Easy Lemon Dessert

Easy Lemon Dessert

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cup graham crumbs
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
3 tablespoons sugar


Filling:

1 pkg. (85 g) lemon jelly powder
1 cup boiling water
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 pkg. (250 g) cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar


Garnish:

1 cup fresh strawberries


Makes 8 to 10 servings.


Preparation:
  • Combine crumbs, butter and sugar. Press onto bottom of 9-inch square baking dish, reserving 3 tablespoons crumb mixture for top.
  • Dissolve jelly powder in boiling water. Cool to room temperature. 
  • Pour evaporated milk into plastic bowl and chill in freezer about 25 to 30 minutes.
  • In a large bowl beat together cream cheese and sugar. Gradually stir in jelly. 
  • Beat chilled evaporated milk until stiff, about 1 to 2 minutes and fold into cream cheese mixture. 
  • Pour mixture over crumb crust, sprinkle with reserved crumbs and refrigerate until set.
  • Garnish with fresh strawberries.



Real Cooking
Did You Know?
The lemon is a small evergreen tree (Citrus limon) originally native to Asia, and is also the name of the tree's oval yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and nonculinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind (zest) are also used, mainly in cooking and baking. Lemon juice is about 5% (approximately 0.3 mole per liter) citric acid, which gives lemons a tart taste, and a pH of 2 to 3. This makes lemon juice an inexpensive, readily available acid for use in educational science experiments. Because of the tart flavor, many lemon-flavored drinks and candies are available, including lemonade.

The lemon was first recorded in literature in a tenth century Arabic treatise on farming, and was also used as an ornamental plant in early Islamic gardens. It was distributed widely throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean region between AD 1000 and AD 1150.

Lemons entered Europe (near southern Italy) no later than the first century AD, during the time of Ancient Rome. However, they were not widely cultivated. The first real lemon cultivation in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the fifteenth century. It was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages. Spanish conquest throughout the New World helped spread lemon seeds. It was mainly used as ornament and medicine. In 1700s and late 1800s, lemons were increasingly planted in Florida and California when lemons began to be used in cooking and flavoring.

In 1747, James Lind's experiments on seamen suffering from scurvy involved adding Vitamin C to their diets through lemon juice.