Easy Holiday Dessert Recipes Using JELL-O!

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I was really excited to create a fun and easy holiday recipe with guys.  With the holidays approaching so quickly I am attending a lot of parties and needing to bring a lot of holiday desserts to share with others.  I don’t have a lot of free time in my day, so finding an easy dessert recipe was a must.  Strangely enough this recipe didn’t turn out at all how I expected, however it came out so much better!  In fact, it turned into two completely separate recipes using the same ingredients!  I love having choices, so i am going to share them both with you!

I knew that I was going to make a recipe using JELL-O, Cool Whip and Baker’s Chocolate because those ingredients scream easy and delicious so I headed to my local Wal-Mart to pick them up.  You can check out my whole shopping experience here! I originally thought I that would put a spin on the traditional JELL-O pudding pie by making my instant JELL-O with coffee instead of milk.  I did a quick search on the good old internet and sure enough it was confirmed that you could in fact make JELL-O with water (so I decided coffee would work too).  The next morning I went ahead and had my hubby brew an extra big pot of coffee in the morning (we drink Maxwell House, it is super yummy) so that I would have plenty left over for my recipe.  I poured two cups into a measuring cup and stuck it in the fridge because the box said to use COLD milk, I figured that since they went to the trouble to capitalize the word cold, it must be super important.  Once my coffee was nice and chilly I went ahead and mixed the two cups of coffee, a half a cup of milk and a box of vanilla instant pudding.  It stuck it in the fridge to set and went on with my day.

Now here’s where things take a turn.  I went back to the fridge after about an hour to check on my pudding.  It was still liquid.  The box said it should only take about 5 minutes to set, so I was a little nervous.  I shut the door and decided to let it go overnight.  Again the next morning I open the door to the fridge to check on my pudding, but it still hasn’t set.  I am not going to lie, I may have freaked out a little and shut the door.  I decided that if it hadn’t set after 24 hours, it probably wasn’t going to, but I wasn’t ready to give up my coffee flavored dream yet.  I went out and picked up some more JELL-O (vanilla and chocolate) and decided that I was just going to mix in some of my coffee flavored sauce into the premade JELL-O and infuse the coffee flavor that way.  I mixed them up 50/50 and gave it a taste.  It was delicious!

I spooned my new JELL-O mixtures into mini graham cracker pie shells, because dessert is always better in mini form and topped with a big dollop of Cool Whip.  That stuff is so light and airy, it blows my mind every time.  I then grated a chunk of my semi-sweet Baker’s Chocolate on the finest side of my grater and sprinkled that over top the whole thing.  I loved the little bit of bitter you get from the chocolate sprinkles, mixed with the airy texture of the Cool Whip and the smooth creaminess of the pudding.  SO GOOD!!

Now I told you I had two recipes for you today and I do!  After using some of my coffee JELL-O sauce to mix in with my regular JELL-O I still had a bunch leftover and since I hate to waste I thought about what to do with it.  I realized that it already looked a little like caramel sauce, and the logical solution would be to pour it over ice cream.

I happened to have some leftover chocolate ice cream in my freezer and so I scooped some up, topped it with the sauce and then added the same Cool Whip and shaved chocolate topping.  Oh my gosh you guys.  This was insanely delicious.   I think that I may make another batch (or two of the coffee flavored JELL-O sauce to give as teacher gifts, because it was so good and literally only took me 5 minutes to make!

If you are looking for even more ideas of easy holiday recipes click the picture below!