Earth Day Parfaits

 

I like to call these Earth Day parfaits the grownup version of dirt pudding. It has a chocolate cookie crust, pistachio cheesecake filling, and tasty decorations like white chocolate shavings, sprinkles, chocolate-covered strawberries, and gummy worms.

It's a simple, no-bake recipe, which of course I'm a big fan of. However, I want to point out the importance of following the directions with the heavy whipping cream. If you try to incorporate it without first whipping it, your cheesecake filling will be the consistency of toothpaste, which is especially gross in this recipe since the mixture is already green. 

But when you whip the heavy cream, you incorporate air into the mixture, and it will ultimately become whipped cream. That makes our result light and creamy. You could, of course, substitute store-bought whipped topping, but I guarantee it won't taste nearly as good. 

The decorations can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. I dyed white chocolate green and broke it up into little pieces for grass in the examples pictured in this post. I also dipped strawberries into orange candy melts so they looked like carrots. But if you want to do the bare minimum, you can just top your pistachio cheesecake filling with gummy worms.

Earth Day Parfaits

Yield: Makes about 8 parfaits

Time: About 1 hour

Ingredients

For the chocolate cookie crust

• 1 (14.3 ounce) package chocolate sandwich cookies
• 4 ounces butter, melted

For the pistachio cheesecake filling

• 1/2 cup (240 milliliters) heavy cream
• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix
• 1/2 cup (57 grams) confectioners sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Optional: Gummy worms, orange chocolate-dipped strawberries, green sprinkles, green dyed white chocolate shavings, shredded coconut dyed green

Directions 

For the chocolate cookie crust

1. Crush chocolate sandwich cookies in food processor or sealed bag.
2. Mix with melted butter.
3. Evenly distribute mixture amongst 8 cups.

For the pistachio cheesecake filling

1. Whip heavy cream into stiff peaks on high speed, about 2 - 3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Cream cream cheese on medium speed with pudding mix, both sugars, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth.
3. Use spatula to slowly and gently fold whipped cream into pistachio mixture.
4. Spoon pistachio cheesecake mix over chocolate cookie crumbs.
5. Decorate tops of parfaits with gummy worms, orange chocolate-dipped strawberries, green sprinkles, white chocolate shavings, etc.