Chocolate Covered Cherry No-Cook Pie

• 12 maraschino cherries, drained
• 8 ounces cream cheese or 8 ounces light cream cheese, at room temperature
• 34 cup Cool Whip, thawed (regular or light)
• 2 -4 drops red food coloring
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or equal amount of sugar substitute)
• 1 (6 ounce) chocolate cookie pie crust (such as Keebler)
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix (can be sugar free if desired)
• 23 cup instant nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 14 cups cold water
• 1 teaspoon brandy extract

1. Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature before you begin.
2. Set aside 4 of the cherries and chop the remainder.
3. In a bowl,with a wooden spoon, stir the softened cream cheese until smooth- do NOT use an electric mixer for this.
4. Blend in sugar and chopped cherries by hand util blended.
5. Add food coloring and stir gently so as not to splatter dye everywhere.
6. Stir in just 1/4 cup of the Cool Whip gently- you don't want to crush out all of the air.
7. Spread evenly on bottom of chocolate cookie pie crust shell.
8. Get out a whisk and combine the dry pudding mix with the nonfat dry milk powder.
9. While whisking vigorously, pour the water into the pudding mixture and whisk until well combined- the dry milk powder will make it start to set up and thicken almost instantly so work quickly or you will end up with pasty gobs& lumps.
10. Stir in brandy extract (yes- you can sub real brandy or sherry, if desired).
11. Pour this mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer and smooth with a rubber spatula.
12. Cover pie and chill in fridge 10 minutes.
13. Using remaining 1/2 cup Cool Whip, use a spoon and drop 8 dollops of Cool Whip on top of the pie all around the outer rim decoratively (or you can just spread it all on top if desired).
14. Cut the 4 reserved whole cherries into halves and garnish each dollop.
15. Recover and let chill at least 1 hour before serving.
16. Note: If you don't have nonfat dry milk powder, substitute 1 1/4 cups cold milk and omit milk powder& water.
17. If using the cold milk, the second layer will need to chill much longer than 10 minutes- chill until firm, then garnish with the Cool Whip dollops& cherry halves just before serving.

maraschino cherries, cream cheese, regular, sugar, chocolate cookie pie crust, chocolate pudding, milk, cold water, brandy

Taken from www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-covered-cherry-no-cook-pie-51060 (may not work)