Elizabeth Daisy

This has the three C’s that everyone needs. Cherry’s, chocolate, and cheesecake. Yum. This is an ode to Ben and Jerry’s cherry garcia ice cream. So if you can eat a pint of that you can eat half this cheesecake.

Take two packages of softened cream cheese and some vanilla.

Cream those together. I did that so I knew the cream cheese wouldn’t be lumpy.

Add a container of cool whip. Not that this really matters health wise but the cool whip I used was fat free. I know what you’re thinking, really fat free probably doesn’t matter with all the other stuff going in here, and you’d be right.

Here they are all mixed together. Here’s where I can take a spoon and start eating but we’ll finish this cheesecake for kicks. I forgot to show the powder sugar I did use, sorry, I blame kids for taking my memory.

I took chocolate chips and put them into my food processor to break them up. It sounded like gravel in my food processor and woke up my 6 week old from her nap. The sacrifice was worth it though.

Now we get to the cherries. I took half a small can of maraschino cherries (chopped) and the juice and put it in a sauce pan. Next time I’ll use the whole bottle of cherries because now I just have a few cherries sitting in my fridge. Not that that’s a bad thing. Every time I open the fridge they call out to me, “eat me”. Does your food talk to you too?

I added some ultra gel to the simmering cherries to thicken it.

Once it was thick I added it to the cheesecake and mixed them up.

Here’s the end result on a graham cracker crust. It was fantastic! I ate most of it and I could go for it again.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 package graham cracker (about 12 full sheets)

4 Tablespoons butter

Put graham crackers and butter in food processor until finely ground. Press firmly into a pan. I used an 8″ round spring form.

Cherry Mix:

1/2 jar maraschino cherries and juice (You can use the whole thing if you want)

1 tablespoon ultra gel or 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar

Chop cherries. Put in a small sauce pan on medium heat. Add cornstarch or ultra gel to the cherries and stir until mixture is thickened. Add to cream cheese mixture.

Cheesecake:

2 8 oz. packages cream cheese

3/4 cup chocolate chips (crushed)

2 cups powder sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 container cool whip

Combine ingredients and mix well. Add cherries and mix well. Pour onto cheesecake. Chill for 3 hours.