Chocolate Delight

(19)

Erin Napier shares one of her favorite recipes from her grandmother, Ouida.

Active Time:
15 mins
Bake Time:
20 mins
Cool Time:
30 mins
Stand Time:
10 mins
Chill Time:
2 hrs
Total Time:
3 hrs 15 mins
Servings:
8

"My grandmother, Ouida Walters Rasberry, was the maker and keeper of our family's recipes," writes Erin Napier, HGTV star and co-host of Home Town alongside her husband, Ben Napier. Erin Napier's childhood memories are colored by time spent in Ouida's kitchen, learning her grandmother's Southern cooking secrets that could hardly be documented. Napier has followed through on her commitment to carry on her grandmother's culinary traditions; while cleaning out her late grandmother's house, she found a vault of Ouida's handwritten recipes stuffed in fruit-shaped canisters.

"They were all there: the peanut brittle, Jim's favorite Christmas cake, spaghetti and meatballs, and her famous creamy layered dessert called Chocolate Delight—a simple and frequent character on her dinner table alongside the hand-battered fried chicken and butter beans," Napier writes. "It felt like she was alive and well and giving us this one final gift that would carry on in us and our children and their children."

Ouida’s Chocolate Delight

Victor Protasio; Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Styling: Christine Keely

With layers of vanilla and chocolate pudding and a few hours in the fridge, Chocolate Delight might just bring back memories of summer nights long passed.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups self-rising flour

  • 1 ½ cups chopped toasted pecans 

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, melted

  • 1 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

  • 1 cup unsifted powdered sugar

  • 1 (16-oz.) container frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip), thawed, divided

  • 4 cups whole milk

  • 1 (5.9-oz.) pkg. chocolate instant pudding mix

  • 1 (3.4-oz.) pkg. vanilla instant pudding mix

  • Chocolate syrup (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 13- x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Stir together flour, pecans, and butter in a bowl. Press mixture into prepared baking dish in a thin layer, patting mixture evenly into all corners. Bake until set, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven; cool about 30 minutes.

  2. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until well blended, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Fold in 1 cup of the thawed whipped topping. Spread mixture evenly over cooled crust.

  3. Whisk together milk and the chocolate and vanilla pudding mixes in a large bowl until well combined. Let stand until slightly set, about 10 minutes. Pour mixture over cream cheese layer; spread with remaining whipped topping. Drizzle with chocolate syrup if desired. Cover, and chill at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours.

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