Lemon Lush

Had to bring a dessert to my mom's tonight for Sunday dinner.  I found this recipe in the Allrecipes.com magazine.  If you like cream cheese, lemons, and shortbread, this recipe is for you.  It was surprisingly light and fun for the springtime.

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1 c. butter, chilled and cut in cubes
2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar
2 (3.4 oz) packages of instant lemon pudding mix
3 1/2 c. milk
1 (12 oz container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour and butter using a pastry cutter until a ball forms.  Press into the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish.  Bake for 20 min. until lightly browned.  Cool completely.  In medium bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth and well blended.  Spread evenly over cooled crust.  In another bowl, whisk together lemon pudding mix and milk for 3-5 minutes.  Spread over cream cheese layer.  Chill until set, then top with whipped topping.

In my test kitchen:

One thing I love about allrecipes.com is the reviews and suggestions given by other cooks.  I followed several suggestions...

I added about 2/3 c. finely chopped walnuts to my flour/butter mixture.  It gave the crust a great crunch.  (Clint hates nuts but oh well...I don't think I will ever make this without nuts again!  I loved it!)  I never really formed the dough into a ball.  I just poured it into the dish and pressed it evenly across the bottom.  I used powdered sugar instead of regular sugar.  It was easier to get a smooth and blended texture with powdered sugar.  I also added 1 T. lemon juice to the cream cheese mixture.  And instead of using Cool Whip, I made my own whipped topping with 1 c. heavy whipping cream, 2 T. sugar, and 1/2 t. vanilla. 

My presentation didn't look nearly as clean as the picture in the magazine.  I'm not sure why...my guess is that my whipped topping wasn't stiff enough and maybe I should have used a better knife when I cut the pie into pieces?  Anyone who has a suggestion on this, I would love to hear it! 

This recipe would also be great if a different pudding was substituted.  Vanilla, banana cream, coconut cream...I would just omit the lemon juice in the cream cheese mixture.  I'm not a huge cream cheese fan so I think if I make this again I will spread an even thinner amount of cream cheese.  It would make the dessert taste a little lighter as well.

~Happy Cooking!