By Jane Maynard
Making food that is 4th of July-themed is just plain fun! The best part is that July 4th is smack dab in the middle of summer when colorful foods abound, making it super easy to get your red, white, and blue on! I decided our family needed to come up with a little something sweet for this year’s patriotic day that uses beautiful red and blue berries, and parfaits seemed like the perfect solution!
As a kid I loved dirt “cake.” You know what I’m talking about — creamy white pudding made with cream cheese and Cool Whip, topped with crushed Oreos and decorated with gummy worms. I couldn’t get enough of that stuff! For our patriotic parfaits, I revisited that classic recipe. I figured that if I had loved that pudding so much as a kid, my kids were bound to as well!
I was right. As I was putting these parfaits together, my kids were downright giddy. They couldn’t wait to dig in and, when I put the parfaits in the fridge for after dinner, I never saw kids more eager to get their dinner eaten! Once the kids got to dig into their parfaits, they gobbled them right up! My oldest daughter even looked down at her empty bowl and said, “Mom, I think you should take a picture of the empty bowl and put a caption on the picture that says, ‘Mmmmmmmmmm.’ ” She also told me that if I put this recipe on the blog and people made it, they would say, “Thank you!” She might be my biggest fan. But she’s also right that these parfaits are super yum!
This recipe uses real cream as opposed to Cool Whip, giving the pudding a super fresh flavor with just a hint of cream cheese. And the pudding pairs perfectly with fresh summer berries!
Some more interesting posts:
Watermelon and Berry Spinach Salad
Patriotic Berry Pudding Parfaits
Ingredients:
- 6 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 3.5-ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 3/4 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, unwhipped
- Blueberries and/or blackberries
- Raspberries and/or chopped strawberries
Directions:
- Using a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar on high until well mixed and smooth. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or a stand mixer, beat the whipping cream on high until very thick (if using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment). Add the pudding mix and milk and then beat on medium-high for 2 minutes. Let mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- Add cream cheese mixture and beat on medium until fully mixed. (If using a stand mixer, switch to the paddle attachment for this step.)
- In clear glass serving dishes, place blueberries and/or blackberries in the bottom of the dish. Add a layer of pudding then top with strawberries and/or raspberries. It’s red, white, and blue and ready to eat!
