Dirt Pudding

 

The first time Ryan ever came over to my house for dinner, he offered to bring dessert. I should have known in that very moment he was a rare gem. The main thing I remember about the food in that dinner was that I served him watermelon, not knowing he didn’t like it, and he brought dirt pudding, and I could have eaten the entire thing all by myself.

                Because of that sweet and sentimental memory, dirt pudding holds a very special place in my heart, and whenever we have it, Ryan is almost always the one to make it. It’s one of his specialties. Sadly, I don’t think there are too many things you can do to make this one healthier without compromising the taste. But I also subscribe to the belief that if you’re not eating a 9x13 of it every day, it’s okay to enjoy upon occasion.

                (Note: If you really are looking for a healthier option of this treat, Dashing Dish does have this recipe. I’ve never tried it, so I don’t truly know how it compares, but I’ll point you to it, just the same!)

                It’s been a while since I shared a recipe on the blog, but we just made and served this last weekend when our small group came over, so I thought I should make it an official Shafferland blog recipe!

Dirt Pudding

Ingredients:

2 14-ounce packages chocolate sandwich cookies
3 Tablespoons butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce bricks Neufchatel (cream cheese)
2 8-ounce tubs whipped topping
2 3-ounce boxes instant French vanilla pudding
3 cups milk

Directions:

Place the cookies from one package in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin (or crush in a food processor). Pour melted butter into crushed cookies and stir well. Press crushed cookies into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and softened Neufchatel. Mix well and add 2 tubs of whipped topping. Mix well again. In a separate bowl, combine the 2 boxes of pudding and 3 cups of milk according to package directions. When pudding has thickened, add it to the whipped toping mix and combine. Pour over the crushed cookies. Crush part or all of the remaining package of cookies and sprinkle over the top of the pudding mixture. Refrigerate until time to serve.

Notes:

·         We use off-brand sandwich cookies for this, and out of the second package, we only crush about 2/3 of the cookies. The rest are a snack for Ryan. 😊

·         If you want to make this version a little lighter, you could skip the butter (though it does help hold together the “crust”), use low-fat whipped topping, sugar free pudding, and almond milk.

·         You can add gummy worms to the top of this for fun if you want. I think Ryan did that when he first brought it over to my house.

 

Enjoy!!