Mini Cranberry Orange Cream Pies

Pie’s the limit! I love the combination of orange and cranberry, one of my favorites is a cranberry orange muffin. So I decided to turn it into a mini pie! Perfect for the holidays so you don’t overdo it on the goodies!

Ingredients:

-Cranberry Orange muffin mix (I use Krusteaz, but do not use the can of cranberries that comes with that as it will make the dough too wet)

-One stick unsalted butter, melted

-One 8 oz container cool whip, thawed

-One 8 oz brick plain cream cheese, room temperature

-One box orange jello mix

-One package dried cranberries (to mix in and to garnish)

Tools:

Muffin tin

Step#1

Take your stick of unsalted butter and cut into cubes. Place it in a microwave safe bowl (glass or ceramic). Cover with a plate and melt butter in microwave for increments of 15 seconds until its all melted.

Step#2

Pour the entire box of dry muffin mix into the melted butter (do not make the actual muffin batter).

Step# 3

Mix it with a spoon until it forms a ball, then continue to form a ball with your hands.

Step#4

Spray your muffin tin with non stick spray

Step#5

Take small portions of the dough and place in each of the muffin cups (makes about 12). Press down with your fingers to cover bottom and sides of muffin cavity. Bake in the oven at 325 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes until golden brown. As soon as you taken them out of the oven, take the back of a spoon and gently push down the center of the pie crust that puffed up in the oven. This is to make room in the center for the pie filling. COOL COMPLETELY before filling.

Step #6

In a bowl, mix cool whip, cream cheese and orange jello mix and 1/2 cup dried cranberries until you have incorporated all ingredients to crate a “mousse” consistency.

Step# 7

Either use a spoon to place mousse mixture into the pie shell or place the mousse into a ziplock baggie and snip the end off the pipe it in.

Step#8

Top it off with a few more dried cranberries for garnish!

FUN FACT: Cranberries have a TON of health benefits! They help lower cholesterol, prevent certain types of Cancer, boost immunity. Besides eating this tasty nugget, Native Americans used cranberries for medicine and to dye their clothing!