I should give them a try.

More than once, I’ve started baking something, only to realize halfway through that I have to stop and chill an ingredient for an hour or overnight before moving on to the next step.

You’d think after doing this on multiple occasions that I’d be more careful, but I never seem to learn my lesson.

That’s one of the reasons the recipe I’m sharing with you this week was so attractive to me. In all capital letters, right in the recipe, the author noted, “Do not chill the dough.”

Excellent.

That meant I could quickly mix up these cookies, pop them in the oven and be enjoying fresh sugar cookies in no time.

I found this recipe on the blog “In Katrina’s Kitchen.” You can find it at http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/best-sugar-cookie-recipe-ever/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

Print

Sugar Cookies

If you want a quick cookie recipe that holds its shape, look no further than these sugar cookies.
Course Dessert
Keyword cookies, sugar cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together for several minutes until it’s smooth and creamy.
  • Beat in the vanilla, almond and egg.
  • Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
  • Pull out about a softball-sized portion of dough and roll it out to about one-quarter inch in thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out your desired shape and transfer them to a baking sheet—about one-inch apart.
  • Continue cutting out shapes with the rest of the dough.
  • Bake each batch of cookies for about 8 minutes or until the cookies look like they’re just set around the edges. Let them cool completely before icing and store in an air-tight container.

If you don’t have almond extract, you could toss in even more vanilla if you wanted, but I highly recommend including it. It adds just a little something extra to the flavor of these cookies, which is nice since sugar cookies can easily end up in the bland category.

These also held their shape really nicely. I just used my biscuit cutter to make boring round cookies, but if you have some fun shapes, this is a good recipe to try them out on.

And it’s good because there are no hidden steps or long processes to go through. You just mix them up and start baking, which is my kind of recipe.

This piece first appeared in print on March 15, 2018.

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.

Categories
Dessert

You (pe)can’t miss out on German chocolate icing

German chocolate cake is really all about that gooey, coconut-and-pecan-filled frosting.
German chocolate cake is really all about that gooey, coconut-and-pecan-filled frosting.

Up until I married Joey, German chocolate cake was a dessert I was vaguely aware of but not one I’d eaten very often.

But it’s Joey’s absolute favorite—the flavor he chose for his groom’s cake at our wedding, in fact—so it’s become something I’ve had more often over the years.

Since Joey recently celebrated a birthday, I decided to bake him one.

In doing some research, I discovered that it gets its name not from its country of origin but from the guy who created the baking chocolate first used in it: Sam German.

According to a 2007 article from NPR, the German chocolate cake was first popularized in 1957 when the recipe was sent in to a Dallas newspaper, and it’s been going strong ever since.

The website “What’s Cooking, America?” gives the original credit to Mrs. George Calay, but if you search online for a German chocolate cake recipe, you’ll find dozens of versions now.

That being said, the recipe I’m sharing with you is just for the from-scratch frosting for a German chocolate cake. I just like using my favorite chocolate cake recipe with the frosting. It would easily jazz up a boxed cake mix, too.

I found this recipe on the blog “Wives with Knives.” It also includes a from-scratch chocolate cake recipe that I didn’t try. You can find it at http://www.wiveswithknives.net/2011/08/19/made-from-scratch-german-chocolate-cake/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

Print

German Chocolate Icing

German chocolate cake is really all about that gooey, coconut-and-pecan-filled frosting.
Course Dessert
Cuisine German
Keyword coconut, frosting, German chocolate, icing

Ingredients

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 12 ounces evaporated milk
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 7 ounces coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Instructions

  • Whisk together the egg yolks, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan. Add the sugar and butter and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens and becomes golden brown (this will take a little while), stirring regularly.
  • Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the coconut and nuts. Let the mixture cool until it’s thick enough to spread on a cake or cupcakes.

One thing to note about making this frosting is that (for me, at least) it takes a decent amount of time for the mixture to thicken in the pot. It feels like you’ll be stirring forever, and then it’s just suddenly done.

We enjoyed this recipe and brought the leftovers to share with the staff during production night for the newspaper, which went over really well.

Happy birthday, Joey!

This piece first appeared in print on March 1, 2018.

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.

Categories
Dessert

Vintage recipe will be ‘raisin’ spirits in no time

War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.
War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.

Recently, I scrolled through Pinterest—as I often do—looking for recipes that I could try. A picture of a well-worn, yellowed piece of paper caught my eye. It was a handwritten recipe with the words “War Cake” written in a beautiful script across the top of the page.

I was intrigued by it and clicked on the link.

There, on a quilting website, I found a post from Marge Campbell of Littlefield, Texas, who recently used this recipe from her Aunt Almo Duncan Buren.

I’ve always loved history and especially the parts of historical events that don’t end up in textbooks.

War cake is one of those things. Recipes for cake during the World War I and II varied across different communities, but they had the same thing in common: they all use limited fats, limited milk and limited eggs, due to wartime shortages.

Much like depression-era cakes or desserts that people would make when times were rough, war cakes were something people could bake to help make life happier, despite having limited resources.

I read several articles on war cake. Many of the authors mentioned that not only was war cake something to be eaten at home in the States but something that was eaten on the front as well, when families would send care packages to their soldiers overseas.

Considering how dense and moist this cake was when I made it, I could see how it would easily survive the journey to Europe.

That being said, even with no tie to history, this cake is pretty darn good.

I did find it takes a deceivingly long time to make this than other types of cake you may have made before. That is because you make a raisin mixture to start off with that will need to be cooled before you can continue with the rest of the steps. For that reason, some people may have this recipe in their cookbooks as a boiled raisin cake, too.

If you want to see Campbell’s original post and the copy of her aunt’s recipe, you can go to https://www.quiltingboard.com/recipes-f8/war-cake-wwii-recipe-t169745.html. I doubled the spices when I made it and added a lot more raisins.

Print

War Cake

War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.
Course Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, raisins, ration recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups hot water
  • 2 tablespoons shortening or lard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons cloves
  • 10 ounces seedless raisins
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 teaspoon hot water
  • 3 cups flour

Instructions

  • Begin by bringing the brown sugar, water, shortening, salt, cinnamon, cloves and raisins to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, let it continue to boil for about five minutes, stirring to make sure everything is well combined.
  • Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool completely before continuing to the next step.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Add the dissolved baking soda and flour to the raisin mixture and stir until completely combined.
  • Divide the mixture evenly between two loaf pans, and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Once the cakes are cooled enough to handle, remove them from the pans and cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container.

I gave quite a bit of this cake away, and it got rave reviews. It’s a simple flavor profile, but I think that’s what makes it so good. It’s one of those desserts that just makes you feel satisfied.

It’s a good reminder that, even in hard times, people find ways to make life happy.

As I enjoyed my first piece of war cake, I imagined all of the different families around the United States who enjoyed the same recipe or ones like it while dealing with so much stress and worry in their lives.

It just goes to show that sometimes a good recipe can make us forget about our troubles for a while.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 8, 2018.

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.

Categories
Dessert

You won’t be‘weave’ this easy as pie recipe

Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.
Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.

Years ago, when I was on summer staff at Camp Mennoscah, several staff members spent a bit of an afternoon harvesting tons of mulberries off of a couple trees.

This resulted in some time spent that afternoon in serious pie-baking mode, and it was the first time I ever saw a latticed pie top made from start to finish.

To be honest, it ruined the magic a little for me, because it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but the pie was yummy enough to bring some of the enchantment right back again.

I don’t make fruit pies all that often, so I haven’t tried my hand at too many lattice tops since, but I got the chance again recently for the recipe I’m sharing with you this week for a blueberry peach pie.

Obviously, fresh peaches and blueberries are tough to come by this time of year, so although the recipe calls for fresh ones, I’ll tell you that I made my pie with frozen fruit.

If you’d like to give this a shot before fresh fruit is back in season, make sure you fully thaw your frozen fruit and then leave it in a colander for quite awhile until you’re sure it’s done giving off all of its extra moisture. (This will take awhile—maybe a couple hours. Be patient.)

I also added about a tablespoon or so of cornstarch to my fruit to really make sure that any juices were congealed and wouldn’t end up making a soggy pie, and I spooned it into my crust so that I didn’t accidentally pour in any more juice that gathered at the bottom of the bowl I had it in.

This recipe came from the blog “Sally’s Baking Addiction.” You can find the original at https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/14/blueberry-peach-pie/. I played with the spices in mine, and as I already noted, I used frozen fruits instead of fresh.

Print

Blueberry Peach Pie

Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.
Course Dessert
Keyword blueberry, peach, pie

Ingredients

  • 2 pie crusts homemade or store-bought, chilled
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • 3 cups fresh peaches sliced and peeled
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 egg beaten
  • sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • Fold the fruit in with the sugar, flour, cinnamon and all-spice.
  • Roll out one of the pie crusts and line an eight- or nine-inch pie pan with it.
  • Spoon in the fruit mixture. Cut the butter into small pieces and dot it along the top of the filling.
  • Roll out the second crust and either place it on the top and cut several steam vents in it after crimping it together with the bottom crust or cut the dough into long strips and weave a lattice top on the pie, crimping the edges with the bottom crust when you’re finished.
  • Brush the top with a thin layer of the beaten egg and sprinkle on some additional sugar and cinnamon to your taste.
  • Bake on a baking sheet lined with foil (you don’t want to clean this out of the bottom of the oven—or off the baking sheet, for that matter) for 20 minutes.
  • Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes.
  • Let the pie cool before serving (or serve it while warm, but be ready for runny filling).

If you’re feeling a bit intimidated by making a lattice crust, don’t be, and if you need some guidance, I’d recommend searching for a tutorial video on YouTube. You’re bound to find dozens.

And for those who don’t know quite how easy a lattice top is, be ready to hear how impressed they are with your pie handiwork, and even if you don’t give it a shot, the pie is good enough to get you accolades either way.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 11, 2018.

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.

Categories
Breakfast Dessert Snack

You ‘donut’ want to miss out on this recipe

Baked sugar donuts are a simple recipe with uncomplicated flavors. They pair well with a good cup of coffee or tea for breakfast.
Baked sugar donuts are a simple recipe with uncomplicated flavors. They pair well with a good cup of coffee or tea for breakfast.

I’m forever looking online for new recipes to try, and it seems like there aren’t a lot of foods I haven’t given a go over the years of writing this column.

I keep a spreadsheet of the recipes that have appeared in this space to keep track of what I’ve done and also when they came out, since I sometimes receive e-mails asking me for recipes that appeared pretty far back.

I started my 2018 spreadsheet and decided to do some counting. This column is my 288th recipe. I don’t even want to consider how many tablespoons of butter that probably represents.

That being said, I’m constantly amazed by the types of foods I haven’t tried making yet, and this week is another one to mark in the books as a new experience: donuts.

Years ago, I wrote about making fried donuts from biscuits—a childhood favorite—but until this week, I haven’t tried baking them.

I received a donut pan for Christmas, so I decided on New Year’s Eve that it was time to try out a baked donut recipe.

I started very simply with just a sugar donut recipe, and they were a great treat to accompany our game night with friends.

The recipe I used came from the blog “Brooklyn Farm Girl.” You can read it at http://brooklynfarmgirl.com/2017/02/06/homemade-baked-sugar-donuts/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

If you don’t own a donut pan, by the way, you can make these as muffins or create your own donut pan out of a muffin tin with aluminum foil. I found a good tutorial to do that at http://tiphero.com/diy-doughnut-pan-and-recipe/.

Print

Baked Sugar Donuts

Baked sugar donuts are a simple recipe with uncomplicated flavors. They pair well with a good cup of coffee or tea for breakfast.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword baked, donuts, sugar

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup oil I used canola
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk I used skim milk with a touch of vinegar
  • 3/4 cup sugar plus more for coating the donuts
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray your donut pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
  • With a fork, beat the eggs, oil, buttermilk, sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla together.
  • Mix in the flour.
  • Pour the batter into the donut pan, filling each well about 3/4 of the way up.
  • Bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the donuts comes out clean.
  • Remove and let cool for a few minutes before removing the donuts from the pan.
  • Put a scoop of sugar into a Ziploc bag or a bowl and coat your warm donuts in sugar on all sides one at a time.
  • Store in an airtight container.

I actually halved this recipe, since my donut pan only makes six donuts at a time, and there were only four of us playing games, and it was super easy to do.

These aren’t fancy by any means, but I really liked how simple the flavors were. You could also coat these in a cinnamon-sugar mixture if you wanted to add a little more zip to them.

It was also such a quick recipe that I already had my pan filled with batter before my oven was finished preheating.

And now I can cross baked donuts off the list of foods I haven’t tried making yet. Who knows what culinary roads 2018 will lead me down? I’m excited to see (and so are my taste buds). I’m glad you’ll be joining me for the journey.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 4, 2018.

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.

Categories
Dessert

You’ll pine for this no bake cheesecake

No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.
No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.

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.

Print

No Bake Pineapple Cheesecake

No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.
Course Dessert
Keyword cheesecake pudding, crushed pineapple, easy dessert, graham cracker crust, no bake, summer dessert, whipped topping

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.

Exit mobile version