The Scientific Dessert Method

This is my first recipe, but it's a good one!

My mother-in-law makes a cold Heath Bar dessert that is delicious (except for the Heath bar, I'm not a big fan). Here is the recipe!
 
Heath Bar Dessert
 
1 qt vanilla ice cream (softened)
Graham cracker crust
2 3 oz boxes instant vanilla pudding
2 C milk
8 oz container Cool Whip
4 regular size Heath Bars (frozen)
 
Press down crust in a 9 x 13 pan.
Mix pudding and milk; add soft ice cream
Layer on top of crust.
Spread Cool Whip on top.
Break frozen Heath Bars into small pieces and crumble on top.
Refrigerate.

Delicious and easy.


For Easter she made it to bring to lunch with my side of the family. Everyone wanted the recipe so I got one, too. I began to think what it would be like without the Heath Bar, but another candy bar. Say, maybe, Snickers? Reeses Cups?

Then things got really crazy.

I thought I might switch the flavors of ice cream and pudding and maybe even the crust. CRAZY, right? My mom and I are notorious for experimenting with our desserts. The strawberry cake episode of 2012 was pretty out of control. I'll add that recipe as well for your eating pleasure.

So we put on our culinary lab coats and went to work.

Question: How can I make this dessert insanely good?
Background Research: The strawberry cake turned out pretty good, and the store carries other flavors of the ingredients.
Hypothesis: When we change the flavors of the ingredients we can create the ultimate dessert!
Experiment: This is where it gets yummy; we decided to make it super easy and buy ready made crust. The recipe calls for a 9 x 13 inch pan, so we could conceivably buy two pie crusts and create two separate pies by halving the recipe. My goal was to create a pie with an Oreo cookie crust (YUM) and chocolate filling. So I purchased chocolate pudding and chocolate icing as well as snickers bars for the topping.
For the second pie I wanted to do something yummy for Wes. He LOVES chocolate and peanut butter, so I got a graham cracker crust, vanilla pudding, vanilla ice cream, and reeses cups for the topping. They don't make a peanut butter pudding, so I put a few tablespoons of peanut butter in the mixture.
Data and Results: I don't have a picture of the Oreo chocolate pie because we ate it so fast. I'd say that was a pretty delicious dessert.
Here is the Reeses pie:

YU-UM!

Anyway, our hypothesis was totally correct and we made some delicious desserts. One thing I will do differently next time is crumble Oreo cookies on top of the chocolate pie with Oreo crust. I think I will also attempt a strawberry version with real strawberries inside. YES!

And speaking of strawberry, here is the strawberry cake recipe courtesy of a sweet Houston teaching buddy, Jill Seale. This was also experimented with (by my mom more than me).

Strawberry cake

1 box white cake
1 cup strawberries
3/4 cup oil
3 oz strawberry jello
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs

Mix all ingredients on low for 30 seconds.
Mix 2 min on medium.

Bake: 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes on lightly greased pan. Ice with strawberry icing.

My mom made an orange cake with orange pieces, orange Jell-O, and orange icing. It was pretty good.

I hope you make something good.



Enjoy!

The Turners