Easy Sugar Cookie Orange Cream Mini Tarts

 
These little tarts have been all the rage on Pinterest lately. I ignored them for awhile, because sometimes small things are more time consuming to make than the regular size. However, I had a Young Living Girls Night Out last week, and knew these would be perfect!

Now, I also know the rage is all homemade, no mixes, no preservatives, right?   If I had had more time and energy, I would have made my own cookie batter.  I've also wanted to try my hand at pastry cream, but this was not the time for it.  If any of you have a great recipe, let me know!

So, I went with simple.  Sugar Cookie mix, and Instant Pudding.  Of course, since it was a Young Living Girls Night Out, I had to include Essential Oils! 

These were a huge hit at the party.  A little on the sweet side... which motivates me even more to make my own pastry cream.  But, really, really good.  

This is a Life Diffused recipe, which means it contains Young Living Essential Oils. This one includes this amazing oil:

Young Living Orange Essential Oil

Sugar Cookie Orange Cream Mini Tarts
Double Dipped Life - Life Diffused 

1 box Sugar Cookie mix (or make your own!) 
Ingredients to make sugar cookies 
1 box Instant Vanilla pudding.  Cheesecake would also be yummy! 
2 cups milk
3-4 drops of Young Living Orange Essential Oil  (Lime, Grapefruit, Lemon, or Citrus Fresh would also be good!)
Strawberries, sliced thin
1 Orange peel, grated

Special tools needed:
 Mini cupcake pan


Preheat the oven to 350.  Spray a mini cupcake pan with cooking spray. 
Mix the Sugar Cookie dough as directed on package, or make your own.  Roll the dough into Tablespoon sized balls. Place the balls into the mini cupcake pan. 
Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
After baking, take the handle of a large wooden spoon, and poke a hole in the center of the dough. You might need more than one hole, and to stretch the dough as you poke.  
Let the shells cool. 

Make the pudding according to package directions.  Stir in a few drops of Orange Oil, and taste. Add more if needed. Refrigerate pudding until set. 

Fill the tart shells with the pudding mix.  Place strawberry slices on top, and sprinkle with Orange peel.  Serve cold. 

Enjoy! 

 Young Living Orange Essential Oil is fantastic for flavoring food and drink. Did you also know it's great for skin? I use it in my homemade face wash, and as a toner.  It's a pretty cheap oil, cost wise. It retails at $14, or get it wholesale for $10!  

How do you get wholesale prices?  See my Young Living Oil post, or click on my Membership link. 
Email me at DoubleDippedLife@gmail.com with any questions! 




 
 

Chocolate Pudding - October Secret Recipe Club

This is my first time participating in the Secret Recipe Club and I am so excited to present my dish! The idea behind the club is that each month you are assigned a blog to cook something from. You may adapt the recipe if you wish, but the owner of your assigned blog cannot know that you are cooking from their site.

My first assignment is from Dena's blog, Oh! You Cook!  It took me some time to narrow down which recipe to pick from.  About a week ago, I was craving pudding, and Dena had pudding, so that was the winner!  Her homemade Chocolate Pudding is so good!  I made the recipe without any adaptations.

Chocolate Pudding
adapted from Oh! You Cook!
makes 4 1/2-cup servings

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate, so my pudding was a tad more bitter)
2 Tb cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
whipped cream, garnish (optional)

Beat egg lightly in a medium-sized bowl.  Set aside.
Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan. Slowly whisk in  milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, until pudding is thick, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.

Add about a 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture to the egg, whisking constantly to prevent egg from curdling.  Then whisk in remaining hot mixture.

Whisk in chocolate chips until they are melted and completely blended in (adding chocolate chips at this step aids in cooling off pudding a little faster).

Pour the pudding into small serving cups or shooter glasses.  Serve warm, or cover the surface of each of serving with plastic to prevent a skin from forming on the top of the pudding, then refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 2 hours.  Either way, just before serving, top with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

Enjoy!

P.S. Number 21 below is my recipe! Go check out Eat, Knit, Grow!

 

Classic Cinnamon Rice Pudding

I had a craving to cook the other night, and oddly enough, it was to make pudding or panna cotta. This would have been easy, except it was late and we wouldn't have gotten to actually eat the results that night. So I was scrolling through my blog looking for something pudding-like that would set up faster. I came across my Tropical Rice Pudding.  My husband loves Rice Pudding. Loves it. It's something that I don't have a lot of experience with, and prefer regular pudding over rice pudding.  But, it's quick, and fit the bill.

Instead of Tropical Rice Pudding, I decided to just do a Classic Cinnamon Rice Pudding. The basic mixture is the same, and I just added cinnamon to get a bite of taste.  It does have to rest for 30 minutes after cooking, but that's fast compared to traditional puddings.

Classic Cinnamon Rice Pudding
The Double Dipped Life

Makes 4 1 cup servings

3 cups milk
1 cup uncooked minute rice (You can also use cooked leftover rice)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teas salt
2 eggs
1 teas vanilla
1 teas cinnamon

Combine milk, rice, sugar, and salt in a medium pan.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beat eggs and vanilla lightly in a small bowl. Stir small amount of hot rice mixture into eggs. Then, stirring constantly, slowly pour egg mixture back into the hot rice mixture. Mix in cinnamon.

Stirring constantly, cook on low heat 1 minute until thickened. Do not boil.

Remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes.

Serve warm or cold! Store any remaining pudding in refrigerator.


Enjoy!

Tropical Rice Pudding

My hubby is a big fan of Rice Pudding. It's growing on me. I never had it growing up, so it's something new. I really only make it now when I have extra rice. And, boy, did I have extra rice!

The other night I made Thai Fried Rice and forgot that 1 cup of Jasmine rice = 3 cups of cooked rice! I looked at my recipe, saw it needed 2 1/2 cups of rice...so I cooked 3 cups of DRY rice! I had sooo much rice left over... I knew that Rice Pudding was on the menu!

Tropical Rice Pudding

You can really use any type of rice with this dish. From regular to minute rice. If you use regular rice, cook it first, before starting the rice pudding. You can also use any leftovers! If you are using minute rice, you do not need to cook it first!

3 cups milk
1 cup Minute white rice, uncooked (see above!)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dried pineapple
1 cup coconut flakes
1/4 teas. salt
2 eggs
1 teas vanilla
1 teas cinnamon

If you use more than 1 cup of rice, then add more milk and sugar accordingly!

Combine milk, rice, sugar, pineapple, coconut, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beat eggs and vanilla lightly in a small bowl. Stir small amount of hot rice mixture into eggs. Then, stirring constantly, slowly pour egg mixture back into the hot rice mixture. Mix in cinnamon.

Stirring constantly, cook on low heat 1 minute until thickened. Do not boil.

Remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes.

Serve warm or cold! Store any remaining pudding in refrigerator.

Tips: You can vary the flavor of this rice pudding by trying different types of dried fruits, such as raisins, dried cherries, chopped dried apricots, or dried sweetened cranberries!

Dinner Party!

I co-hosted a wonderful dinner last week. We were supposed to have 3 women and their kids come, but only ended up with 1. It was a great night, and I have tons of yummy leftovers!

Here is my menu, plus links to the recipes! Enjoy!

The main course was a Minestrone soup made by the co-host. Sorry, I don't have her recipe! She also provided a yummy green salad.

For sides, I made:

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips - Also from OurBestBites.com. (Can you tell my new obsession?) This dish was absolutely fabulous. I did Strawberries, Mango, Kiwi, Pineapple, and Blueberries. Squirted some Lime juice, and added Sugar. The fruit was amazing on it's own, but eaten with the Cinnamon Chips brought it to a whole new level. Everyone took home leftovers, and I finished up the rest in about a day. A healthy and super yummy treat!

Pesto Alfredo with Roasted Vegetables- The original recipe was found on OurBestBites.com, but I will make it a different way next time! It was good, but needed a few more things.

Croissant Rolls- again, a little bit of a disappointment here. I wanted to make my Challah Bread, but for some reason, my bread maker didn't want to cooperate. It ended the cycle, and instead of a nicely risen bread, I had a pile of goop. :( So, I used the Croissant rolls in a can as a substitute.

Lemon Bars - The perfect "light" ending to a fall meal! I don't have a picture, but the recipe comes from my good friend, Bonnie.

White Chip Lemon Bars

Bonnie

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white chips

2 eggs slightly beaten

The zest and juice from one lemon

Powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Stir together 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture onto the bottom of 9-inch baking pan.

3. Bake 7 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; sprinkle with chips.

4. Stir together eggs, lemon juice, lemon peel, remaining 1/4 cup flour and remaining 3/4 cup sugar in medium bowl; carefully pour over chips and crust.

5. Bake 10 minutes or until set (you can touch center and it's springy). Cool in pan on wire rack; sift with powdered sugar when completely cool. Cut.

Cheesecake Chocolate Pudding. Okay, this desert was so easy, it was ridiculous. However, when I told the ladies it was "just" pudding, they laughed at me. It's all in the presentation folks!

How to make:
Pour 2 3/4 cup of COLD milk in a large bowl.
Mix in one dry box of Instant Chocolate pudding mix and 1 box of instant cheesecake pudding mix. Stir for 2 minutes, and pour into serving dish.
I used a large, shallow serving dish. When set, I sprinkled candied pecans on top! You can also do fruit, coconut, graham crackers, etc!
The cheesecake flavor was hard to distinguish, but you can do any flavor puddings together!

Lastly, we topped it off with cold Lemonade.

It was a terrific night of food and friendship.

What is your favorite party food?