Tag Archives: dessert

Pat Prager’s Private Recipe Dessert from Kitchens of the Great Midwest

In J. Ryan Stradel’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest, a hometown cook successfully beats out more sophisticated chefs in a prestigious cooking contest with her simple five ingredient recipe.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it.

Pat Prager’s Award Winning Bars

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 cup melted Grade A butter
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon Grade A butter

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs. melted butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Put into a greased 9×12 inch pan. Melt the chips and butter and spread them on top of the bars. Set into the refrigerator until firm. Cut into bars.

Life is Just a Bowl of Berries

This sweet cream cheese fruit tart is a berry simple dessert; I found this recipe among my mother’s clippings and was surprised how easy it is.  Of course, she made her pastry from scratch, but I took a short cut with the pre-made dough.

Sweet Cream Cheese Berry Tart

  • 8 oz package Philly cream cheese (my mother only used Philly – staying true to her roots)
  • 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cream of tartar
  • 1 egg, separated
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • pie crust dough (or 1 refrigerated pre-made pie crust)
  • 2 cups fruit (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Beat together: cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, egg yolk, and almond extract.  In a separate bowl, mix fruit with 2 tablespoons of sugar and remaining tablespoon of cream of tartar.

If using refrigerated pie crust, roll it out a little and then cut into four or five pieces that will fit into large muffin slots.  My tin holds six, but I only had enough dough for 5, so I tried a little experiment. I added a little water to the empty spot before baking, and then filled a custard cup with the cream cheese mixture and fruit – it fit nicely into the slot – turned out tasty.

Fill bottom of each tart with cream cheese mixture and then top with fruit.  Fold the edges over slightly to look like a small pie.  Brush the edges with the egg white.  Bake about 30 minutes (until edges of the pie crust are lightly browned).  Cool and enjoy.