Hot Chocolate Pudding Dessert by Kristen @ Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker

I know y’all are going to love this dessert from Kristen!  I think I could eat the whole pan.  Diets be damned!!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I am so pleased to be a guest here on Jaime’s blog, especially to share some dessert. I blog over at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. Like my overly long title suggests, I am all about cost and sanity savings. One of my sons (I have five kids) asked me the other day, “Mom, what exactly does harried mean, ’cause you aren’t really hairy?!” I tried to explain, but I am not sure he fully understands what it’s like to be the mom of four teenage boys and one little girl. In the end, as long as I keep the table full of food, he and his siblings don’t really care what big words I use!

 

When I was thinking about which dessert to share today, I kept thinking about one of my mom’s favorite desserts to make, Better Thank Robert Redford. I have seen it’s title updated to say Brad Pitt, but I am thinking it will need yet another actor’s name before too long. Dang, I hate getting old.
 

Anyway, back to the recipe. I did a little adding here and substituting there and came up with a Hot Chocolate version that includes marshmallows and 3 Musketeer Hot Cocoa candies. Feel free to do your own fiddling with the recipe.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped

15 Saltine crackers, crushed into crumbs

¼ cup sugar

4 Tbsp butter, melted

5 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature

2/3 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp vanilla

8 oz Cool Whip, thawed and divided

15 Hot Cocoa 3 Musketeer mini candies, chopped

1 small pkg instant chocolate pudding

2 cups milk

½ cup mini French Vanilla marshmallows

more 3 Musketeers candies sliced for garnish

Method:

Combine walnuts, cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter in a bowl. Press into a 8X8 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar in a mixer. Beat until smooth. Add vanilla. Fold in ½ cup Cool Whip and chopped candies. In another bowl, mix up chocolate pudding and milk. Let sit until thickened. Stir in marshmallows. Once crust is cool, spread cream cheese layer on top. Carefully spread pudding on top of cream cheese layer. Top pudding with remaining Cool Whip. Garnish with sliced candy bars. Refrigerate until ready to serve (at least 45 minutes).

Notes:

**I normally use oreos or graham crackers for the crust. My cupboard was sadly lacking either of those, so I substituted the Saltines and sugar. It gave the dessert an unexpected but slight saltiness.

**You can leave out the nuts and add a bit more crumbs.

**You can use real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip, I think you’ll need about 2 ½ cups, whipped.

**You could substitute the mint or plain version of the 3 Musketeers and marshmallows.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~