No Bake Pudding Cake

I can't take the credit for this recipe, but I really would like to. It is so simple and still rich and delicious, a winner in my book, and I don't even like pudding (usually). Yes, I don't like pudding. It is a texture thing, I think.

This is a no-bake cake, meaning it is supposed to simulate a cake-ish texture without actually being a cake. For those of you who hate baking (gasp!), this is fantastic. I should warn you, this doesn't really have a cake-like texture. That being said, it's still yummy.

I found the recipe here. But you can substitute the from-scratch pudding with any instant pudding mix (1 large box or 2 small). I used pumpkin. But I think vanilla, chocolate, Oreo, cheesecake...any of those would be good, too. I did find that I needed more than one box of graham crackers. I am not sure if my pan was too big or I used to many per layer, but I could have used one more sleeve of crackers to finish the top layer.

Layering the graham crackers and pudding

To keep things extra delicious, I used Martha Stewart's recipe for chocolate ganache glaze instead of their recipe for chocolate glaze. I am a firm believer that ganache makes things that much better. If you opt for Martha's ganache recipe, make sure you use a DOUBLE recipe. One batch just wasn't thick enough...at least not for me. If you don't know how to make ganache glaze, I highly recommend you learn. It is really simple, and trust me, you'll love it.

Making ganache

Good luck, and comment back on what pudding flavor you use!

Final piece! Wish this was a better photo...

Holiday Dog Treats

Tis the season for holiday presents! We give presents to our friends and family, and how could we leave out our pets? For pet owners, pets are part of the family, too - so what can we give them? How about some home made treats? They are easy to mix, only a few ingredients needed, then roll them out, and cut out shapes like you would for your sugar cookies or gingerbread cookies! It's easy to make these festive by using seasonal cookie cutters. You can make them any size you want - customize them as small treats for your small dogs or big treats for your big dogs! Plus, I've read that pumpkin is kind of like Activia for dogs!


Ingredients:
2 1/2 C flour
2 Eggs
3/4 C pureed pumpkin
2 T Peanut Butter
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Note: It is much easier to stir this recipe with a good sturdy spoon rather than trying to whisk. The dough will be very thick. Also, I measured in approximate amounts of pumpkin and peanut butter rather than measuring exactly. When the dough was ready to roll, I needed a little extra flour to balance out the extra (I'm sure) wet ingredients.

Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 F
- Stir flour, eggs, pumpkin, pnb, salt and cinnamon. The dough should be stiff but workable to roll out. You may need some additional flour to help roll the dough and prevent it from sticking.
- Roll out dough and cut in any shape desired.
- For smaller sized cookies, bake about 25 minutes. Cookies will puff a little and brown slightly. If making larger or thicker cookies, you may need to bake them for 35-40 minutes. I rolled my dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness for small dogs. If you have a large dog, you could probably do a 1/2 inch thickness.

The recipe made a nice sized Ziploc bag full of treats. I think I baked about 3-4 trays worth. Of course the number of cookies you will get will depend on the size you make them! Happy baking!