Tag: cream cheese

Sugar-Free Coconut Icebox Cookies with Low-Sugar Cookie Dip

These Sugar-Free Coconut Icebox Cookies are buttery, delicious and made with just a handful of ingredients. They are easy to make and pair perfectly with a low-sugar cream cheese cookie dip

Sugar-Free Coconut Icebox Cookies dip closeup

Icebox cookies simply means you chill the dough after making it and before baking. We shaped ours into a long rectangle but you could do round or oval instead. Then you just “slice and bake” when you’re ready for some fresh-baked cookies. You can even freeze the dough to have on hand whenever a craving hits. 

A Short Ingredient List

For these sugar-free coconut icebox cookies, the short ingredient list includes flour, baking soda, salt, butter, and egg. Instead of sugar, you use a Splenda sweetener, like brown sugar or the new Magic Baker zero sugar baking blend (now available on Amazon and at Walmart or other stores). Then you can flavor the cookies like we did, with a coconut extract, or opt for your favorite flavoring. Personally, we are working our way through our favorite extracts, ranging from coconut and pumpkin spice, to cotton candy and citrus blends.

The cookie dip is such a fun idea, with the best part being you get to choose your cookie to frosting ratio. Or  you can frost each cookie instead. A tip with the dip/frosting is to make confectioners type sugar out of Splenda granulated sugar and cornstarch. And just like with the cookie dough, you can flavor the dip/frosting with your favorite flavoring.

“Low-To-No Sugar Showdown” Recipe Contest

We created this cookie to celebrate the first year of our Splenda Magic Baker “Low-To-No Sugar Showdown” and the upcoming contest at the State Fair of Texas. The fair runs Sep 30 to Oct 23 (2022), with the contest landing on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. The fair’s Creative Arts Building is where all their cooking contests happen and they have a terrific line-up. Hats off to all the aspiring blue ribbon bakers and amateur chefs there. We’re rooting for you! 

Whether or not you are competing, we invite you to bake these sugar-free coconut icebox cookies. Be sure to share and tag @BlueRibbonFoodies on Instagram and/or Facebook if you do! You never know when a giveaway will pop up.

And if you are at the State Fair of Texas please join us for all the ”Low-To-No Sugar Showdown” events. 

Splenda “Low-to-No Sugar Showdown” 10/5/2022

@ Contest Kitchen (Creative Arts Building)

  • 9am Entry Drop Off + Free Product Giveaway
  • 10:30am Judging
  • 12pm-ish Awards

@ Celebrity Chef Stage (Creative Arts Building)

  • 4:30pm Sponsor Showcase + Free Product Giveaway
  • Diabetes-Friendly Baking & Cooking
  • Featuring Andrea Luongo; Dieticians of Dallas

 

 

Dreamy Creamy Raspberry Pie

This dreamy creamy raspberry pie is true to its name. The “always-heavenly” heavy cream and cream cheese ingredients give this pie it’s richness. You use both frozen and fresh raspberries. Featuring this fruit makes the raspberry flavor a co-star to the cream. Each bite is divine thanks to the pie’s five layers.

Five Easy Layers

  1. pie crust
  2. baked “cheesecake”
  3. raspberry filling
  4. whipped cream cheese
  5. fresh raspberries

Everything goes inside a fabulous and flaky pie crust, homemade with cold butter and ice cold water, plus flour, salt, sugar, of course. And as always, if you’re in a time crunch (or have no interest in mastering your “pie crust from scratch” skills), a pre-made crust works too.  No questions asked.  No judging 😊

The pie’s bright color is eye-catching for sure, making it a scrumptious sweet treat for Valentine’s day…or any special day of the year for that matter. You can see all the layers well in this slice’s close up. (Personally, this pic makes me want to lick the screen. And I find the raspberries almost hypnotizing on top.)

Dreamy Creamy Raspberry Pie - Best Slice

Worth the Wait

Because of the chill times, this dreamy creamy raspberry pie will take a few hours to make, but please do not let that intimidate you. The raspberry filling thickens easily and the creamy layers are easy to whip up. For the crust, you use a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, opt for a pastry blender. Just be sure to keep the butter cold and water ice cold.  The crust bakes beautifully and the delicious layers give it a complexity that wows the senses.

State Fair Winner

Recipe credit goes to Emily Olsen, who created it for the North Carolina State Fair, Gold Medal Flour best pie contest (2015). She won a red ribbon, and we are so glad she did!  Make this one as soon as possible!

-Cyndi

 

 

Maple Cream Cheese Monkey Bread

Maple Cream Cheese Monkey Bread – Mini Size: If you want a yummy, buttery, gooey pull-apart bread that you can have all to yourself, bake this best-ever recipe. All you need is milk, instant yeast, cream cheese, an egg, and a few other pantry staples. You bake them in cupcake or muffin tins…so you get single servings… and no sharing required. Ha! Now is when you can hear my hushed, evil voice saying: mine mine mine! All mine!

Maple Cream Cheese Monkey Bread Front View

Recipe credit goes to Kaitlyn Wiener who created these for a best-ever bread baking contest at the Minnesota State Fair (Fleischmann’s Yeast, 2013).

Maple Cream Cheese Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread Made Easy

To get rolling on this maple cream cheese monkey bread recipe, you make a quick-rise, plump dough, cut it into squares, then wrap a cream cheese/maple syrup filling inside. Do a quick toss in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar. Drop them into muffin tins, top them with a butter/maple syrup sauce, and pop them in the oven! So darn simple, and so completely delish.

I really love the ease of working with instant yeast like Fleischmann’s RapidRise yeast. It’s fast acting and consistent (always reliable.) RapidRise yeast also works great in coffee cakes. Watch for one of those, another state fair winner, coming in the next couple weeks.

My niece Crystal and fellow Blue Ribbon Foodie was the lucky one to recreate these mini maple cream cheese monkey breads. She gave it two thumbs up and had this to say:

  • This recipe was fun to make and a great chance to get kids involved because of the simplicity of the steps.
  • The cream cheese filling adds a nice tang, especially when paired with the frosting and the sauce.
  • If by chance they don’t all disappear, the mini monkey breads do reheat well, however I recommend eating them right away when the bread most soft and light, fresh out of the oven. Enjoy!

By the way, if you’re looking for a great full size monkey bread to make, try this pumpkin pull apart bread.

Crystal and Cyndi

 

Bali Hai Tropical Pie

Bali Hai Tropical Pie is a show-stopping, mic-dropping, tropical-themed award-winning best pie recipe you don’t want to miss.

Shredded coconut, fresh mango, fresh lime, cream cheese, and Malibou coconut rum are just a few of the ingredients comprising this marvelous masterpiece. It features a prominent citrusy creaminess, thanks to the heavy whipping cream you combine with cream cheese. You’ll be tempted to eat this mixture/filling by the spoonful. Macadamia nuts give it a nice texture contrast on top.

Recipe Inspiration

Recipe credit goes to Peggy Linberg. The Californian won first place with it at the San Diego County Fair (2014). Peggy’s Bali Hai Tropical Pie was inspired by her favorite musical, South Pacific. With a strong love of passionfruit, she made her pie a combination of the fruit she grew up with in Hawaii and other favorite Polynesian flavors. From the coconut in the pie crust, to the mango, rum and lime flavors infused into its layers, everything about this pie was a hit with the judges. Peggy wanted to transport herself to Hawaii when making and tasting it. Mission accomplished! We were too!

Extra Effort, Ingredients for the Win

Heads up: This pie isn’t for a first time pie baker. It is one of the more involved recipes we’ve tested, but after tasting it, you’ll be convinced…totally worth the extra effort and ingredients! Plan for several hours, start to finish, mainly because of the chill time once you’re done.

Special Recipe Tips & Tricks

  • For the tropical fruit juice concentrate, Peggy, used an orange peach, mango combination. We used a variation on that. Choose your favorite.
  • Peggy’s preferred whipped topping mix is Rich’s Bettercreme. It gives the top decoration more stability, i.e. holds up well while moved or carried.

More like this

If you like unique and creative recipes like this pie, check out these other original recipes: