Yes, there’s a reason why. I was bingeing every season while I was writing that novel.

Yes, I’ve tried al these recipes myself, and they’re insanely good. Insanely!

Yes, the easiest way to get at this recipe is to GO HERE!

And one final YES! Your loved ones will think you’re a kitchen goddess if you make this for them, but it’s easy-peasy, so roll it out on a special occasion, then go into full drama when anyone asks you to make it again, knowing it isn’t that big of a deal, and then rake in all the kudos for how beautifully you give love through delicious food!

The post Jess and Eric’s Mocha Icebox Cake appeared first on Kristen Ashley.

Essentially, this is pecan pie…with chocolate chips in it. I double-trouble this by taking out the chocolate chips when I make pecan pie.

It’s insanely rich and insanely good.

But I don’t think that’s why Joker loved it so much!

Carissa’s Chocolate Pecan Pie

• Prep Time

  15

• Cook Time

  50-55

• Serves

  6-8

Ingredients

• 3 Eggs
• 1 cup Light or Dark Corn Syrup
• ½ cup Sugar
• 2 tablespoons Butter (melted)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Pecans
• ½ cup Chocolate Chips
• 1 Pre-prepared Pie Crust OR Make Your Own

How to do it…

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C. Put baking sheet into oven to pre-heat it.
2. Beat eggs slightly.
3. Add corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla. Stir until well blended.
4. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
5. Pour into crust and bake on preheated baking sheet for 50-55 minutes.
6. Serve with whipped cream, double thick cream, ice cream or any such luscious a la mode!

The post Carissa’s Chocolate Pecan Pie appeared first on Kristen Ashley.

Raye’s Chocolate Pudding

• Prep Time

  8+ Hours

• Cook Time

  None

• Serves

  A Lot!

The post Raye’s Chocolate Pudding appeared first on Kristen Ashley.

…you know, the one where Judge pulls out all the tops to make certain a special first with Chloe was off-the-charts special…THAT scene…

…I faced a conundrum.

You see, Judge had no issue going that extra mile and turning the corner to out-and-out corny, because that’s Judge and that’s how much Chloe means to him.

But the dude had to make her dessert, and it had to be a “Judge Dessert.”

And I had no idea what that might be.

Worse!

Judge had no idea. He was as flummoxed as I was.

Fortunately, as ever with my gorgeous mountain man, he came through in a pinch and somehow these sprang to mind. Easy. Freaking delicious. Colorful and fun.

The perfect celebration for that particular “first.”

Judge’s Fruity Pebbles Treats

• Prep Time

  5

• Cook Time

  10

• Serves

  Several (or just you several times)

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 10 ounce Mini Marshmallows, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt (if using table salt, use half that)
• 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 2 cups plain Rice Krispies Cereal
• 4 cups Fruity Pebbles Cereal

How to do it…

1. Line a 9x9 pan with enough parchment paper to overhang for easy removal. Coat with cooking spray. Or just coat with cooking spray, I don't bother with parchment because it'll lift out on it's own. But if you're being fancy or making this for company, perhaps you should do the whole shebang.
2. In a large pan (nonstick if possible, but don't worry - this gooey, sugary mess will clean up relatively easily if you don't), melt butter over low heat. Once melted, add all but 2.5 cups of the marshmallows. Stir until melted, and don't leave this alone. You'll wanna stay on top of it. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in the salt and vanilla. And don't dis the salt! Seriously, it adds a little extra something, especially with all of this sweetness!
3. Gently stir in all the cereal and the remaining marshmallows. Now, a note here, you can nix the Rice Krispies and go all in with Fruity Pebbles, but the Krispies cut the sugar-shock factor. Seriously, they make these better.
4. Pour into pan and press carefully to compact. Another note, I don't press. I like the lumpy mess. Mostly because I circumvent the next instruction and just rip some off and eat it still warm. But if you want order...do the press thing.
5. After cooled, cut into bars. The recipe I found for this says "best served same day" which I think is utterly hilarious. Like, this would not last a whole day...ever. Enjoy!

The post Judge’s Fruity Pebbles Treats appeared first on Kristen Ashley.

1) I am a Harry Potter girl.
2) I am a dessert girl.

Put those things together, and pun intended, there’s magic.

I don’t even know where I came across this recipe. I think it might be Facebook. I don’t even care. I found it, printed it out, made it, fell in love with it and then, as I often do, put it in a book. If you have been to any Harry Potter amusement park experience, you will probably have tried butterbeer. If you didn’t, you should have. If you go, make that a priority on your agenda. But now, you can eat it in pie form which, as I said, is magic.

Check it out…

Butterbeer Pie

• Prep Time

  15/10

• Cook Time

  300

• Serves

  8

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 2 Store-bought Pie Crusts (or one, if you don't feel like decorating)
• Filling:
• 2 cups Heavy Cream
• 1 package Instant Butterscotch Pudding
• 1 1/2 cups Cold Milk
• 1/4 cup Caramel Sauce
• Whipped Topping:
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/2 cup Marshmallow Fluff
• Gold Sprinkles (for decorating)

How to do it…

1. Straight up to start, this pie takes time to set so don’t make it half an hour before you make dinner or you’ll be eating it at midnight. Not that midnight Butterbeer Pie feeding is a bad thing, I just don’t want you to be disappointed. You’ll need about four or five hours for a chillout, so be prepared.
2. Now, to start…if your pie crusts are frozen, be sure to get them out in advance, but even if refrigerated, you’ll need to set them out for a good quarter hour so they’re usable without annoying breakage.
3. When your crusts are unchilled, start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. As your oven gets geared up, line a 9” pie plate with the pastry dough. If you wanna get fancy, crimp the edges all pretty, or you could just push them down with the tines of a fork. To avoid the bottom of the crust puffing up or shrinking away during this blind baking, you can either hit it with the tines of the fork in a couple of places or throw in some pie weights if you’ve got ’em. Bake this baby about fifteen minutes, perhaps a few more, until lightly golden. Check it about halfway through cooking time as you don’t want the edges burned. If they start crisping up too much, cover them with little strips of aluminum foil.
5. Open up the second pie crust and cut out a lightning bolt shape, making this big enough to set across the top of the pie (in other words, from top to zap, about 7-8”, though obviously it’s not gonna be that wide). Put this on a baking sheet and bake, again until lightly golden, about 8-10 minutes.
6. Let these cool for a bit seeing as this is a cold pie. You don’t want to dump the creamy, pudding-y filling into a hot pie crust!
7. After you’ve given your crusts some cool time, get down to making the butterbeer filling.
8. If you have a standing mixer, use that. If you don’t, get out your hand mixer. Use the whisk attachment to beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. This should take around two minutes.
9. In a medium bowl, put in the pudding mix and milk and whisk to combine. Let this stand for a bit until thick, it shouldn’t take long. After it thickens up, fold the pudding as well as the caramel sauce into heavy cream mixture.
10. Pour this goodness into your cooled, prepared pie crust and sock it in the fridge. As I mentioned above, you’ll need to give this time to firm up, around four to five hours.
11. When the filling has set, it’s time to make the marshmallow whipped cream. Start by beating the heavy whipping cream to soft peaks in your standing mixer or with a handheld, again, this will take about two to three minutes. Fold in the marshmallow cream/Fluff. When this is done, top the pie with the marshmallow cream. And if you’re getting fancy, decorate it with gold sprinkles and the lightning bolt pie crust piece.
12. To be honest, you could go heavy handed on the caramel sauce and the marshmallow fluff if you want a slightly sweeter pie all around. But just as it is, it’s da bomb!
13. Cut up, dive in, eat, and if Harry Potter comes to visit you on your first swallow, I’ll be jealous!

The post Butterbeer Pie appeared first on Kristen Ashley.

I first encountered the pizzookie before I was living in Phoenix, but my family was, and I was here for a visit. They took me to Oreganos, a joint that has pizza, sandwiches…and pizzookies (Oreganos claims theirs is the original, but this is hotly contested, I’m not weighing in, I do not care, I’m just glad it exists at all).

To say my mind was boggled by the simplistic decadence of this awesomeness is an understatement. Okay, I’m a gal who can have her mind boggled pretty easily. So we’ll say my mind was blown.

This became my family’s “thing.” We baked our pizzookies at home, and the minute that crazy-goodness was pulled from the oven, the ice cream plopped on, it was a spoons-clinking, everyone-out-of-their-seat-bent-over-the-table-face-in-the-pan free for all.

This may be my favorite dessert of all time. Yes, I’m making that grand statement. But trust me on this, it’s a statement that needs to be made. Case in point, one of my readers reported to me that she made a pizzookie and her boyfriend and his brother got in a fistfight over it.

An actual fistfight.

Blood was spilled.

I do not find this surprising.

Give this to your family…and bask in their love

Creed’s Pizzookie

• Prep Time

  5

• Cook Time

  15-25

• Serves

  Whoever Gets Their Spoon in There

Ingredients

• Store Bought Cookie Dough, the standard is chocolate chip.*
• Ice Cream

How to do it…

1. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.
2. You will need a round metal pan, 6-8” is ideal, you’ll need more dough for bigger. Don’t bake this in a glass pan.
3. You can spray the pan or use a nonstick metal one. Open your tube or tub of cookie dough and squeeze it or spoon it out into the pan. Press it with fingers, spoon or spatula so it’s distributed evenly. Please note that the thicker you make your pizzookie, the more baking time you’ll need but you can make it as thick as you like. It isn’t a “thicker is better” thing, it’s a “how you like it” thing. A too-thin layer, though, what’s the point? If you did that, you could just make cookies!
4. Put in oven.
5. Now, the goal of this is that it’s just that little bit gooey. You do not want to bake this too long. You also do not want to pull it out too soon.
6. I would say start checking at around the ten minute point. Odds are, it won’t be ready then and I’ll warn you now, it’ll probably take around 15-25 minutes to get it like you like it. The goal is for it to be doughy and squidgy, the outer edges baked golden and a little crispy, the middle nice and mushy. But you’ll need to keep an eye on it without opening the oven and letting the heat out every two minutes.
7. When it's like you want it to be, yank that sucker out but be prepared! You’ll need your ice cream ready right away, for the instant you put it on the counter, you scoop that ice cream on (three scoops is good, but it’s up to you).
8. Once the ice cream is on, slap that baby in front of your friends and/or family, grab your spoon and have at it, digging right into the pan.
9. Beware, it’s gonna be hot, but it’s also gonna be awesome!

Notes

* You can buy a tube or a tub. You will need the whole tube. You won’t need the whole tub unless you go gonzo, which you will be tempted to do, but trust me, this is so rich and lush, once your brain settles down from the its flavor orgasm of tasting it, you’ll find a little goes a long way.

Now, you can do anything you want with this, obviously. Make it with homemade dough. Make it with different kinds of cookie dough (peanut butter, macadamia nut) or even brownie dough. You can drizzle chocolate or caramel or butterscotch syrup on it, hot fudge sauce, even spray some whipped cream on that sucker, sprinkle with nuts, top with a cherry.

However, as much as it stuns me I’m gonna say this, I think all that accoutrement is unnecessary. Yes, I’ve essentially typed out the words “hot fudge sauce is unnecessary.” No, I don’t believe I’ve done that either. But in my opinion, it’s the truth. However, you can do whatever you want. It’s your pizzookie. Have it like you like it, and as with anything, own what you like!

The post Creed’s Pizzookie appeared first on Kristen Ashley.