Taffy Apple Pizza

Ingredients:

1 Pkg. (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened

1 Pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Cinnamon

1/4 c. caramel ice cream topping

1/2 c. peanuts, chopped (optional)

The Method:

Place dough on a round or square cookie sheet/stone. Roll dough to about 1 in. from edges. Bake at 350F 16-18 minutes or until brown. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen cookie from sheet/stone.

Using an electric mixer, combine cream cheese, brown sugar, peanut butter and vanilla in a bowl until creamy. Spread mixture over completely the cooled cookie.

Arrange the peeled apples over the cream cheese mixture & sprinkle with cinnamon.

Microwave the caramel topping in the microwave on high 30-45 sec. or until warm. Drizzle over the apples. If desired sprinkle the peanuts on top of the caramel.

Cut like you would a pizza.

Tip: To help prevent the apples from browning drizzle with lemon juice or Fruit Fresh.

Editor's Note: Hey, I'm surprised that BB Lady didn't go ahead and give us a from-scratch sugar cookie recipe. I'll have to dig around, find mine & post it because it totally rocks.

Bake the cookie on parchment paper & remove the paper after it cools. This prevents the cookie from sticking & unnecessary kitchen profanity. Not that I would know, or anything.

But, BB Lady does.

If you are in the market for lightening up this recipe (only so you can eat twice as much, not because you dare to calorie count a dessert recipe) here are my suggestions:

Use reduced fat or fat free cream cheese. Usually, I'm not a big fan of fat free, but (butt?) with the peanut butter & sugar you are about to add, you won't notice the missing fat. I am a huge fan of real peanut butter - the kind you have to stir & refrigerate - and think it would be really good in the recipe because of its incredibly nutty flavor. Besides, who needs extra preservatives?

Oh, yeah, those would be in the prepackaged cookie dough. Not that we care.

You can also shave off a few calories by using Splenda Blend Brown Sugar - follow the package directions, because I do believe you only use 1/2.

Make sure the apples are sliced very thinly. Someone made this somewhere in my past and the apples were way to chunky. It's really about the cookie & cream cheese, not big-honking pieces of fruit. To prevent browning, apple slices need to be lightly coated in citric acid. Sprite & 7-Up work well without adding extra tartness.

Just for the record, this dessert is really good sprinkled with pecans or walnuts.

And, Thank You, BB Lady for posting this. I haven't thought about Taffy Apple since the late 90's when this recipe was making its rounds on the Pampered Chef circuit.

~HausFrau