Canada Day, July 1

June 30, 2011

Don’t mind the slightly bright, and non-pretty looking dessert photos. This dish is just not photogenic lol. Every year I want to make a special dessert to celebrate Canada Day. Last year, I made a simple maple cake/loaf. It was pretty delicious. But this year, I wanted to do something to incorporate our national colours. Although, I kinda wished we had a little more colour in our flag! It’s limited with what you can make, besides cupcakes and cake with strawberries to make a maple leaf. Adam and I are also headed up to Osoyoos today so we can celebrate tomorrow! Thankfully the HWY has been cleared up, because yesterday there was a giant mudslide that stopped traffic in all directions! But I heard on the radio that we are good to go! It would be a major bummer to not be able to go out of town on the long weekend!

I just hope the dessert makes it on the 4-5 hour road trip! We had to borrow a cooler, cause A. we don’t own one, and B. we have no room to store one even if we bought it! Seeing as how it is a cool dessert, I froze a giant ice pack to put into the cooler with it, and we can always stop for ice if we need to refresh it! I’ve actually made this dessert several times before, and it is so delicious. It’s from Kraft Canada, and is sort of like a cheesecake with jello on top. Yup. It’s delicious. The original calls for a pretzel crust, but I’ve never been a fan of that so I just make it with graham cracker crumbs like a regular cheesecake.

You could totally sub other fruits for it, like a melon one, or raspberries, blueberries, blackberries etc. Or even a lemon one, and leave out the fruit completely. That would be delicious!

I let the Jell-O set a little too long this time, so it didn’t have a ‘smooth’ finish to the topping, but I’m fairly confident it will taste just as good, whether or not it’s pretty.

I also make it at least the night before, or morning of, so as to let it set up firm for more than a couple hours so it is easy to cut!

Strawberry Jell-O Cheesecake Squares
slightly adapted from Kraft Canada – Strawberry Pretzel Squares

Ingredients:

2 cups Graham cracker crumbs

just about 2/3 cup butter, melted

1-1/2 pkg. (250 g each) Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

3 tbs. Sugar

2 cups boiling water

2 pkg. (85 g each) Jell-O Strawberry Jelly Powder

1-1/2 cups cold water

4 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix Graham cracker crumbs, and butter in bowl, press (using the back of a spoon) onto bottom of 13×9-inch pan. Bake 10 min.; cool.

Beat cream cheese, in medium bowl with mixer until well blended. StirSugar and Cool Whip, add more/less sugar depending on how sweet you would like it; spread over crust. Refrigerate until ready to use.

In another bowl, add boiling water to jelly powders; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water. Refrigerate 1-1/2 hours or until thickened. Now, you don’t want it fully set, but enough when you drag a spoon through it, it will leave a mark. Stir in strawberries until incorporated; spoon over cream cheese layer.