Cherry Dump Salad

My mother-in-law is always surprising us with fun, different desserts.

I'm almost positive this is a recipe she has made for us in the past, so when I saw it on Pinterest last week, I went to the store and grabbed the 4 ingredients it calls for.

The girls and I made this together (but really, it takes no effort to make this), then we all grabbed spoons and dove right in!

So good!!!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 can (21oz) Cherry Pie filling
1 can (15oz) crushed pineapple (don't drain the juice)
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
12oz Cool Whip

DIRECTIONS:
Dump all ingredients into a large bowl.
Combine with a wooden spoon until ingredients are evenly blended.
Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or more. Serve and enjoy.

Cherry Cheesecake Tarts

A small muffin size cheesecake.  Yes, please!

And it's the easiest cheesecake recipe ever!

recipe and photo courtesy of TasteandTell

Ingredients

18 chocolate sandwich cookies (I used Oreo's.  You can use vanilla wafers, too)
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
Reddi-wip

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line 18 muffin tin cups with paper liners.
Place one cookie in the bottom of each liner.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
Add the sugar and continue to beat until combined.
Add the eggs and the vanilla, and beat until light.
Divide the cheesecake filling evenly between each of the muffin cups.
Bake in the preheated oven just until set, 12-15 minutes.
Let the cheesecakes cool completely.
Top each cheesecake with a large spoonful of the pie filling.
Just before serving, top with a dollop of Reddi-wip.

 Gosh, these are good!  But you don't have to use cherry...you can use any pie filling you want!

Mini Keylime Pies with Animal Cracker Crust

I've seen several mini/bite size keylime pie recipes on Pinterest.

But this particular

one caught my eye...and why??

Because it has an animal cracker crust!

Mini Keylime Pies with Animal Cracker Crust

(photo courtesy of Pinterest)

ingredients:

for the crust:
3 cups animal crackers, crushed
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, cooled
2/3 cup granulated sugar

for the key lime filling:
1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
2 limes zested
4 egg yolks

12 mini lime wedges, garnish
Cool Whip, garnish

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

for the crust:
In a large bowl, mix together animal crackers, butter, and granulated sugar. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. Gently press animal cracker mixture into each baking cup liner. Only fill up to 3/4 of the way. Bake crust for about 5 minutes to let it set. Remove from oven. Let it cool before adding the filling.

for the key lime filling:
In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients. Pour about a tablespoon of the filling into the cool cracker crust. Don't overfill. Bake the custards for about 12 minutes or until your kitchen smells like a giant key lime pie. Remove pies from the oven. Cool before setting into fridge. You will want to chill the pies in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

to serve: remove cupcake liners. top mini pies with a dollop of Cool Whip and lime wedge.

And here is mine!  This recipe made 12 mini pies (muffin size)

Absolutely love the animal cracker crust!

I plan to make another batch just to share with friends!

Mini Coconut Cream Pies

I haven't done much in the kitchen for the past couple of weeks and I've been really missing that room!  The kitchen is my favorite room in the house.  I get these crazy urges to bake and/or cook, and once those cravings hit I either run to my pantry or to the local grocery store. Today I was itching to bake and coconut seemed to be on my mind (not so odd considering we just got back from Hawaii and coconut was in nearly every drink I ordered :-)    So I found a fun recipe for mini coconut pies!  The recipe below only makes 4 little pies.  Seriously????  I had to double that recipe... oh wait, I tripled it!  They turned out delicious!  I'm not going to say this was the simplest recipe to make, because it does involve a lot of steps and time....but the taste in the end made it worth my time!

Two-Bite Coconut Cream Pies

Makes 4 petite pies

Ingredients

• 8 sheets of phyllo dough, defrosted
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided use
• 1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 3/4 cup milk (I use 1%)
• 1/3 cup + 6 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, divided use
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3 drops almond extract
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan. Liberally brush 4 of the muffin cups in a muffin tin with the melted butter.
2. On a clean counter, unroll the first 4 sheets of phyllo dough and leave them stacked on top of each other. Work quickly, as it dries out fast. Use a 5” circle to cut out 2 circles of dough. Move the 2 circles to two of the cups you brushed with butter in the muffin tin. Press them into place gently down into the cup. Brush with the melted butter again. Repeat the process with the remaining 4 sheets of phyllo. Bake the 4 pie shells for 8 minutes, or until lightly brown. Remove from the muffin tin as soon as they come out of the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.
3. Meanwhile, toast the coconut over very low heat in a skillet, stirring constantly. When golden brown, set aside.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch. Slowly add the milk while whisking. Next, add 1/3 cup of the cream and whisk vigorously to dissolve the sugar and cornstarch. Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and turn the heat to medium-low. Have the egg yolk ready on the side. Cook while stirring constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and coat the back of a spoon. Turn the heat off, then stir in a few teaspoons of the mixture into the egg yolk. Add a few more teaspoons to the egg yolk, then pour the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Turn the heat back on to medium-low and cook while stirring constantly until the mixture starts to bubble. Turn off the heat, stir in the toasted coconut (reserve a few pinches for garnish, if desired), almond extract and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Pour the coconut pudding into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours.
5. When ready to serve, spoon the coconut pudding into the 4 pie crusts. Beat the remaining 6 tablespoons of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until slightly firmer peaks form. Dollop each pie with the whipped cream and serve chilled.

And here are a few of my mini Coconut Cream Pies!!!

Peanut Butter Pies

Did you know that January 23 was National Day Pie? So why not celebrate it by making pies! Here is a delicious recipe for those Peanut Butter lovers!!

Individual Peanut Butter Pies in a Glass

FOR THE CRUST

16 Oreo cookies
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the Oreo cookies into the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and melted butter and stir.

Evenly divide the crumbs between your individual serving dishes and press into the bottoms of the dishes to form a crust layer.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Transfer whipped cream to a small bowl and place it into the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the filling.

Place cream cheese and peanut butter the mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed to low and gradually add in confectioners' sugar until well combined. Add in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and beat on medium speed until mixture is creamy and smooth. Take care to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining whipped cream until well blended until no streaks remain.

Evenly pipe or spoon the filling into individual serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. If desired, garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls.

This recipe makes 8 individual pies.

I decided to add a little tag and ribbon and pass out to friends and family!