For myself, making sweet treats this time of year is a little difficult since I don’t care much for many of the traditional holiday desserts. I cook and bake what I love, and you’ll never find me making fruit cake or dense desserts loaded with nuts.
Stemming from my firm belief that Cool Whip should be it’s own food group {lets take a vote on that}, I like to keep things creamy and light all year long.
Which is why I’m head over heels in love with this Festive Layered Dessert Squares recipe, it’s inspired by Kraft Canada’s Chocolate-Peppermint Striped Delight.
Changes that I made to this recipe is using the new cream cheese in the delicious family, the Philadelphia Chocolate Brick, instead of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It’s the same creamy cheese, yet in chocolate – and really jazzes up a recipe. Much better than using cream cheese and then adding cocoa to infuse some chocolate.
I also changed the pudding flavour to vanilla since I already has the chocolate layer thanks to the Philadelphia Chocolate Brick. This does give you a yellowish pudding layer, so you could use food colouring and change that if you wanted a different colour.
Instead of traditional peppermint candy canes, I used cherry flavoured candy canes in this recipe. It still gives that festive flair in looks, but the cherry-chocolate combination is to die for!
Enjoy!
- 1-1/2 cups Honey Maid Graham Crumbs
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup sugar divided
- 1 pkg. Philadelphia Chocolate Brick 250 g, softened
- 3 cups plus 2 Tbsp. cold milk divided
- 1/2 cup finely crushed cherry candy canes divided
- 3.5 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping divided
- 2 pkg. Jell-O Vanilla Instant Pudding 4-serving size each
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Mix crumbs, butter and 2 Tbsp. sugar; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.
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Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar and 2 Tbsp. milk in medium bowl until blended. Stir in half the crushed candy. Add 1-1/4 cups Cool Whip; mix well. Spread over crust.
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Beat pudding mixes and remaining milk with whisk 2 min.; pour over cream cheese layer. Let stand 5 min. or until thickened. Cover with remaining Cool Whip.
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Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with remaining crushed candy just before serving.
HOW TO EASILY CUT INTO SQUARES
Place dessert in freezer about 1 hour before cutting into squares to serve.
HOW TO SOFTEN CREAM CHEESE
Place completely unwrapped package of cream cheese on microwaveable plate. Microwave on HIGH 15 sec. or until slightly softened.
SUBSTITUTE
Prepare using non-hydrogenated margarine, Philadelphia Light Brick Cream Cheese, skim milk, JELL-O Fat Free Pudding and Cool Whip Light Whipped Topping.
Those look so good. I missed it for Thanksgiving, but I’m so making these for Christmas dinner.
Now THAT’S a nom nom! Thanks for sharing this great dessert.
That looks absolutely delicious! Thanks for the recipe, I’ll have to give this a try 🙂
these look delicious! I love to bake. especially for the hoildays!
wow looks delish , i will be trying this over the holidays thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂
Ooh this looks so fun and yummy! I love that it’s even easy to make.. right up my ally! Thanks for sharing another awesome recipe!
This looks and sounds delish! I love dishes that are fairly easy to prepare and more fun to eat!
This looks darling! My family would definitely enjoy these if I brought them to our Christmas party!
~Cathy~
OurMiniFamily.com
Those look so delicious
Okay, those sound amazing. I love desserts like this. Thanks for sharing.
These look so yummy! I also think Cool Whip is its own food category! YUM!
Looks tasty! I like the idea of using Cherry candy canes, it is a nice way to change the taste up a little bit.
Always looking for new and not too complicated recipes to make during the holidays. This is a keeper. Thanks for sharing. And for your tips.
oh wow, these look delicious. I was looking for some desserts to serve and might just try this one.
Oh my goodness. I had no idea looking just how many flavors were combined here. It sounds amazing.
What a delicious dessert twist! I think I’ll definitely give this one a try over the holiday break!
oh my goodness, this looks so good! I’m going to have to try and make it soon.
this looks so good. My mouth is watering!
I did not know that they made chocolate cream cheese! Talk about a game changer! These looks really yummy.
This looks so good. I like that it seems to be light, not a traditional heavy dessert. My girls will love to help make this too!
This looks amazing and so pretty. I cannot wait to try.
What a great idea for our next pot luck get together. I’m bringing dessert.
That looks really good. I’ll have to keep this recipe in mind because I’m always on the lookout for easy holiday desserts.
I love recipes like this. I am excited to try this one. I am sure it will be a hit.
This looks really good, easy enough to make and gives me an excuse to try the chocolate cream cheese, I still have not tried that one yet, thanks for sharing!!
So, making this for Christmas thanks!
This looks like heaven on palate Tammi!
This looks like heaven on plate Tammi!
These look yummy I must try thanks!! 🙂
They look and sound absolutely delicious!
it looks droolishous.
oh wow!!! i am totally drooling!!
I will try this for my Christmas desert. Looks delicious. I also does not like fruit cake. If I’m going to have a desert and all the calories. I want something that’s really good.
omg, DROOL..this looks so appealing and after we make it I will have to send it home with someone because I would eat way more than I should. Thanks for posting.
This looks so festive! I bet it tastes as delicious as it looks! Bookmarking!
Looks good. Something new for me to try over Christmas.
This looks sooo good!
THEY LOOK DELICIOUS
I would love one of these right now!
This looks and sounds yummy! Definitely would make a great dessert for the holidays, thanks for the recipe!
Yum! These sound delicious – and pretty easy to make 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Those do look pretty festive, and delicious. I’ll have to try these.
I am hungry already. The Christmas treats are a love/hate thing for me.
These look so delicious and easy to make..and very festive with the crushed candy canes on top.
This looks so yummy, and fairly easy to bake! I love lemon recipes and I bet my gramma would love this one!!
I love that these have crushed candy canes in them!
These look YUMMMM
The Cherry Chocolate combination sounds really good. I like to make food with candy canes but I have never tried with cherry ones.
These look Amazing!
I love desserts with lemon!! Looks so yummy!!
This looks so delicious, I have some chocolate cream cheese at home, I was gonna make cheesecake but I’ll definitely try these squares too.
Yum this looks delicious. Sounds easy to make too. thanks
They look so yummy! Something to make and bring to Grandma’s this weekend 🙂
This is so pretty and so easy too! Like you I don’t like heavy cakes, definitely NO fruitcake! This looks nice and light.
Oooh, Tammi, I do hope you’ll swing by to Food on Friday to add this to Christmas Favourites! Cheers from Carole from Carole’s Chatter
I am so making these Festive Layered Dessert Squares! YUMMY!!!!
I made this on Saturday and it was delicious. My daughter took the recipe. Thank you for sharing.
What do I use if I can find chocolate cream cheese?
Now this is my kind of dessert! And I agree, Cool Whip should be it’s own food group!! 🙂
This looks like something I would make. I like the changes you made.
This looks so delicious! Thank you so much for this fantastic holiday recipe!
I made this dessert for Christmas and it was delicious. Thank you for sharing.