by Joanne Fluke
17
If you’re in a hurry, you can use two frozen pie shells – just thaw them and use one for the bottom and one for the top.
18
You can use any flavor of frozen juice concentrate and jelly that you wish. You are only limited by the frozen juice concentrates and jelly or jam that your store carries. My small grocery store stocks frozen grape, frozen peach, frozen pineapple, frozen orange, frozen lemonade, frozen limeade, frozen pink grapefruit, and frozen apple.
19
The lemon zest adds a little zing to your pie.
20
If you don’t like canned pie filling, make your own with canned or frozen cherries, sugar, and cornstarch.
21
If you can’t find raspberry syrup, mix ¼ cup seedless raspberry jam with ¼ cup light Karo syrup and use that.
22
That’s about 1 and ½ cups of crushed pineapple and a scant cup of juice.
23
If you can’t find chocolate cookie wafers in the cookie aisle of your grocery store, try the section where they keep ice cream toppings and ice cream cookies – that’s where Florence Evans at the Red Owl in Lake Eden keeps them.
24
The yield should be 2 cups per package if you make it according to the package directions. You can use sugar free instant, regular instant, or the kind you have to cook. All will work. (You can also use 5 larger packages of pudding, each package yielding 3 cups of pudding — if you do this, use 2 cups of milk or half and half for each package – as you can see, this recipe is very flexible.)
25
Use brick cream cheese, the kind that comes in a rectangular package. Don’t use whipped cream cheese unless you want to experiment — whipped cream cheese, or low-fat, or Neufchatel might work, but I don’t know that for sure.
26
These are miniature chocolate chips. If you can’t find them in your area, you can use regular size chocolate chips and cut them in halves or quarters. If you use them as is, they’ll sink to the bottom and make your cake hard to remove from the pan. You can also shave chocolate and use that. It works even better than the mini chocolate chips.
27
Read the yield on the pudding package – it should be 2 cups per package if you make it according to the package directions. You can use sugar free instant, regular instant, or the kind you have to cook. All will work. (You can also use 5 larger packages of pudding, each package yielding 3 cups of pudding – if you do this, use 2 cups of milk or half and half for each package – as you can see, this recipe is very flexible.)
28
You can use frozen rhubarb. Just thaw it and pat it dry with a paper towel.
29
If you want a change from vanilla wafers, you can make a shortbread crust using Lorna Doone shortbread cookies. That’s good, too!
30
You don’t absolutely positively have to use coconut milk. You can substitute half and half or heavy cream if you can’t find it in your store.
31
If you can’t find the quick-cooking tapioca, you can still make this cheesecake. Just follow the directions on the box of regular tapioca to cook it.
32
** If you don’t have coconut extract, you can substitute vanilla extract, bringing the total up to 2 teaspoons.
33
If you can’t find the cranberries where you live you can substitute any chopped dried fruit such as dates, apricots, peaches, etc.
34
You can use round red-and-white peppermint candies that look like buttons, regular candy canes, or any other peppermint candy that you can crush into small separate pieces. You could even use pastel mints, the tiny little “pillows” you’ll find in a pretty bowl right next to the mixed nuts at almost every Lake Eden wedding reception.
35
If you can’t find rum or brandy extract at your store, you can substitute vanilla — that will give you a total of 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
36
If you prefer a sweeter cookie, roll the dough balls in extra granulated sugar and flatten before baking.
37
When you drain the cherries, reserve the juice to use in the frosting.
38
It’s not absolutely positively necessary that you use coconut extract, but the cookies will be much more delicious if you do. If you can’t find it, or you’re making these in the middle of a blizzard and you can’t get to the store, just use vanilla extract.
39
If you fail to put on the candy corn when the cookies are still hot from the oven, you can put it on later using a little dab of powdered sugar frosting (powdered sugar with a tiny bit of milk) as “glue.”
40
Lisa and I use cherry-flavored Craisins down at The Cookie Jar.
41
Lisa likes to roll her dough balls in decorator sugar with large crystals. This is usually available in colors at grocery stores during the holiday season. If you can’t find it there, you can try a cake decorating store. Lisa uses this sugar because it gives the cookies a nice crunch on the outside that contrasts nicely with the soft inside. She says you can also use regular white table sugar. The crunch will be less, but the cookies will taste the same.
42
Use any combination of regular chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, vanilla chips, cherry chips, strawberry chips, peanut butter chips, or any other flavors you think will go together.
43
Use any nuts you like including walnuts, pecans, cashews, almonds, even peanuts. If you don’t have enough nuts to make 4 cups, fill in with crushed cornflakes, Rice Krispies, coconut, raisins, or any dried fruit.
44
Measuring molasses will be easier if you spray your measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray before pouring it in.
45
If you don’t like the taste of baking soda, you can substitute one teaspoon baking powder.
46
If you can’t find key lime juice, you can use regular lime juice. Of course it’s best if you squeeze it yourself.
47
Mother likes these with chopped walnuts. Andrea prefers pecans. I think they’re best with hazelnuts. Tracey adores these when I substitute a cup of flaked coconut for the nuts and form the dough balls around a small piece of a milk chocolate bar or a couple of milk chocolate chips.
48
I use 2 and ½ teaspoons cinnamon and ½ teaspoon cardamom when I want a deeper, richer flavor.
49
Some people have peanut allergies. If you plan to serve this to someone who does, substitute almond butter for the peanut butter. You could also substitute Nutella (a hazelnut chocolate butter) if you can find it in your area.
50
If you can’t find red candied cherries, you can use well-drained maraschino cherries.
51
The orange zest adds a burst of flavor. Zest is finely grated orange peel, just the orange part, not the white. You can use a grater to grate the orange part of the peel, or a zester, which removes a thin layer of peel in strips. If you use a zester, you’ll have to finely chop the strips of peel with a knife.
52
For a sweeter cookie, add ½ cup white (granulated) sugar or roll dough balls in sugar before baking. If you want a real treat, add 2 cups of milk chocolate chips to the dough.
53
To measure molasses, first spray the inside of a measuring cup with Pam so that the molasses won’t stick to the sides of the cup.
54
To measure maple syrup, first spray the inside of the measuring cup with Pam so that the syrup won’t stick.
55
Lindy uses white (and/or colored) granulated sugar for rolling the dough balls. Lisa and I use powdered sugar down at The Cookie Jar so that we won’t get the Spicy Dreams mixed up with the Molasses Crackles when we serve them on the same day.
56
If fresh strawberries are available, they�
�ll be fine as a garnish in this recipe.
57
If I can’t find Bridge Mix, I like to use Hershey’s assorted miniature candy bars cut into four pieces. You can even use full-size chocolate candy bars if you cut them into small pieces.
58
Make sure you use real white chocolate chips, not vanilla chips. The real ones have cocoa butter listed in the ingredients. If you can’t find them in your market, look for a block of white chocolate, one pound or a bit over, and cut it up in small pieces with a knife.
59
You can buy dates already chopped at the grocery store if you don’t want to chop them yourself.
60
I used dried Bing cherries in one batch, and maraschino cherries in a second batch. People loved both batches, but all agreed that the ones with the dried cherries were chewier.
61
If you used ¾ cup white chocolate chips for the first ingredient in place of the 4 one-ounce squares of white chocolate, don’t be confused. This half-cup of white chocolate chips is additional and will be used later in the recipe.
62
If this confuses you, read the section that’s titled, “A Not So Scientific Study of Pan Size” following the Bar Cookie section.
63
You can find unsweetened baking cocoa in the baking aisle of your grocery store. Make sure you get an American brand. Some of the others are Dutch process and they won’t work in this recipe. Also be careful not to get cocoa mix, the kind you’d use to make hot chocolate or chocolate milk.
64
You can use almost any dried fruit in this candy. Lisa tried it with dried sweetened pineapple and pineapple extract, and it was delicious. If there’s an extract that matches your fruit, you can use it instead of the vanilla.
65
There are three packets in a 16-ounce box of Club Crackers. You’ll use only one packet. You can buy a smaller box if you can find it, but you can always use extra crackers, right? If you can’t find Club Crackers at your store, you can use any brand of salted soda crackers. Your goal is to cover the bottom of the pan as completely as you can with something both crispy and salty.
66
“Top milk” is Great-Grandma Elsie’s word for the cream that floated to the top of old-fashioned milk bottles.
67
This is approximate because it all depends on your can of crushed pineapple. You’re going to drain the crushed pineapple and save the liquid. Then you’ll add the cold water to the juice until it makes a total of 2 cups.
68
If you can’t find lemon pie filling in a can (Andrea couldn’t – Florence didn’t have it at the Red Owl), you can use a 3.4 ounce package of lemon pudding and pie filling. Just follow the directions for pie filling and add it to your Jell-O mixture at the proper time.
69
I’ve used sliced strawberries, peaches, or chopped dark cherries.
70
Milky Way, Snickers, Mars Bars, or Almond Joy work well. You can use regular size candy bars (approximately 2 ounces) or the miniatures you buy in a bag to give out at Halloween. Ruby uses the regular size. If you choose to use the miniatures, they won’t take as long to fry as the larger size.
