Cherry Breeze

Cherries were not one of the ingredients I associated with Grandma when I wrote this post. And yet, Cherry Breeze is the fourth dessert in the index with the word cherry in the title, lagging only slightly behind apple desserts.  

I knew my husband, a fan of cherry pie filling, would be excited about this dessert, but I somehow found myself making it the day before Mother's Day. It turned out to be a good choice. Not only was it easy, but it could be made the day ahead, leaving me free to lounge about, as one should, on Mother's Day. 

The thing is, even easy desserts can require a learning curve. Here's how I learned the hard way.  

How to make Cherry Breeze

The process started with an 8-ounce brick of cream cheese. After sitting at room temperature for a while, the cream cheese was fairly soft, but I soon realized that even softer would have been better.   

See how the cream cheese is stuck in the beaters?  That should have been a signal to me that it needed more beating to make it lighter and fluffier. I added the whole can of sweetened condensed milk next. As soon as I started the beaters, lumps formed, alerting me that I should have added the milk a little at a time.   

Getting the lumps out took a couple of minutes of persistent beating. Once the mixture was smooth, I added the lemon juice (freshly squeezed is the only way to go) and the vanilla. 

I beat those ingredients until the mixture was thickened and fluffy, then I poured it into a 9-inch graham cracker crust. 

And that was it. Easy peasy. Or, more appropriately, easy breezy.  

The pie went into the fridge to chill until the next day, when all I had to do was open a can of cherry pie filling and add a dollop of whipped cream to create this beauty of a dessert.  

I also put out strawberries for those who weren't as fond of cherries as Grandma was.  

The Verdict

"It reminds me of Key Lime Pie," one of my daughters said, and she was right. It did taste very much like that sweet and tangy dessert, but the lemon juice added a slightly different zing. The cherry filling was, well, the cherry on top.   

Here's to Cherry Breeze for a Mother's Day win. But, actually, I would eat this dessert any day of the week.