Blueberry Cream Pudding Pie. (Inspired by Serious Eats)

I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like anymore perusing Serious Eats. Fortunately, they haven’t forgotten about me & still send me their weekly recipe newsletter. Today’s recipe is an easy version of one from said newsletter. If you feel like scraping vanilla beans & crushing your own graham cracker crumbs, find the recipe here. If you’re pressed for time like me, read on.

I think I underestimate how much I love pudding. It’s not something I ordinarily think to buy, but maybe it should be: it was the first thing I ate after my C-section (thank you, breech Mini-Munchkin). I ate it with every subsequent meal in the hospital. Hmmm… Pudding with every meal? I could go for that!

In the meantime, here’s pudding with dessert.

• 1 premade graham cracker crust
• 1 box (the big one, not the small one) vanilla instant pudding
• 2 cups cold skim milk
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. clear vanilla extract
• 1 pint blueberries, washed & dried

1. Prepare the pudding as directed on the package, just with 2 cups milk instead of 3. Chill in the refrigerator.
2. Whip the cream, sugar, & vanilla. Fold about 1/3 of it into prepared pudding.
3. Spread half of the pudding mixture into the bottom of the crust.
4. Carefully spread another 1/3 of the whipped cream over the pudding, then top with almost all of the blueberries.
5. Spread remaining pudding to hide the blueberries, then top with remaining whipped cream & sprinkle remaining blueberries on top.
6. Serve with a spoon; this will get messy!

Patriotic Napoleons for Primary Election Day.

The Primaries are tomorrow here in Florida. The race has been hot, to say the least, with almost every single evening commercial break being completely taken up with campaign attack ads. Having already done my civic duty — it’s really easy to vote early here — I thought I’d commemorate the craziness with a little patriotism.

(You don’t need to explain the irony to me of using a French-named dessert… Maybe you could use this for Bastille Day this summer.)

I saw this easy Napoleon recipe on TidyMom a week ago & knew I needed to make it. I love that the thick pudding/whipped cream mixture is essentially a quick pastry cream! Her version uses raspberries & bananas, which sounded good, but strawberries & blueberries are in season here, & I have to tell you, they’re the best I’ve ever tasted. Living in the same county as the top growers for Florida strawberries, we’re getting Farmer’s Market quality in the grocery store! It’s unbelievable. So I thought I’d complement those berries with chocolate & cinnamon instead of TidyMom’s caramel & brown sugar.

That’s the great thing about this: you can do it however you want! I actually was going to do bananas too, but a certain husband ate the last one. Honestly, though, I don’t think we missed them!

One quick note: in the future, I think I’ll use puff pastry instead of crescent dough for a flakier, more authentic texture.

• 1 (8 oz.) can refrigerated crescent rolls (or use puff pastry)
• cinnamon sugar
• 1 cup cold skim milk
• 1 box (4-serving size) French vanilla (regular vanilla works fine too) instant pudding & pie filling mix
• 1 cup prepared whipped cream*
• thinly sliced fruit of choice (bananas, strawberries, raspberries, whole blueberries)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• vegetable oil

*I made mine with very little powdered sugar so that it wouldn’t be overwhelmingly sweet. You could also use Cool Whip.

1. Preheat your oven to 375. Cover a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Unroll your crescents into 4 rectangles. Pinch shut the seams that turn them into triangles. Use a pizza cutter or very sharp knife to cut each rectangle into 4 smaller rectangles, approx. 4″x2″. Place on prepared baking sheet & sprinkle each with cinnamon sugar.
3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden & beginning to puff. Allow to cool at least 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, whisk together milk & pudding mix until smooth & beginning to thicken, then refrigerate 30 minutes, until set.
5. Fold in whipped cream. If you’re serving this later, cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate until ready to serve. If you’re serving immediately, continue.
6. Microwave chocolate chips in a small bowl until melted. Stir in enough oil to thin the chocolate to where it is “drizzle-able” (pretend that’s a word).
7. Construct Napoleons as follows: one crescent rectangle, dollop of pudding mixture, sliced fruit, another crescent rectangle, another dollop, more fruit, & one last crescent rectangle. Drizzle with chocolate. For small children, just dollop some pudding in a bowl, place a crescent rectangle in the pudding, & top with fruit & chocolate drizzle.

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