By Morgan Mitchell
If you’re anything like me, you’d be willing to eat something sweet every meal of the day if you could. I have such a sweet tooth that I often find it difficult to choose between a dessert with chocolate or a dessert with fruit since I’m equally as likely to be pleased with a brownie as with apple pie. But over the years, I have discovered my three favorite desserts from my family’s recipe book. I share them with you in the hope that you will find them as tasty as I do, and maybe you’ll even develop a new favorite dessert as well!
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pie: This delightful dish is best served cold, but be warned that it gets sweeter (and therefore more delicious) as you refrigerate it.
For this dessert, you will need eight ounces of cream cheese, one eight-ounce tub of thawed Cool Whip, one cup of peanut butter, eight ounces of powdered sugar, three-fourths cup of miniature chocolate chips, and one Oreo pie shell.
To begin, mix the cream cheese, peanut butter, and powdered sugar together. Add the Cool Whip and blend well. Once blended, fold in the miniature chocolate chips and pour the mixture into your Oreo pie shell. When all the filling is in the pie crust, it should be mounded high in the middle. As mentioned previously, note that you will want to keep it refrigerated, and make sure to let it set in the refrigerator for at least three hours before you cut yourself a slice.
Pound Cake: A simple classic, pound cake goes with any meal of the day. You can have it with fruit for breakfast or as dessert with lunch or dinner.
Gather the ingredients you will need, which include six eggs, two cups of plain flour, two cups of sugar, one cup of vegetable oil, a dash of salt, one teaspoon of baking powder, one and a half tablespoons of vanilla, one and a half teaspoons of almond extract, and a ten-inch tube pan.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl at one time. Beat on high speed for four minutes, and then pour the batter into a greased and floured ten-inch tube pan. Usually, you want to preheat the oven when you’re baking, but make sure that you place the pound cake into a cold oven. Once the pan is in the oven, turn the temperature of the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for one hour and ten minutes. Let the cake cool for about ten minutes before turning it out of the pan.
Peanut Butter Fudge: This recipe is courtesy of my grandmother, and the fudge is so good that it featured at all of our Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers while I was growing up.
The ingredients you will need are three cups of sugar, three-fourths cup of butter or margarine, one five-and-a-half-ounce can (two-thirds cup) of evaporated milk, one cup of peanut butter, one nine-ounce jar of marshmallow crème, one teaspoon of vanilla, and a 13x9x2-inch pan.
In a heavy two-and-a-half-quart saucepan, combine the sugar, butter (or margarine), and evaporated milk. Bring to a full rolling boil, making sure to stir constantly. Continue boiling over medium heat for five minutes, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Next, remove the pan from the heat and add the peanut butter, stirring until it has melted. Add the marshmallow crème and vanilla, and then beat until it’s well blended. Then spread the mixture into a buttered 13x9x2-inch pan. Cool at room temperature, then refrigerate. When it’s firm in four hours, cut the fudge into squares, and try not to steal one of these delectable treats while you’re at it. This recipe makes three pounds of candy.
Happy baking!
Edited by Liz Eike