Lemon Cheese Dessert

Lemon is one of my favorite flavors ~ in fact, I love all citrus ~ so whenever I see a citrus recipe, I save it.  I remember my Nana making something like this only it was chocolate, which is good, too.  I totally forgot about this dessert and was reminded of it while looking through a cookbook recently.

It’s easy and I made it using sugar-free products where I could which is always a good thing and I dare you to tell the difference between the full sugar dessert and the sugar free.

Lemon Cheese Dessert

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 tbsp powdered sugar

Cheese Filling:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened (I used lite)
1 cup cool whip, thawed (I used sugar free)

Pudding Filling:
2 (4 ounce) pkgs lemon instant pudding (I used sugar free)
3 cups milk
2 tbsps lemon juice

Topping:
2 cups cool whip, thawed (I used sugar free)
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease a 13×9 baking dish.

Mix all the crust ingredients together until crumbly. Press into the prepared pan ~ it will seem like you don’t have enough dough but you will. Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.

To make the cream cheese filling, in a medium bowl, stir together the powdered sugar and cream cheese until well combined. Fold in the cool whip until combined and spread the mixture over the cooled crust.

To make the pudding mixture, combine pudding mixes and milk in a large bowl. Beat on low speed with a mixer until thickened. Stir in the lemon juice. Pour mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer, spreading to edges. Chill for 20 minutes.

After20 minute chill time, spread the 2 cups of the cool whip over the pudding layer and sprinkle with the chopped nuts if desired.

Cover and refrigerate for several hours. This dessert can be made a day ahead. Cut into squares and serve.

Makes about 15 servings.

Happy Cooking!