Extra Recipe: Cool, Creamy Chocolate Dessert

For Memorial Day, I wanted to make a lighter dessert that would also be kid-friendly, so I decided to make Cool, Creamy, Chocolate Dessert from the May 2008 issue of Cooking Light magazine. A shortbread-like crust with toasted pecans is topped with a sweet cream cheese layer, then a chocolate pudding layer, and then whipped topping. Definitely a crowd-pleaser.

As advertised – cool, creamy, and chocolatey

Here are my recipe notes:

• I toasted pre-chopped pecans in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until fragrant and lightly browned, then chopped them a little more before adding them to the flour/butter mixture.
• I can never find fat-free cream cheese in blocks anymore, and I didn’t want to have half of a 1/3-less-fat cream cheese left over, so I just used all 1/3-less-fat cream cheese.
• It says to put the last whipped topping layer on right before serving, but you can probably do it before (the leftovers were fine).
• I skipped the cocoa on top.

Enjoy!