Dirt Dessert for a Send-Off

July 18, 2011

By the time you read this, I should be back in Dublin and struggling through a full day of work. Who thought it was a good idea to fly in Monday morning and go straight from the airport to the office?! But it will cheer me up knowing there’s a sweet treat on the blog this morning! Enjoy!

My little brother left for a semester in Australia last week. As a last request for dessert, he requested Dirt Pudding. Thank goodness Dirt Pudding involves absolutely no cooking or baking – it was 90 degrees and humid in my sister’s third-floor un-air conditioned apartment the day I made it!

Next time, I’m going to use a different cookie than Oreos just to see how that works. I think any chocolate, crumbly cookie would work and it would be fun to have some different variations.

I put the dirt pudding in one big terra cotta pot and one little one, and I picked a few fresh flowers from my grandparents’ garden.  I love the way these pots blend right in to the other flowers on the deck! You could also use sand pails with little plastic shovels!

Dirt Pudding

Serves 8-10

1 package Oreo cookies (or other chocolate cookies)
2 packages instant chocolate pudding mix
1 container Cool Whip
1 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups milk
optional: gummy worms, fresh or plastic flowers, flower pots, sand pails

Using a mixer, combine softened cream cheese and butter with powdered sugar until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the pudding mix with the milk and whisk until the mixture starts to thicken, almost immediately. With a spatula, fold the pudding mixture into the cream cheese mixture. Then, fold the Cool Whip into the pudding-cream cheese mixture until it’s not streaky.

In plastic bag, crush the package of Oreos. I like to leave some big chunks, but you can crush them as finely as you like. In the bottom of your preferred pot or pail, layer 1/3 of the crushed Oreos. Next, add a layer of the pudding mixture. Continue layering until the Oreos and pudding mixture are used up, ending with Oreos on top. Garnish with gummy worms or flowers. Scoop into bowls to serve. Enjoy!
Note: This is a recipe I can (as yet) only make in America. Irish readers, do you have any substitutes for Cool Whip in Ireland? I’d love to be able to make this in both my homes!

{All photos by Emily Westbrooks}

3 Comments

  • Reply Brandi {not your average ordinary} July 18, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    My mother used to make dirt pudding all the time for my brother’s college baseball team. It is so yummy and simple. And I love the way you’ve done it with the cute pots and flowers in it!

    Hope you’ve managed to make it through the day, darling! I can only imagine how hard going straight from the airport to the office must have been.

    • Reply emily July 19, 2011 at 7:15 am

      Ah thanks, Brandi! So glad you’re back! 🙂 Was a long day at the office yesterday and the jury’s still out on whether it was the smart cure for jet lag!

  • Reply puding April 21, 2014 at 12:59 pm

    naturally such as your web-site however, you ought to analyze the punctuation on a number of your posts. A few of them will be rife using transliteration issues so i in discovering them pretty bothersome frankly however We’ll surely keep coming back yet again.

  • Leave a Reply