Apple Crisp (With NILLA Wafers)

I was looking for an easy apple dessert when I came across this recipe.  The fact that it uses NILLA Wagers made it a must-try.  For some reason, I'm obsessed with using these cookies in baking, though usually it's in a crust. The recipe is from Kraft and I found it on multiple places online. The recipe should yield 12 serving of 1/2 cup each... but four of us completely devoured this last night.  Clearly, we weren't able to follow that guideline. 

Ingredients:

• 4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 c.  packed brown sugar, divided
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/3 c. oats (old-fashioned or quick-cooking) 
• 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) margarine
• 25  NILLA Wafers, crushed (about 1 cup crumbs)  
• Non-dairy topping (i.e. Cool Whip), Whipped Cream, or Ice Cream to use as a topping.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Toss apples with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Spoon into 8- or 9-inch square baking dish.
3. Combine oats, remaining brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in wafer crumbs and sprinkle mixture over apples.
4. Bake 30 to 35 min. or until apples are tender.

Enjoy!!

Angel Lush Cupcakes

I was looking for another light dessert for summertime and came across this recipe, or some variation of, on a number of sites including Kraft.

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. (16 oz.) angel food cake mix
• 1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) Vanilla Instant Pudding
• 2 cans (8 oz. each) Crushed Pineapple in Juice, undrained
• 1 cup thawed Cool Whip
• 2 cups assorted fresh berries, or 15 strawberries halved or sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Prepare cake batter as directed on package; pour into 30-36 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake 12 to 15 min. or until tops are golden brown and cracks feel dry.*
3. Cool cupcakes in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.
4. Mix dry pudding mix and pineapple in medium bowl. Gently stir in Cool Whip; spread onto cupcakes.
5. Top with berries.

 *Note: If baking in batches, refrigerate remaining batter in bowl until ready to pour into lined muffin cups and bake.  However, bake them quickly so that the cupcake bake up light and fluffy.

Enjoy!!

Orange Dreamsicle Cake

If you like the Orange Creamsicle popsicles, this cake is for you.  It's a great dessert for the summertime since it's light with the Cool Whip icing and very refreshing with the orange flavor (in both cake and icing). 
Since this cake is prepared as a "poke cake," I find it easier to prepare and serve the cake in the pan it is baked in.  Also, since it's typically a summer picnic/BBQ cake, I will usually bring it in a disposible pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce) box orange cake mix (and ingredients called for on cake box)
• 1 (3 ounce) box orange Jell-O
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) box instant vanilla pudding
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 (8 ounce) container Cool Whip

Directions:

1. Prepare cake mix in a 9x13 pan according to the cake box directions.
2. After the cake is done and out of the oven, poke holes with a fork or toothpicks throughout the whole cake.  Be careful not to poke holes all the way down through the bottom of the cake.
3. Prepare the orange jello with 1 cup of boiling water and pour over the cake.  
4. Allow to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes.
5. In a large mixing bowl, mix with a handmixer the instant pudding and milk.  Add in the vanilla and orange extracts.  Mix well.  Fold in Cool Whip.
6. Spread over cake and chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip Cake

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, and also Taste of Home.  I've used a couple of different pans for this cake, and found it bakes best in a bundt pan. 
 Also, make sure you really do beat the batter for a full 5 minutes.  It will help form the pudding in the mix and makes a big difference on how the cake bakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 (12 ounce) package miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 (4 ounce) bar German sweet chocolate, grated, divided
• Confectioners' sugar

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the first five ingredients; beat for 5 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips and half of the grated chocolate. Pour into a greased baking pan (bundt pan or 13x9).
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
3. Sprinkle with remaining grated chocolate while slightly warm. Cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar.
   
   
   
    

Chocolate Mousse Napoleons

I had a special request from John for a chocolate mousse dessert this Thanksgiving.  I found this amazing recipe that uses a Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry sheet.  The recipe can also be found at their website: www.puffpastry.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet from a Pepperidge Farm Puff Pasty Sheets package, thawed (each 17.3 ounce package has 2 sheets)

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate pieces, melted and cooled (about 1 cup)

• 1 square (or just additional pieces, separated from the above) semi-sweet chocolate, melted

• Confectioner's sugar, for dusting the finished pastries

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F
2. Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface.  Cut the pastry into 3 strips along the fold marks.  Cut each strip into 6 rectangles.  Place the pastries 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets. (You currently have 18 pieces.)
3. Bake the pastries for 15 minutes or until they're golden brown.  Remove the pastries from the baking sheets and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
4. Put the cream and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Beat with an electric mixer set on high speed until stiff peaks form.  Fold in the melted chocolate pieces (keeping the extra ounce of chocolate separate.)
5. Split each pastry into 2 layers, making 36 pieces.  Spread 18 bottom halves with the chocolate cream mixture.  Top with remaining top halves.  Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 4 hours.
6. Drizzle the pastries with chocolate and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar just before serving. 

The recipe also says you can substitute 2 cups thawed frozen non-dairy or dairy whipped topping for the heavy cream.  It should work and save some time,but I haven't tried it that way yet. 

Enjoy! 

Fruit Tart

I started making these this summer has an easy, delicious dessert to bring to summer BBQ's and the investment in my new tart pan really paid off!  The recipe is for a 9 inch tart.  For the fruit topping, you can use almost any fruit.  Mine always has strawberries and blackberries since they are my favorite.  I've told all berry tarts, where I've added in blueberries and raspberries as well.  I've also make tarts with kiwi and pineapple, in addition to the strawberries and blackberries.

This dessert does not take long to make, the longest time is usually spent in the fruit design! 

Ingredients:
Crust:
2/3's of a roll of refrigerated sugar cookies dough (the 16 oz package)

Filling :
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping :
Assorted fresh fruit
lemon wedges

1. Leave dough out at room temperature for a couple of minutes*.  Place the dough in a greased tart pan, and using your fingers push it to the edges, and try and keep the dough as even as you can. 
2. Bake at 325 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and a fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool in tart pan.
3. In a medium sized bowl, cream together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. 
4. When crust is cool, evenly spread cheese mixture on the tart.  Top with fresh fruit.  Squeeze fresh lemon juice on top of the fruit and chill the tart for at least 1-2 hours before serving.

I use a 9 inch tart pan for this recipe.  If you use a bigger tart pan, or just roll the dough out onto a cookie sheet, you could use the whole roll of cookie dough.  I started making this tart by using the whole roll, but found that the result was all cookie and some fruit.
 
*Only leave the cookie dough out for about 5 minutes.  If it is out too long the dough becomes too soft and messy to work with, and of course if it is straight from the fridge it might be harded to "mush" into shape.

Lemon Tofu Pie

Don't let the name of this fool you. I'm not the biggest tofu fan, but I love this pie. It's very light and would be the perfect summer dessert (I realize I found this a little late in the season :-D ).
This recipe is adapted from one in the Starbulletin, which was adapted from "The Tastes and Tales of Moiliili"(fifth printing).

Ingredients:

1 3-ounce box lemon-flavored gelatin
1 cup hot water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
10 ounces soft tofu
1 8-ounce container Cool Whip
1 prepared graham-cracker pie crust

1. Combine gelatin, hot water and lemon juice; stir to dissolve gelatin. Refrigerate 30-40 minutes until slightly thickened.

2. Meanwhile, cut tofu in chunks and place in colander to drain. Push on tofu with palm to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

3. Place the tofu in a blender and lightly whip the tofu together, gradually adding whipped topping. Mixture may be slightly grainy. Fold in gelatin; stir until smooth.

4. Pour into pie crust and refrigerate until firm, 3 to 4 hours.

You can substitute whatever flavor jello you would like, but still add in the lemon juice. If you use a different jello, I would cut the lemon juice down to 2 Tsbp so that the lemon doesn't overwhelm the flavor. I've also made this using a regular size pie crust, and one of the "extra 2 servings" sizes since I had some of the filling left over when using the regular size. Ideally it would need to size in between.

The recipe orginially had you beat the mixture together, but I found the texture much smoother when using the blender.

Chocolate-Coated Mousse-Cream Cones

Another recipe from the Hungry-Girl Cookbook. This is very quick to make and the perfect finish to any good meal. Whenever I have a great dinner, I always feel the need to finish it off with a little something sweet.
The picture on the right has vanilla pudding and is in a waffle-bowl instead of the cake cone that is called for in the recipe.

2 servings

Ingredients:
2 cake/flat-bottom ice cream cakes
1 Jell-O Sugar Free Pudding Snack (any flavor)
2 Tbsp sugar-free chocolate syrup, at fridge temp.
1/2 cup Cool Whip Free

1. Pour 1 Tbsp of chocolate syrup into each cone. Swirl around until the inside of the cone is evenly coated and then place cones in the freezer.
2. Combine Cool Whip and pudding in a small dish and stir until well blended. Chill dish in the freezer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until mousse is ice cold and set but not fully frozen.
3. Remove cones and mousse mixture. Spoon mousse mixture evenly into and on top of cones. If desired, top each cone with a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

Per serving (1 cone): 84 calories, 1g fat, 134mg sodium, 20g carbs, 0.5g fiber, 2g sugars, 1g protein

It's usually hard for me to stick to the recommended serving size, but these were spot on. Enjoy!

Irish Potatoes

My favorite St. Patty's Day treat... I have to promise myself to only make them once a year and only one batch at that since they are so deadly and delicious! This recipe makes around 3 dozen depending on the size of each potato.

1/4 c/ (1/2 stick) softened butter
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 lb. box 10x (powdered) sugar
1 (7 oz) bag flaked coconut
Ground cinnamon

1. Cream butter and cream cheese. Beat in the vanilla and 10x sugar.
2. Stir in coconut. Sometimes it helps to mix it in with your hands because the mixture can be very sticky.
3. Roll into balls the size of a walnut.
   
4. Roll in cinnamon and refrigerate until firm.

Happy St. Patty's Day (a day late)! I hope you enjoy. I like these best right out of the fridge, so I keep the whole stash in the fridge and just grab one or two at the time. Believe me, that's all you need to satisfy you sweet tooth!
Also, when rolling this into balls, the mixture is extremely sticky, so I like to put the mixture in the fridge for a bit before I start rolling them, it helps make the shape with the minimal amount of fuss.

Lemon Lush

This is always a big hit, especially in the summer time. For the lemon pudding layer, I would recommend the Lem brand, it's the best and really makes a difference.

1 8oz creme cheese
1/2 c. 10x sugar
1 9oz cool whip
2 small Lem puddings
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 c. flour

1. Make pudding well ahead to allow time to cool. Follow directions on the box, except use scant 2/3 c. sugar.
2. Start on the crust: Cut butter into flour. Press into a 9x13 pan. Bake 10-20 minutes at 350 °. Let cool (let cool COMPLETELY or the crust with crack later with the weight of the rest of the dessert)
3. Cream together the 10x sugar and creme cheese. Fold in half of the cool whip. Spread onto crust.
4. Layer on the pudding.
5. Before serving, top with the rest of the cool whip.