Perk Up with Coffee Jello

I've acquired a taste for coffee in the last year. Honestly before all I drank was tea and coffee made me think, bleh! but I've slowly moved towards coffee and as usual it's not just one thing that I begin to like.. it has to be everything in-between. Coffee flavored everything, like candies, ice cream, desserts and now jello. A caffeine fix in a jiggly format. This recipe is an Asian style dessert because it uses condensed milk which is popular in Vietnamese coffees and desserts. The popular jelly recipe is normally jello with the creme on top but to make things easier and more portable I've mixed it all together.   

 What you will need:
1 - Can sweetened condensed milk
3 - Packets Knox unflavoured gelatin
2 - Cups strong coffee, hot
1/2 - Cup cold water

1. Place 1/2 c cold water in a bowl.
2. Sprinkle 3 unflavored gelatin packets over the water. Let sit until the gelatin blooms, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the hot coffee and mix until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
4. Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk.
5. Pour into glass pan. Thickness of finished jello depends on the size of the pan. I used a 7 x 11 pan but a 9 x 13 pan will give you thinner pieces and an 8 x 8 pan will give you thicker pieces.

Recipe taken from Food Librarian

No Bake Turtle Cheesecake Bites

These no bake turtle cheesecake bites were a real hit on Sunday for our holiday decorating day. They are easy to make and even easier to eat!

What you need:

1 250g container cream cheese 
1/2 - 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 
8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate 
3 tbsp chopped pecans, finely chopped 
1/4 cup caramel sauce (or melted caramel squares) 

Combine the cream cheese with 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs. Taste and add more graham cracker crumbs as desired. I found 1 cup of crumbs to be too much, but some people don't care for the taste of cream cheese. Keep in mind that the chocolate and caramel add plenty of sweetness, so you want the cream cheese mixture to still have some tang. Use a melon baller to scoop up 1 1/4" sized balls to a wax-paper lined baking sheet. Repeat until you've scooped up all of the cream cheese. You should have about 25-30 balls. Freeze for 10-15 minutes.

While the cheesecake balls are being chilled, melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

Using 1 or 2 forks, dip each cheesecake ball into the melted chocolate. Let the excess chocolate drip away between the tines. Place the chocolate covered balls back on the wax paper on the baking sheet. Repeat for all cheesecake balls.

 Drizzle caramel over each truffle (I used a Ziploc bag and filled it with caramel sauce and cut the tip off to make drizzling easier.) Top each truffle with pecans. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Recipe from Dishing the Devine