Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Rice Krispies Treats! and Lime Tart/Ice Cream

First of all, I've got to tell you about some more Rice Krispy Treats I made a few days ago.  You may have seen my recent post for Cookie Crisp Rice Krispies Treats.  Well, that got me thinking and I came up with Cookie Dough Treats!  That's right.  All you cookie dough eatin' lovers out there--these are some Krispies for you!  I went in search of an edible, eggless cookie dough and settled on this good one.

Edible Chocolate Chip Cookies Dough, from Elyse and Risa

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Beat the butter and sugars together until creamy, add the vanilla and combine.  Stir in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.  That's it.  And it's edible and yummy! 

I made the traditional Rice Krispies Treat recipe, 10 oz. marshmallows, 3 tablespoons butter and 6 cups of cereal.  You know the drill.  Pressed that into a 9x13 pan.  I took balls of the cookie dough--(in hindsight, it would have worked a little better if I'd have quick frozen the balls of dough, but it still worked fine)

I tucked the balls of dough in and around and all over the treats that were already pressed in the pan, then when I had about half the dough left, I just pressed it evenly over the top.  That wasn't enough though, so I made another half batch of Rice Krispies Treats and pressed that on top of the cookie dough infused treats that were already in the pan.  And I drizzled 2 ounces of melted semi sweet chocolate over the top.  Now we're talking.  These were perfectly gooey, sugary Krispies with just the right amount of added YUM from the cookie dough.  If you're a cookie dough lover and enjoy those Rice Krispies Treats, you've got to try these!

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I bought some limes (regular ones, not key limes) recently and was hankerin' to do something with them.  I wanted a no-bake cream cheesy type something.  After looking all over the internet and not finding really what I wanted, I just threw some things together.  They were similar to many recipes out there, but I just did my own thing. 

No Bake Lime Tart, by Katrina

Crust:

1 sleeve plus 6 rectangles graham crackers, crushed

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and cooled

6 tablespoons butter (I used salted, it's what I had), melted

zest of 1 small lime (about 1/2 teaspoon)

Filling:

8 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

14 oz. can fat free sweetened condensed milk

zest of 1 large or 2 small limes

juice of 2-3 limes (to your taste of tartness)

8 oz tub Cool Whip

Pulse the graham crackers and pecans in the food processor until fine crumbs.  Pulse in the lime zest.   Then pulse in the melted butter until combined well.  Press into 11 inch tart pan (or 9 inch for thicker tart).  Set aside.

In cleaned bowl of food processor, pulse the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the condensed milk, lime zest and juice and pulse together until combined.  Add the mixture to a large bowl and fold in the Cool Whip.  Spread over crust in tart pan.  Let set in refrigerator for a good 4 hours or more.  Serve with a garnish of lime.

It looks a little unset because it had only been in the refrigerator 2-3 hours when I served it.  It tasted okay.  I actually really wanted more of a cream cheese taste, so I'm going to try it again and use 16 oz. cream cheese.  Everyone had a piece.  It definitely would have gotten eaten as it was, but I got an idea to turn it in to ice cream the next day.  It really was even tastier and more set up the next day.  But with what was left (a little more than half of it), I scraped the filling out of the crust, added 1 cup fat free half and half and 2 tablespoons of more lime juice, whisked it up really good and poured it in to the ice cream maker.  The ice cream maker did its job for a good 20-30 minutes.  Then the ice cream sat in the fridge until snack time that night.

I don't actually totally love fruit in ice cream, but this was really good, creamy and just the hit of lime I was looking for!  The kids gobbled it up! (All except Parker who had gone with Kevin to run a couple errands and they stopped and got Subway.  Parker ate (he's only 7!) a whole foot long and a bag of chips and a soda by himself!  He was full!  Me, myself would never even be able to eat a foot long.  Kevin is molding these kids into himself!  Kevin eats a foot long in probably less than 5-10 minutes.  Ugh!  Anyway, the ice cream is good! ; )  It was also good that it had a little bit of crust in it.  It would be fun served with some crushed graham crackers on top.  You can see the flecks of it in the ice cream.

Hmmm, what ice cream should I make today?