Velveeta belongs in your desserts — including this nostalgic play on apple pie

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Velveeta is back! And I mean it’s back back — like making a huge comeback. Velveeta hasn’t been this popular for decades, but regardless of where you currently fall on the love/hate scale for it, you’re going to be intrigued by this recipe. 

If you’re like me, you grew up with Velveeta. At my house we made “Rotel” at least once a month, especially in the 80’s. There were few things better than a pot of hot melted Velveeta mixed with a can of spicy Rotel tomatoes and plenty of chips for dipping.

You might also remember the mid-90’s when Velveeta became the poster-product for harmful, processed food and seemingly overnight, it became the most reviled thing ever by nutritionists, foodies and consumers in general.  

But . . . aside from the media hate-speak and the FDA forcing some changes to the wording on its label, Velveeta never disappeared. It remained right there on grocery store shelves and it never stopped being the creamiest, meltiest cheese-like product to ever grace a tortilla chip or a bowl of macaroni.

What actually is Velveeta, you ask? As Sarra Sedghi writes in Allrecipes, Veveeta is a “shelf-stable cheese products made from substances including whey, milk, milk protein concentrate, modified starch, canola oil, and cheese cultures,” as well as the fact that it “triumphs in its ability to melt.” 

Initially, Velveeta took off like a shooting star for the Kraft company from the time it debuted in grocery stores in 1928. Sales increased every year all the way up to 1996. That’s when American culture began shifting away from fast, processed food and that’s when Velveeta sales went down, down, down. 

But then — about 25 years later, the pandemic happened. 

During the pandemic, Velveeta ticked all the boxes we needed and wanted: It was nostalgic, comforting, economical and convenient, with a taste reminding us of happier times. The pandemic reminded us that no matter how we live or what we do, life as we know it can come to a screeching halt in the blink of an eye, so we better enjoy the days we have. Maybe the pandemic also shined a light on the fact that many of us weren’t living all that fully or having all that much fun before, spending most of our hours in a frenzy of busy-ness.

Leave it to Velveeta to come back 25 years later, like the wise auntie, to remind us to slow down, smell the roses and eat the cheese?  

A new Kraft ad called “Living La Dolce Velveeta” shows that Velveeta is asking you to give in to your hedonistic, pleasure-loving self and try it (or try it again after possibly denying yourself these last 25 or so years). Clearly, Velveeta is done apologizing for whatever it lacks nutritionally and is completely embracing itself as the “FrankenFood” it is. Velveeta is now seeing a resurgence, also evidenced by the fact that there is even a Velveeta-scented nail polish and even cocktails called “Veltini.”

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There are days and weeks and sometimes months when I choose to tighten my belt and eat really clean: no wine, no dairy, no flour, no grain. Other times I feel like celebrating and choose to indulge in whatever I want and however much I want. Most days I fall somewhere in between. What Velveeta’s current marketing is doing, though, is showing that you can eat whatever the heck you want. You can store your box of Velveeta front and center in your pantry and be unafraid for anyone to see it.

No more does loving — or even liking — Velveeta have to be your dirty little secret.

Food is so much more than calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates; food brings people together. Certainly, it is good to understand and be mindful of how integral food is to your health, but joy and laughter and love and lightheartedness are also essential.

Create joy and beauty out of what we have. Enjoy your life. All you need is right there in your kitchen or right outside your door. We can all choose to live the sweet life, la dolce vita! (with or without Velveeta—no judgement either way!) 

The recipe

Apples and Cheese bakes to a vibrant golden color with an addictive, somewhat dense crust that works perfectly with the apple filling underneath.

The main ingredient in this recipe is Velveeta, but you can absolutely choose not to use it and still love this recipe. I have you covered for substitutions. But, whether you use Velveeta or not, the combination of ingredients is a little shocking at first glance. You will probably think there is no way this recipe can be right, but it is! So fear not. 

This recipe has been around a long time with versions of it included in church fundraising cookbooks, Junior League cookbooks, Azalea Trail cookbooks and lots of other local organizations’ cookbooks for at least forty-plus years (in my area of the country anyway). It is tried and true and I have no doubt you’ll be adding it to your repertoire. 

“Serve this on your finest china or a paper plate . . . it’s as easy to serve as it is to bake”