Strawberries and Cream Pie

Strawberries and Cream Pie

This was pretty good. Basically a strawberry cheesecake. I think the chocolate added a lot to it.

Ingredients:
(Crust)
- 1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (About 9 full/long crackers — just throw them in a gallon bag, zip, and crush with a rolling pin.)
- 5 tbsp butter, melted

(Filling)
** Crumbly Cookie’s original recipe called for only 1 block of cream cheese and 1 cup of cream, but that didn’t fill my pie dish all the way and I wanted a really thick/deep-dish pie, so I doubled the recipe.
- 2 8oz blocks of cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 cups heavy cream + 1 tbsp
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 carton strawberries, sliced into thirds or halves
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 375.
(2) In a small bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until a crumbly, moist mixture forms.
(3) Gently but firmly press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom/sides of a pie dish.
(4) Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
** This is the only baking that you need to do for this recipe, so don’t forget to turn the oven off!
(5) In a medium bowl, use an electric mixture to beat your cream until it holds firm peaks. Set aside.
(6) In a separate, larger bowl, mix cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar until smooth and creamy.
(7) Fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into your cream cheese mixture to lighten it, then add the rest. Gently fold until evenly incorporated and smooth.
(8) Spoon filling into your cooled pie crust, and spread it out in an even layer.
(9) Layer sliced strawberries in an overlapping rows around the top of the cream.
(10) Melt chocolate + 1 tbsp cream, and stir until smooth and liquid. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top of the strawberries.
(11) Stick the pie in the fridge for a few hours to allow the creamy filling to firm up.
(12) Slice and serve immediately. Enjoy!
** Strawberries go fast, so this won’t keep very long. Try to eat everything within 3-5 days. 

taken from http://www.justputzing.com/2012/01/strawberries-and-cream-pie.html

Strawberry Cream Cupcake

 Strawberry Cream Cupcake

Originally this recipe was a cake.  I think it is just as good if not better as a cupcake. It was a little messy, but non the less it was great. Pretty much everyone I talked to thought it was one of the best cupcakes they had ever tried. I thought it was pretty good as well. I only made one change to it other than making it a cupcake. I crunched up vanilla wafer cookies and added some butter and pressed into the bottom of the cupcake liner. This made them fabalusa.

 CRUST

2 cups of vanilla wafer cookies
3 TBLS or so of melted butter

Use a food processor to grind up the vanilla wafers. Add butter and mix well until well blended.
Add a Tablespoon or so of the cookie mixture to each cupcake liner and press firmly until it makes a crust like bottom.



 CUPCAKE

1/2 package white cake mix
1 egg
3/4 cup water
2 Tbs. flour
Mix together the ingredients and blend on high for 2 minutes.  Fill cupcake liners a little more than halfway. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until done.  Cool completely.


FROSTING

8 ounce cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 pint whipping cream
Beat the whipping cream on high until soft peaks form.  Set aside.  Beat the cream cheese until smooth and then gradually add the powdered sugar.  Gently fold in the whipped cream until well incorporated.

Spread over the cooled cupcakes and refrigerate.


 STRAWBERRY TOPPING

1 quart fresh strawberries (slice and sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 cup sugar and allow the juices to run)
-OR-
2 packages frozen strawberries (thaw and save the juice)
1 package Danish Strawberry Dessert (found near the jello desserts)
Mix the Danish Dessert using 1 3/4 cup liquid - use strawberry juices and additional water to make up the difference.  Cook according to package directions.  Cool completely before adding the berries.

Gently spread the berry mixture over the cream cheese layer of the cupcake. This  can get a little messy so be careful.

Refrigerate for 4 hours before serving.