Cookie Salad

Thursday I made a dessert for a Relief Society activity... and it was so good I made it again Saturday for a potluck dinner!  Though it has the word "salad" in it's name, you'd have to make some creative substitutions to make it Weight Watchers friendly.  It is rich, delicious and just a little bit decadent!

And it's simple to make, doesn't heat up the kitchen and travels well!

That's a winning combination on every front!!

With friends who love to experiment with food as much as I do, we've come up with some yummy combinations of ingredients...

We all start with this basis:

1 small pkg instant vanilla pudding
1/3 cup milk
32 oz of thawed whipped topping (aka CoolWhip)

Whisk the pudding and milk together until smooth, then fold in the whipped topping.  Next you add crumbled up cookies and cut up fruit.

Some combinations we've tried and really like:

• Carmello cookies (or Twix or Snickers) with a tangy apple like Fuji or Granny Smith
• Pecan shortbread cookies with fresh peaches
• Vanilla sandwich Cookies (aka White Oreos) with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries
• Fudge stripe cookies with mandarin oranges
• Chocolate animal crackers and mini marshmallows and tangy apples
• Ginger snaps with peaches, pineapple and halved grapes

We've all eaten them so quickly that no one has got a picture so here's one I stole off Pinterest of the Snickers/Apple combination.

Photo from dailyleisure.com

Gooey Cake

I love chocolate!

Really I do.  Except for those times that come up now and then when the mere thought of chocolate makes me want to gag.  That was tonight.  So for dessert I made a Gooey Cake.

Gooey Cake is also known as Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake (surprising since in her heyday she was the queen of butter and this recipe calls for only a modest single cube) and Chess Squares (no clue where that name comes from) and Texas Gold (maybe because most recipes start with a yellow cake mix?) and maybe a few dozen other things.  My point is that there are already dozens of posts on blogs and cooking websites about making this cake and so I'm not going to do step by step instructions.

Just show you a couple of pictures.  After all, I do want you to be tempted...  And I'm going to tell you that it is delicious!  And very gooey.

Perfect for a cold autumn evening!

And I'll give you the very very simple recipe.

Before we get started, you can choose any flavor of cake mix you want to use.  Yellow seems to be pretty traditional, but white works.  So does vanilla, lemon, strawberry, orange or even chocolate.  I used a white cake mix this time.

So... here we go.  Let's make some cake!

Gooey Cake

1 Cake mix
1 cube of melted butter (not margarine)
1 egg

Mix together to form a soft dough and press into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 baking pan.  Fingers work great to press it into place.

Beat together until well blended:
8 oz cream cheese, softened and broken into small pieces
2 eggs
4 cups of powdered sugar
(add up to 2Tbl of cocoa powder if you are making a chocolate cake)

Pour over the top of the cake mix dough and bake at 300F for 45-50 minutes or until just set in the middle.  I tend to over bake... and it's still tastey, just not so gooey.  Let cool before cutting.  Enjoy!

Like I said, I used a white cake mix.  And while it is yummy all on its own, it would be even better with some sweetened sliced strawberries over the top or even drizzled with chocolate syrup.

O.R.E.O. In a cupcake!

Who doesn't love Oreos?

I sure do!

And that's why it intrigued me so when I saw these Oreo Cupcakes with Cookies & Cream Frosting on... my Facebook feed.  You thought I was going to say Pinterest didn't you?

I didn't exactly follow her recipe, though.  Me and Betty Crocker are kind of BFFs and walking through the store she winked at me as if to say "scratch cake?  Girl, ain't nobody got time for that!!"  So I used a boxed cake mix.

Like you don't!

Oh... you don't?

Well I did.  And I can sleep perfectly well knowing I'm not the perfect Holly Homemaker.  Thank you very much!  I did, however, use her frosting recipe (below I've extracted it from her overall instructions).  And it is AMAZING!!  I've never made frosting like that before, but I'm thinking I will in the future.

Misbehaving puppies distracted me from taking more pictures tonight.  Yes... I frequently cup their sweet little faces in my hands, hold them close and tell them they are dang lucky they are so cute!  Dang lucky!!

Here's what I did:
Step 1:  Preheat oven to 350F.
Step 2:  Put 18 liners into the individual cups of cupcake tin(s).  (Mine hold 12 so I have to use 2 tins.  I want one that holds 18... but I do not have it yet.)
Step 3:  Place an oreo into each cup.
Step 4:  Mix a chocolate cake mix according to package instructions.  Or make your own if you're all into that sort of stuff.
Step 5:  Divide cake batter equally amongst the 18 cups.  Bake.  Cool.
Step 6:  Crush 10-12 Oreos.  (It works well to put them in a ziplock bag and roll over them a few times with a rolling pin.)
Step 7:  Make frosting.
Step 8:  Spoon into a decorating bag so you can pipe it onto cupcakes.  (I tried, semi-successfully, to fake it using a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off.)
Step 9:  Decorate the top of each with another Oreo.
Step 10:  Admire your hard work for a moment then devour!  Leftovers (in the unlikely circumstance there are leftovers) should be refrigerated.

Not as pretty as my inspiration... but I promise they're gonna
look a whole lot worse than this in just a few minutes!

Cookies & Cream Frosting
In a small saucepan, combine 5 Tbl all-purpose flour with 1 cup milk.  (I used whole and the recipe I was following said she used 1% so I think you can just use whatever it is you have in the fridge for your family to drink.)  Heat over medium-low, whisking continually, until very thick.  Remove from heat.  Cover with plastic wrap pressing the film onto the surface of the 'custard' so it doesn't form a crust as it cools.  Place in the fridge for 10 minutes.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat 1 cup granulated sugar with 1 cup soft butter until smooth and fluffy.  Add 1 tsp vanilla and beat another 30 seconds or so.  Add cooled milk/flour mixture from above and beat on high until it's the consistency of stiff whipped cream.  This will take 3 minutes or more, probably more.  When you think it might be ready, get a little blob on your finger and test it.  If it isn't like whipped cream... you're not done beating it!

Stir in the crushed Oreos.

That's it!  Isn't that a different way to make frosting?

I really thought it would be less sweet because it has so much less sugar in it but it's not.  It's creamy and fluffy yet rich and light at the same time.  Delicious!!