Turn Your Favorite Dessert Recipes Into Your New Favorite Crockpot Dessert Recipes
When you’re planning your big holiday meal, do you often feel like you spend way too much time figuring out how you’re going to shuffle all your dishes in and out of the oven to make room to cook your desserts? My solution this year is to take my favorite desserts and transform them into crockpot dessert recipes. Using your crockpot to make desserts is a great way to free up valuable oven space so you can keep your main courses cooking instead of spending time rotating them in and out of the oven.
We have three traditional desserts that we typically serve after a big holiday meal. The original recipes differ somewhat from the crockpot dessert recipes, but they are not difficult to make. Let me share with you how I’ve tweaked these dessert recipes to make in my crockpot instead of the oven.
Apple Crisp: This dessert is one where the timing is most important. You want to serve this dessert hot with a little scoop of ice cream or whipped topping. The melting topping is what makes this dessert wonderful! Use your basic recipe, but add a touch more butter, then cook it on low for a couple hours or until the apples get soft, but not all mushy. Figure out your timing so that you turn off the heat just before serving.
My recipe is sort of a variation of both apple crisp and bread pudding, so a crunchy topping is optional. If you like, you can mix together the ingredients for the topping in a saucepan, then top the apple dessert either in the bowls or in the slow cooker just before serving.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies: Regular brownies are good, but this chocolate brownie dessert with peanut butter swirled in is a special treat. Very moist and yummy! This dessert is made with brownie mix, but it’s spooned into dessert bowls, not cut into squares. Serve while the dessert is still hot so you can add some ice cream or whipped topping and it gets all nice and melty!
You can garnish this dessert a bit more with a sprinkle of Reese’s Pieces or even some mini peanut butter cups. A few chocolate sprinkles is nice, too. Once again, you throw this all together to cook a few hours before you want to serve dessert and you don’t have to worry about shuffling pans in and out of the oven. And, your dessert will be ready to serve, still nice and warm.
Pecan Crust Cheesecake: One of my favorite desserts is cheesecake. It’s fun using what can be considered a mini oven. Basically, you use the same recipe you normally would. The important thing to keep in mind is you’ll be using a 7″ springform pan so you need to make sure it will fit . A 5 or 6 quart size is usually big enough, but measure to be sure. Then, make a simple graham cracker crust with some finely chopped pecans added, form the crust in the bottom and up the sides a little in your pan. Make the filling according to the recipe you normally use, then fill your pan.
The pan needs to be supported off the bottom a little, so you will want to insert a small rack into the bottom. If you don’t have a rack you can devise a little “donut” out of some aluminum foil by just rolling up a bunch and forming a circle. Be sure when you put the pan in, that the pan does not sit directly on the bottom. This cheesecake is cooked on high for a couple hours. Then, the heat is turned off and left covered for about an hour more. Once you can handle the pan, you can lift it out and place it on a rack to cool completely. Remove the springform pan from the cheesecake and you’re done. Cheesecake is served either room temperature or cold so you can make this a day or so ahead if you’d like. Don’t forget to refrigerate any leftover cheesecake.
Rather than struggle another year shuffling food around all around the kitchen, leave your dinner cooking in peace and quiet, tucked safely away in the oven where it belongs. Because a holiday dinner is not complete without desserts, this simple plan to create new crockpot dessert recipes out of favorite old standards will help with all that last minute chaos. Why sacrifice any sweet treat because you lack room in the oven? Get out your crockpot and start re-creating your own favorite dessert recipes. Enjoy!
Save precious time and money this holiday season by discovering crockpot cooking. Grab a pile of dessert recipes for your crock pot and let’s begin!
