Creamy Lemon Dessert

I have a sweet tooth.

A major sweet tooth.

I’ll pretty much eat almost any dessert. It’s kind of a problem.

My love is the opposite though. He doesn’t like sweets very much at all. Well, with the exception of any dessert his mother makes. Apparently her sweets don’t count.

This is well and good, except I like to bake. Since it’s just the two of us, if I bake, I’m left to eat all of baked goods myself. There in lies the problem. Well, that combined with my utter lack of willpower when it comes to sweets of almost any kind.

This dessert I’m going to share with you is one of the few desserts that my love likes and will actually eat.

Creamy Lemon Dessert

Ingredients:

• 9-inch square pan
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• Few drops yellow food coloring (optional)
• 16 graham cracker squares
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted margarine or butter

POUR heavy whipping cream into a large bowl.

CHILL in the refrigerator. Whipping cream will whip better in a cold bowl.

In the meantime, PREPARE the graham cracker crust.

HEAT oven to 350 degrees.

PLACE a few crackers in a plastic bag and CRUSH into fine crumbs using a rolling pin or can.

REPEAT until all crackers are crushed.

MIX cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter/margarine in a medium bowl.

PRESS mixture firmly and evenly along the bottom of a 9-inch square pan.

BAKE 10 minutes.

COOL. While crust is cooling, continue with the rest of the recipe.

MIX sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice in a small bowl. Set aside.

ADD a few drops of yellow food coloring to the chilled heavy whipping cream (optional). This is purely to achieve that “lemon” color. I omit this step and my dessert turns out more of a white than a yellow, but that’s fine with me.

BEAT the whipping cream with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. This usually takes 5 or 6 minutes.

Gently POUR the lemon mixture over the whipped cream.

FOLD together using a rubber spatula. Continue mixing until ingredients are blended.

POUR the folded mixture over the cooled graham cracker crust.

SPREAD evenly.

COVER and REFRIGERATE at least 2 hours but no longer than 48 hours.

SERVE by cutting into 3-inch squares.

COVER and REFRIGERATE any leftover dessert.

Credit: Photos taken by me.  Dessert in the photo was made by me as well.  Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker’s Cooking Basics.