Kathryn wrote:
> I am trying to find a recipe for our Easter dinner that contains specific
> ingredients, because my silly mother comes up with a new "food theme" for
> every single occasion...I would like to use the following ingredients:
> Chocolate pudding (not instant)
> Cream Cheese
> Pie Crust (single crust)
For using those three ingredients you might try the "shell" portion of
a recipe I made from a Southern Cooking magazine recently, and just
bake the shells to fill with the prepared pudding only at serving time.
What I did make went over very well and were called Lemon Chess
Tassies. The shell dough makes exactly 4 dozen, which was two
mini-muffin pans for me.
Shell Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until creamy.
Beating at low speed, gradually add all of the flour. Shape mixture
into 48 balls; cover and chill 1 hour. (I quartered the dough, made
four long rolls of it, then cut each roll into a dozen even bits to
roll into balls and refrigerate with waxed paper between each one dozen
layer.)
Place one dough ball into each lightly greased cup of mini-muffin tins,
shaping each into an even thickness shell that goes all the way up the
cup.
Bake at 350F degrees for up to 25 minutes or until light-medium
browned. Cool in mini-pan; gently slide each shell up (using a
toothpick?) to be able to place each onto a wire rack to completely
cool before storing in a closed container until serving time. Spoon
your pudding into each shell at serving time.

This shell crust comes out so flakey and is quite yummy. I don't know,
but I would think the pudding may cause the shell to become too moist
if these were filled to then refrigerate, else I'd certainly rather
complete them hours ahead of serving time.

Picky