I've noticed that coffee has risen sharply at Walmart. The same Maxwell House coffee is now $7.50, about the same as Folgers and nearly twice as high as Master Chef which has not changed in price. After my experience with Maxwell House I may have to give the off brand Master Chef a try.
Since I can't eat much fat I tried this lowfat cake. I used apple sauce instead of oil. The topping is made with instant pudding and Dream Whip. This works but the lack of oil does make the cake a bit harder to cut since it sticks to the knife more. Also, the topping has to be refigerated. I would suggest keeping it separate until the cake is served.
You can find the recipe for the topping on the back of a box of Dream Whip but it isn't complicated. Basically, you use the same amount of milk you normally would for the Dream Whip but use only half what you would for the box of instant pudding. The picture on the Dream Whip box shows the cake nicely frosted with this topping. However, keep in mind that this topping is water based rather than oil based so the cake will tend to absorb moisture from it. I would only icing the cake completely if it will be eaten the same day.
This next dessert is something my mother used to make called Cherry Delight. It's basically a type of cherry cheesecake which is not baked. To be honest I don't like the traditional baked cheesecakes as well.
There are a few differences though from my mother's recipe: First I used fat free cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese. Secondly, I used Dream Whip instead of whipped cream. And, third, I reduced the amount of butter in the graham cracker crust. These changes are not straightforward and require a few changes to make them work.
For a 13 x 9 pan you need:
2 cans cheery pie filling (refrigerate these to get a headstart)
2 packages Dream Whip
1 8-ounce package fat free cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
2 Tbs butter
lemon juice
1/2 box graham crackers
sugar
honey
Basically, you make two envelopes of Dream Whip just as you normally would. This is where the milk and vanilla is required.
In a separate small bowl you put the cream cheese. It will be like a solid chunk of rubber so you cream it with a fork. Just keep working it until it is nice and smooth with no chunks. Add about three tablespoons of sugar and mix this up. Fat free cream cheese tends to be a bit blander than regular cream cheese, so I would suggest waking it up a bit with a couple of squirts of lemon juice. Let's say 1/2 to 1 teaspoon. Taste it before and after you add the lemon juice and you can tell the difference. You may want to add more sugar or lemon juice. I make mine with about 1/4 cup of sugar. Then take this mixture and add it to the Dream Whip. Taste again. You may notice that it doesn't taste sweet enough when mixed with the dream whip but again you can always add a bit more sugar. You can set this in your refrigerator to let it chill. Basically, you now have a sweetened cream cheese base with whipped cream added to make it lighter and less heavy.
You need a package and a half of graham crackers. One package is 9 crackers so 14 1/2total. The crackers are divided into 4 pieces so breaking one in half is no problem. A typical 14 ounce box has 3 packages of graham crackers so you are using half a box. I put mine inside a gallon zip lock bag and crush them a bit by hand. Then I use a rolling pin to crush them more. You may have to adjust the amount of air in the bag since your rolling pin will tend to trap it. You periodically shake the bag to bring the larger pieces to the top. Keep going until you have small crumbs. I usually add a couple of sprinkles of salt to mine. This makes the crust stand out a bit more as a separate flavor and works well with the butter and somewhat offsets the extra sweetness of the honey.
Normally at this point you would add 1/4 cup of melted butter to make the crumbs stick together. However, that is a bit much for me so I cut that in half and only use 2 tablespoons of butter. But, that isn't enough to make it stick together. So, I add about 3 tablespoons of honey to the pan when I melt the butter. Make sure this is mixed well before you add it to the cracker crumbs. You can either add it in the bag or put the crumbs in another bowl.
Mix them thoroughly with the honey butter. Now see if the crumbs can be pressed together. If not, add another tablespoon of honey. When your crumbs are ready you spread them out and press them down in your 9 x 13 pan. Then pour your cream cheese mixture on top. Spread this out evenly. Then get your chilled cans of cherry pie filling and pour these on top spreading them as evenly as you can. You'll probably need a rubber spatula to get the rest of the filling out of the cans and you'll probably need to adjust the cherrys and filling a bit to get everything even and covered. If you pre-chill the cans of filling and have had the cream cheese mixture in the refrigerature it won't take long to get it completely chilled.
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