Pistachio Dessert Bites

Pistachio dessert bites for Saint Patrick's day any one?  Yes, Please!

Theses creamy, light, crunchy, bite size treats are easy to make and are prefect for Saint Patrick's Day.  

You'll need; Pistachio instant pudding, Siljans Croustades Crispy Shells, 1/4 cup of chopped Wonderful Lightly Salted Pistachio nuts, Whipped Cream (canned works), and 1 1/2 cups cold milk. 

Tools your need;  Mixer, Icing or sandwich bag (Optional) 1/4 cookie sheet, 

Follow the directions on the Instant pudding but for these sized cups I used 

1 1/2 cups of cold milk.

While your pudding is whipping in the mixer, open you crispy cups. I placed the cup trays on a 1/4 size cookie sheet for support. 

It thickens up just right for these cups. 

Take your icing bag and fill it with your pudding.  

Once the bag is filled, cut a hole just big enough for any nuts in the pudding to squeeze through and start filling your cups.

Once filled, chill for an hour in the refrigerator.  

I had about a half a cup of pudding mixture left and so made a dessert cup. 

Chop your Pistachio nuts if you haven't yet and set aside.

 

Once set, top with whipped cream and chopped Pistachio nut or two. 

Keep refrigerated.

Side Note:  Fill these crispy cups just before serving, otherwise they will soften on you.  

I would love to know if you try these, comment below. 

Vintage: Raspberry Tapioca Sunset

My niece found this refreshing dessert in her Great Grandmother's recipe book from 1938, Miss Dine About Town, Marvelous Meals with Minute Tapioca.

You can find the Raspberry Tapioca Sunset recipe on page 18, under Matinee Luncheon in Miss Dine About Town, Marvelous Meals with Minute Tapioca.

Its has only six ingredients plus water.

It calls for Sugar, Tapioca, Salt, heavy whipping cream, Lemon juice, and water. 

And Fresh Raspberries!

You add the fresh crushed berries and lemon juice to the hot tapioca mixture after it comes to a boil.  

Once it cools down you pour the mixture about 1/3 in to each of your serving dishes and Chill. Saving the remainder of the mixture to fold in your whipped cream and chill. Once chilled you add the tapioca and whipped cream mixture on top and top with whipped cream and garnish with some fresh raspberries.  

I picked up these cute mini cups and spoons at my local dollar store. 

Bottom layer is the raspberry tapioca, next is the raspberry, whipped cream tapioca, topped with fresh whipped cream and berries!

This vintage recipe is a refreshing, not-too-sweet dessert you're going to love. 

I would serve this for Easter, Mother's Day or even a spring brunch.

Don't discard those old recipe books without checking them out. I overlooked the black and white photo (yes, I eat with my eyes) my niece pointed it out  while going through her great grandmother's books.  

Let me know if you have this vintage cookbook in your family cooking library. 

Have you tried any of these vintage treasures? 

Maggie

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Mini Lemon Curd Tarts

Sometimes you can come up with a great design; you can sketch them out on paper. You can have a tasty recipe, but to bring it to fruition is another thing all together. This recipe and creation was one of those times.  I came up with the cutest sketch of an Easter tart and even had that tasty recipe to blog about.  But in the end I could not duplicate the design I had created on paper. I was so disappointed that I could not produce my idea.  I'm not giving up on the cute designed tart just yet, just setting it aside and pondering a solution.  

On that note, my niece came up with an alternative design that utilized what we had on hand in the pantry. We made from scratch a fresh lemon curd and mini tart shells. 

 We started with our tart dough first and once we put it to chill in the refrigerator we moved on to our lemon curd. 

We then traded the lemon curd for the tart dough in the refrigerator. Following the recipe for the tart shell with a few tweaks for our mini tart size shells, we found that using a Pestle  (Mortar & Pestle) to mold the dough in the shell pan folds worked well for us.  

Then we used foil and pie weights to hold the dough in place for baking.  It was a little time consuming, but the shells came out nicely.  

Once the shells were baked and cooled we added our lemon curd.   

My niece added candy eyes and cut beaks out of jelly candies.  

She boxed them up with some custom labels for gifting to the family.

 So, don't be discourage if your design or recipe does not come out as planned.  Find an alternative and ponder the first idea later.  Your alternative could be much better than the original plan.