Sparkle Kitchen: Dirt Dessert
A lot of the Sparkle characters are up to their ears in mud this week. Martin & Sylvia are getting stuck in it, while the Junkyard Tales crew has their own muddy fun.
March can, indeed, be a muddy, mucky month as — in the Northern Hemisphere, at least — the frozen winter ground finally starts to thaw. At our house, and probably yours too, it begins to feel like mud is everywhere.
As much as I nag my family members to “wipe your feet!”, truly, I’m always a little glad to see the spring mud, too. When it starts getting tracked in, I know that bouquets of daffodils and tulips aren’t far behind.
Whether you’re celebrating the beginning of gardening season or just trying to keep the floor clean, “Dirt Dessert” is a whimsical nod to the March mud. With several steps that are easy enough for small hands (crushing cookies, mixing pudding) it would also make a fun diversion for an afternoon when it’s still too cold or rainy to get outside and dig into the real mud.
Dirt Dessert
(Makes about 6 servings)
Ingredients
1 box chocolate pudding mix
2 cups cold milk
4 ounces whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 (14.3 ounce package) of chocolate sandwich cookies
several gummy worms
Directions
Make the pudding according to the package directions and put it in the fridge to set.
Meanwhile, add the whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high for several minutes to make whipped cream.
While the cream is whipping, pour the cookies into a large plastic bag. Seal the bag well and use a rolling pin or large can to gently crush the cookies into “dirt”.
Once the cream is whipped and the pudding is set, gently fold the whipped cream into the pudding. Then fold in half of the cookie crumbs.
Spoon the pudding mixture into jars, cups, or food safe flower pots, leaving about an inch of space at the top. Top the pudding with the remaining cookie crumbs to make a nice layer of topsoil. Garnish each pot with 3 or 4 gummy worms.
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About the Author
Meryl Carver-Allmond
The Sparkle Kitchen Series is created by Meryl Carver-Allmond.
Meryl lives in a hundred-year-old house near the prairie with her sweet husband, two preschoolers, one puppy, one gecko, and about ten chickens. While she's been writing since she could pick up a pen, in recent years she's discovered the joy of photography, too. She feels lucky to be able to combine those skills, along with a third passion — showing people that cooking for themselves can be healthy and fun — in her Sparkle Kitchen posts.
