Friday, May 30, 2014

Pillsbury Recipe - Strawberry-Filled Lemon Cream Cheese Bars - May 30, 2014


I used to love to cook.  Before my 21 years of being on call day and night, I
was constantly in the kitchen, putting my five hundred cookbooks, acquired in
my world travels, to use.  I also perused magazines such as Bon Appetit and
Good Housekeeping, clipping recipes to try out on family and friends.

Once I started wearing a pager almost constantly, I knew I was taking a chance
to undertake elaborate meal preparation.  As one of my forensic nurse 
colleagues used to say, "You can make toast but you can't bake a cake".

Once my SANE position ended and I downsized and headed off to India, 
I gave away most of my cookbooks, putting a treasured few, along with two
recipe boxes into storage.  When I've been home, renting a room, I haven't
had the opportunity to do any cooking at all.  

At least, here at my son's home, I've actually cooked dinner many evenings, 
what with Laura working.  Thanks to the wealth of internet recipe sites, I've 
found a lot of my favorite recipes and have acquired several new favorites.  

I get daily recipes from Pillsbury via "Pillsbury Today's Taste" - quick, easy
dishes from main courses to desserts, requiring only a few ingredients, most
of the time, and, of course, recommending Pillsbury products.  I have always 
enjoyed their "bake off" recipes and the cookbooks from those contests and 
some of the recipes featured are from that.

This week, I tried their recipe for strawberry filled lemon cream cheese 
bars.  They were very easy to make and did not even last twenty-four hours
in our house.  Little Harper Ann, my 14-month-old granddaughter kept chanting,
 "bite, bite" if she saw us eating one!

Here's the recipe with my variation.  I added almond flavoring to both the crust
and the filling - I love the stuff!!!!  


Strawberry-Filled Lemon Cream Cheese Bars


Delicious strawberry-filled bars recipe – a delightful dessert with 
cream cheese, sugar and margarita mix!

·         prep time  30 min
·         total time  2 hr 15 min
·         ingredients  10
·         servings   32


Ingredients

Base
1 box lemon or yellow cake mix
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
           1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
          
***I added ½ tsp almond flavoring to this ( I LOVE ALMOND )

1 cup strawberry preserves or jelly

Filling

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4   cup all-purpose flour
            1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup frozen concentrated margarita mix, thawed

***I added ½ tsp almond flavoring to this

Steps
·         1 - Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease 13x9-inch 
    pan. Place cake mix  in large bowl. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter
    until crumbly. Add almonds; mix well. Reserve 1 cup mixture for topping. Press 
    remaining mixture in bottom of pan. Stir preserves until smooth; carefully spread 
    over base.
·        
            2-  In same bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt and egg with electric mixer 
    at medium speed until well blended. Add margarita mix; beat at low speed until
    blended.Carefully pour filling over base. Sprinkle reserved base mixture over filling.
·         
      3- Bake 34 to 41 minutes or until edges begin to brown and center is set. Cool 
    completely, about 1 hour. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator.

I imagine these might be great with almost any kind of preserve...perhaps mango!!!
To get your own recipes, sign up at www.pillsbury.com!
http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/strawberry-filled-lemon-cream-cheese-bars/3af854c5-ef01-41b8-9268-15bdfcff88cc

3 comments:

  1. It is only good if I get to eat.

    Send one to me, please.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum! I love "doctored up" cake mixes. This looks like something I'd like and I have all the ingredients in the house!
    I'll be baking soon. Thanks.
    xo jj

    ReplyDelete