friday field trip

Target trips are very different with my daughter away and settled in her own apartment.  It had become a weekly routine when she was living at home for her and I to make a Sunday trip to Target.  Sometimes we would have a specific item in mind to purchase…most times, not.

So today I had a little gap between work and an appointment and decided to look around in Target without my daughter …and it wasn’t even a Sunday.

Walking through Target at this time of year is sad for me…no school supply lists to purchase from or dorm room items to choose.  Of course, most of the aisles are flooded with back to school items – I avoided all these aisles like the plague.  Instead, l looked at stationary products (love)…home items…then  finished up in the food section.

As I walked through the dairy aisle on this particular Target excursion, I was shocked to see a product I apparently totally overlooked – chocolate cream cheese!  What a great idea!  I know the stores carry many chocolate spreads now (thanks Nutella!), but I did not know about Philadelphia Indulgence chocolate cream cheese spread!

Target had a package of four individual tubs for $1.70…they had milk or dark chocolate.  I immediately thought of the strawberries back at home in my refrigerator.  What a quick and easy last minute dessert…to be able to just fill some fresh strawberries with this product.  Could I be this excited for a purchase that didn’t even amount to $2.!

I got home and immediately filled some strawberries with the chocolate cream cheese.  They needed more…I wanted to dip them in chocolate…well, wouldn’t adding that step ruin the whole point of being quick and easy?  Chocolate cream cheese on chocolate chip bagels….pretzels dipped into chocolate cream cheese…my mind wonders…okay, back to the task at hand!  Quick…simple.

Then, I had the perfect idea…’shooters’…I would make little shot glass-sized indivdual desserts.

A photo of  s’mores shooters.  A great single serving dessert made with Philadelphia Indulgence chocolate cream cheese spread.

As it turns out, this is the PERFECT way to use the package I bought since it comes in little cups that are the optimum size (1.25 oz. cups) to make this dessert.  It is a great way to indulge in a dessert without going crazy…a great dessert that is easy to create variations with little fuss.

I started with a s’more shooter – a nod to the Girl Scout’s  100^th anniversary this year.  After that, I just couldn’t stop with the variations.  And, I went back and picked up the other two flavors.  Using the milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate product there really are infinite possibilities.

I started with a graham cracker crust.  I mixed a cup and a quarter of graham cracker crumbs with 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter.  (This will make about 12 desserts.)   I used this as my base and put 2 tablespoons in the bottom of a straight–sided clear glass shot/cordial glass.  Use a 2 ounce or 2 1/2 ounce size.  If you want disposable (Labor Day picnic?), 2 ounce clear plastic cups are inexpensive and readily available (this is the size used for jello shots).

The s’more one was layered as:  1 tablespoon of the graham cracker mixture, 1 tablespoon of fluff,  1, 1.25 oz tub of milk chocolate Philadelphia Indulgence chocolate cream cheese spread.  I garnished the top with a marshmallow that was cut in half and toasted.  (You can toast this quickly under your broiler.  Don’t put the shot glass under the broiler if it is not oven safe – toast the marshmallow by itself and then add to the top of the dessert.)

A photo of a s’more shooter…a dessert made with Philadelphia Indulgence chocolate cream cheese spread, graham cracker crumbs, and marshmallow fluff.

 Some of my favorite combinations:

• 2 tablespoons of crumbs, 1 tablespoon of coconut, 1 tub of milk chocolate Indulgence, almond garnish
• 2 tablespoons of crumbs, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, 1 tub of milk chocolate Indulgence, peanut butter cup garnish
• 2 tablespoons of crumbs, 4 or 5 raspberries, 1 tub of dark chocolate or white chocolate Indulgence, raspberry & mint garnish
• 2 tablespoons of crumbs, 4 or 5 blueberries, 1 tub of white chocolate Indulgence,  blueberry & mint garnish
• 2 tablespoons of crumbs,  2 or 3 banana slices, 1 tub of milk chocolate Indulgence, banana slice garnish

It is very easy to gauge how much cream cheese you need to purchase since each indivdual tub makes one serving or  ‘shooter’.

A quick, easy, and fun dessert…mission accomplished!

Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting, Jackie