Layers of Lemony Love Dessert and Crustless Cheesecake with Raspberry Pie Filling from Lucky Leaf

Lucky Leaf is at it again.  They sent me more of their pie fillings to try.  Lucky leaf, lucky me! Check it out on Twitter, too at #LuckyLeafLuckyMe.   I have enjoyed using their pie fillings.  Because of health reasons, I am no longer eating any processed food, also gluten free and no refined sugars.  My question is, CAN I DO THIS?  Yes, I can.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t make things my family and friends will enjoy and that’s just what I did with the yummy things Lucky Leaf sent me.

I feel a little bad, they sent me some fun jars to make individual desserts in jars.  But we were heading out of town the next morning that I used the fillings and it was easier to make regular sized treats for the company we had over.  I will for sure use the jars once we get home.  There is still some peach pie filling to use!

I often have a giveaway for my readers from Lucky Leaf and wasn’t able to do that this time since we are out of town, but I’m sure I’ll hear from them again! ;)

My family and our company (which we also family) that had these two desserts I made using the pie filling said they were great.   If you’re looking for super simple desserts, head over to the Lucky Leaf website and check out all their recipes.  I got the recipe for the Layers of Lemony Love Dessert on their site.  It was probably a favorite of the family we had over and since we were going out of town,  I sent them home with the leftovers.  They were happy.

Layers of Lemony Love Dessert, from Lucky Leaf

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (1  1/2 sticks)

1   8 oz. package cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat kind), softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1  21 oz. can Lucky Leaf Premium Lemon Pie Filling

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  8 oz. container frozen whipped dessert topping (like Cool Whip), thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease bottom of 9x13 inch baking pan.  Mix flour and butter (I used a food processor until it was all combined, like coarse meal.)  Spread evenly in pan and press it down slightly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.  Let crust cool.

Beat cream cheese in mixer until smooth, add powdered sugar, Lucky Leaf lemon pie filling, vanilla and half the whipped topping.  Pour and spread over the cooled crust.  Spread the remaining whipped topping over pie filling mixture.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

For those who didn’t want the lemon dessert, I made a cheesecake to go with the raspberry pie filling.  After deciding to make the cheesecake, I realized I didn’t have anything to make a crust, so I made a crustless cheesecake.  Some family members were happy to have a lighter, healthier option.  One of the things I love about Lucky Leaf Premium Pie Fillings is that they have no high fructose corn syrup.

I got the recipe for the crustless cheesecake from Rachael’s blog, Simply Fresh Cooking.  The only thing I did different from her recipe is that I didn’t use organic ingredients and I didn’t put the sour cream topping on the cheesecake.  There was vanilla in the sour cream topping, but I added it to the cheesecake instead. Check it out.  Everyone said it was a great cheesecake!  I served it with the Lucky Leaf Red Raspberry Premium Pie Filling and some fresh raspberries.

The raspberry pie filling is full of raspberries!  When I have been in a pinch to quickly find a last minute dessert, these pie fillings are great.  Thank you again to Lucky Leaf for the fun package!

Check out all the other goodness from Lucky Leaf on Twitter and Pinterest.  #LuckyLeafLuckyMe

Molten Chocolate Lava Crock Pot Cake—Secret Recipe Club

Molten Chocolate Lava Crock Pot Cake

It’s time for Secret Recipe Club!  This is a date each month that I really look forward to but I have to say I can’t believe how fast the months fly by when it seems like just yesterday it was time for Secret Recipe Club from the last time.  Can anyone else believe it’s September?  I swear it was just Christmastime.  At any rate, here we are and I’ve certainly got another delicious treat to share with you that I picked from the hundreds of recipes I was faced with choosing from at the blog I had this month. 

It’s no surprise that I’m always drawn to the word chocolate.  And when I saw molten lava along with it, this was a must-make recipe.  The blog I got to pick from this month is Katie’s blog, This Chick Cooks.  I feel it somewhat of a disservice to have chosen this cake from Katie’s blog, since she is all about eating whole foods and cutting white flour and white sugar out of her diet.  Then why would this recipe be on her blog?  Because she used to make, eat, and blog things like this, but now doesn’t. 

I seriously started making a list of things from her blog that I wanted to make not long after getting this assignment.  Check some of these out--Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream—I still plan to make this soon, just couldn’t remember to get coconut milk every time I was at a store.  I love oatmeal for breakfast, so I’m drawn to this post for 40 Fun Oatmeal Toppings.  Hot Fudge Brownie Larabars—I would love those.  Healthier Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies—I plan to make these, too.  I love making “treats” that have a healthier twist but are still a treat.  All the things I looked at when I first got the assignment seemed to end up being things that I needed something from the store in order to make them.  Then, before I knew it, our Group A leader, Jane, sent a little reminder last week to make sure we had our recipe and post ready and I freaked out a little when I realized I hadn’t done anything yet—just dreamed of all the goodness on Katie’s blog.  Where or where did August go?

I did another quick search of her Recipe Index—and that’s when I saw the words Molten Chocolate Lava!  After looking at the recipe, I saw that I had everything to make it and decided to get to work in time for the family treat that night. 

The Molten Chocolate Lava Crock Pot Cake (also known as Mud Cake or Pudding Cake) could not have been more simple to make.  Katie found the recipe for it on the Family Fun website.  Guess what—I didn’t change anything from the recipe Katie has on her blog.  I did exactly what it said.  This is rare for me.  I deserve a gold sticker or something. ;)  The recipe said to cook the cake in the Crockpot on high for 1-2 hours.  I cooked mine for 1 hour and 40 minutes. 

Definitely delicious on its own, with a deep, dark chocolate flavor from using Dutch-processed, dark cocoa, the cake was just screaming for some ice cream.  I mean, doesn’t it just look so much happier now?  Still, that seemed a little “plain”.  Katie mentioned how good this would be with some fresh berries on the side.  Wish I would have had some because I totally agree with that.

We ended up with sprinkles on ours here because my boys think everything has to have sprinkles.

Ahhh, definitely looking better now with the little pop of color.  I think second only to sprinkles, the boys all love maraschino cherries, so it only seemed appropriate to put a cherry on top of this cake.  Parker even likes them so much that lately when they get to have ice cream for a snack, Parker begs and pleads to just have a bowl full of the cherries with no ice cream.  I think I’ve only let him have three of them so far.  His birthday is coming this week.  Somebody is probably going to get his own jar of cherries as one of his gifts.  Silly kid.  Last year he got his own bottle of A-1 Steak Sauce, he could drink that stuff.

I’ll definitely be back to Katie’s blog, This Chick Cooks, for more recipe inspiration soon!  Go check it out if you have never been there!

Can’t wait to see what the rest of Group A made this month!

TWD—Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

Caroline and Claire of Bake With Us chose these cookies for Tuesdays With Dorie this week. (They will have the recipe on their blog.)  I halved the recipe and after baking the first sheet-full and not liking how flat the cookies were, I decided to refrigerate the rest of the dough (which was more like brownie batter).  I did so for 30 minutes to an hour and also added some walnuts to the rest of the dough.    The rest of the cookies came out a little bit thicker, but these aren’t my favorite chocolate cookies.  I felt like the oats didn’t belong.

I probably didn’t like these as much as I would have, but I made them on the heels of making these Chocolate Truffle Cakes.  It was hard to compare these divine cakes to a so-so cookie.

  

 

I am always happy when I take the time to participate in TWD and make the chosen recipe for the week, so I’m not at all disappointed. 

Here’s a chilled dough cookie right out of the oven.  They were nice and puffy, but they flattened out as they cooled. 

The cookies over on the left that are more flat are from the first batch baking them as the recipe suggest, as soon as the dough was made. 

I am interested to see and hear about other TWD bakers’ cookies this week.

Just another beautiful, crisp February sunrise over the mountains with Utah Lake below.  I love it when the clouds float down lower than the mountains. 

TWD—Tender Shortcakes

Cathy from The Tortefeasor chose this week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie recipe.  She is one flippin’ funny gal whose blog I love checking out each week.  Cathy chose Dorie’s Tender Shortcakes on pages 423-424 in Baking From My Home to Yours.  Truthfully, I was thinking about skipping this one.  We’ve made biscuits and scones and I just thought the shortcakes would be about the same.  And well, they were.  But I decided to make 1/4 of the recipe because we had lots of berries and fruit and I thought it would be fun to let the boys have at it for a yummy treat.

With the quartered recipe, I made 8 small round shortcakes.  I think they’re about 1 1/2 inches round.  I decided to cut the shortcakes instead of go rustic.

The eighth one was ugly and didn’t fit in the picture. ;)

I bought some great little sour cherries from the farmers’ market on Saturday (the boys love cherries).  I thought they would be yummy to try with the shortcakes.

Kind of a pain to pit these little guys, but it was worth it.  All I did was add a little sugar to them and let them sit for a while.   And we had some macerated strawberries, some blackberries and blueberries as well.

The boys decided what they wanted.

 

Scott wanted a little of everything.

Parker went sans whipped cream.  (Okay, I’ll admit, we used up some Cool Whip tonight.)

Taylor carefully chose how he did his and did it all himself.

And I forgot to photograph Sam’s, all he had was a plateful of Cool Whip!

I made this one---

The chocolate shavings are just for you, Kayte! ;) 

Kevin ate the one in the top picture.  He doesn’t care for biscuits or scones or shortcake, but he ate it just to “play along”.   He said he liked it, but that he’d rather have all the berries and cream with angel food cake or something like that.  To each his own.  The shortcakes themselves were actually really good, nice taste of butter and slightly sweet and super simple to make.  I whipped these up then had to leave for a bit, so I stuck them in the freezer and baked them when I got home.  Twelve minutes for these little cakes in the oven and they were perfect.

Then when everyone was finished and I was cleaning up, I had another idea to try with one of the remaining shortcakes.  Try to guess.  If you know me, you’ll have an idea.

Hello, sweet little banana Nutella shortcake!  Took a little bite and saved the rest.  GOOD!!!  And that’s the end of all the shortcaked-ness here this week.  Go ahead, check out all the other TWD bloggers and get the recipe on Cathy’s blog, too!

TWD--Lemon Cup Custard and Dark Chocolate Raspberry Surprise Cookies

Today's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking From My Home to Yours, was Lemon Cup Custard, page 387, chosen by Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles.  Check out her blog for the recipe and see what all the other bloggers thought of the custard by checking out the TWD blog list.

I enjoyed making this because I've never made custard before and well, it was very simple.  I followed Dorie's recipe exactly, even putting the custards in a roasting pan bath to bake them. 

They actually came out beautifully and perfect looking after they baked.

I was a bit concerned about these not tasting lemony enough, even though I did exactly as was written.  I infused the milk with lemon zest for 30 minutes, then strained it and added 1/8 teaspoon of lemon extract.  It all came together with ease.  My only concern was having read the problems and questions section on the TWD site I knew many were complaining about the lack of lemon taste and the over-eggy taste to the custard.  I was then comforted by an actual comment from Dorie just letting people know that is how it is supposed to be and that they just might not care for that type of custard.  Okay.

So I prepared the pretty little dishes to serve to the boys and Kevin and I for our snack one evening.

 

Everyone tasted theirs.  Kevin and I shared a bite of one.  The end results?

 

Scott ate his up (upper left).  I think lately he's starting to just eat everything he's given and well, he likes eggs.  Sam's serving is in the middle there.  He really just played with it.  Taylor and Parker ate the strawberry off the top and took a bite or two.  Kevin and I took at bite and ours sat in the fridge until the next day when Scott ate them both after school.  We all agreed it really was just barely lemony at all.  And that it was quite eggy.  Just not our idea of an after dinner dessert.  Well, I guess for Scott.  

I thought it was going to be more smooth and creamy, but it was more set and almost like a soft tofu???

I'm glad I made it and it totally confirmed to me what I've thought all along--"Give me chocolate or give me death."    Thanks for the fun pick, Bridget, as I know I'd have never even given lemon custard a try.

And on that note---CHOCOLATE!

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Made some fun chocolate cookies.  Have you seen these?

Dark Chocolate Hershey's Kisses with Raspberry Flavoring and---

3 Musketeers Raspberry with Dark Chocolate

These were just screaming chocolate cookies to me.  So I made up some cookie dough and chopped up about 4 oz. of the Hershey's Kisses.  Then I scooped up some dough, flattened it out on the parchment lined baking sheet, stuck a mini 3 Musketeers on top and covered it with more dough.  A lovely hidden surprise.

 

If you like chocolate and raspberry, you'll like these fudgy cookies. 

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Surprise Cookies

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 oz. Hershey's Dark Chocolate Raspberry Flavored Kisses, chopped

14 mini 3 Musketeers Raspberry with Dark Chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and butter.  Melt in 20-30 second intervals, stirring in between each timing.  Stir until melted and smooth.  Set aside.  In a medium sized bowl, combine the sugar, egg and vanilla.  Whisk together until well combined.  Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt with a wooden spoon, just until incorporated.  Fold in chopped chocolate Kisses.  Taking about a tablespoon sized amount of dough, flatten it on the baking sheet.  Lay an (unwrapped! ha, duh!) mini 3 Musketeers on top.  Add about another tablespoon of dough on top and spread it out with your fingers to cover the mini chocolate bar.  Place each cookie a couple inches apart on the sheet.  I did eight cookies on one sheet and six on another.  These are nice and big.  Bake for 10-13 minutes.  Let set on baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

 

A nice gooey, raspberry nougat-y chewy center and fudgy cookie with a crisp outside. 

TWD--Buttery Jam Cookies and Chocolate Brownie Trifle

This week's recipe from Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours is for Butter Jam Cookies and was chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl.   I was going to skip this week, but decided today to just make the cookies anyway.  The verdict?

These cookies, in my opinion, are not the greatest.  They are just okay.  I was surprised that there wasn't more to them, but hey, they've got butter and jam, so they totally live up to their name.  I thought mine seem a bit dry and plain, so I did a few things to cheer them up.  There is some ginger in the cookies, but I can't taste it, also the apricot jam.  You can see it, but I don't feel like it really added anything to the cookie.  These aren't really as buttery as I thought they'd be and didn't spread out.  Still, that said, and they'll be fine on a multi-cookie holiday tray! 

 

See.

I made some like jam thumbprint cookies with apricot and raspberry jam and sprinkled some toasted walnuts and pecans on them.   I also happen to have a bunch of almost-gone bags of Hershey's Kisses left and thought it would be fun to try some of them on the cookies.  So, no--the candy corn Kisses don't really fit the holiday, but I wanted to try them anyway.  The orange kisses are the pumpkin spice ones that were out briefly over the fall and the cool, festive ones are candy cane Kisses (just don't tell anyone those have been in my cupboard since last Christmas.  Gasp!)  You'd never know it and I think they look cute.  I actually haven't tried tasting most of them, but the plain cookies were okay, not bad, so I'm sure they're even better with all the fun tops!

That concludes TWD for this week.  Thanks Heather for another addition to the holiday cookies!  Click here and check out all the other baker's Buttery Jam Cookies.

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Quickly, just wanted to show you a Chocolate Brownie Trifle I made as we went to dinner at some friend's house last night and I made dessert.  So simple!  I quickly made a batch of Anna's One Bowl Cocoa Brownies, you could also use a boxed brownie mix.  I crumbled pieces of brownie in the bottom of the bowl, then layered it with Jell-o pudding and Cool Whip.  Now usually, this trifle has you also layer Heath toffee bits in it, but my kids don't really like those and I thought it would be fun to let everyone choose what they wanted to add, so I made six little cups of toppings, including, toasted, chopped pecans, walnuts, toffee bits, mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, mint chips, and my kid's favorite--sprinkles!  The trifle was a big hit and yummy!

I meant to take pictures when the kids and everyone made their cupfuls of this, but forgot.  Yummy!