Chocolate Covered Cherry No-cook Pie

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

• 12 maraschino cherries, drained
• 8 ounces cream cheese or 8 ounces light cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup cool whip, thawed (regular or light)
• 2 -4 drops red food coloring
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or equal amount of sugar substitute)
• 1 (6 ounce) chocolate cookie pie crust (such as keebler)
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix (can be sugar free if desired)
• 2/3 cup instant nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 1/4 cups cold water
• 1 teaspoon brandy extract

Recipe

• 1 make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature before you begin.
• 2 set aside 4 of the cherries and chop the remainder.
• 3 in a bowl,with a wooden spoon, stir the softened cream cheese until smooth- do not use an electric mixer for this.
• 4 blend in sugar and chopped cherries by hand util blended.
• 5 add food coloring and stir gently so as not to splatter dye everywhere.
• 6 stir in just 1/4 cup of the cool whip gently- you don't want to crush out all of the air.
• 7 spread evenly on bottom of chocolate cookie pie crust shell.
• 8 get out a whisk and combine the dry pudding mix with the nonfat dry milk powder.
• 9 while whisking vigorously, pour the water into the pudding mixture and whisk until well combined- the dry milk powder will make it start to set up and thicken almost instantly so work quickly or you will end up with pasty gobs& lumps.
• 10 stir in brandy extract (yes- you can sub real brandy or sherry, if desired).
• 11 pour this mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer and smooth with a rubber spatula.
• 12 cover pie and chill in fridge 10 minutes.
• 13 using remaining 1/2 cup cool whip, use a spoon and drop 8 dollops of cool whip on top of the pie all around the outer rim decoratively (or you can just spread it all on top if desired).
• 14 cut the 4 reserved whole cherries into halves and garnish each dollop.
• 15 recover and let chill at least 1 hour before serving.
• 16 note: if you don't have nonfat dry milk powder, substitute 1 1/4 cups cold milk and omit milk powder& water.
• 17 if using the cold milk, the second layer will need to chill much longer than 10 minutes- chill until firm, then garnish with the cool whip dollops& cherry halves just before serving.