This delicious no-bake patriotic dessert is chock full of red, white and blue. Easy to make and perfect for the 4th of July.
Three Cheers For The Red White And Blue
I can’t think of a better Independence Day dessert than this one!
It has all the necessary colors–red, white and blue. Any red berries will do, and as for the blue, blueberries work nicely as do blackberries. Additionally, this is a no-bake dessert so you don’t have to turn on the oven, so there’s no heat in the kitchen!
Now, As For The White…
You pretty much have a choice of flavors for the white part of this dessert.
I chose to use a white chocolate flavored pudding mix because I love white chocolate. However, you can use cheesecake flavored pudding and good old vanilla can be used if you cannot find the other “fancier” flavors.
Chocolate…Or Not
The original recipe called for vanilla wafers.
Truth is, I’m not into vanilla wafers at all, and especially since they’ve gone from the size of a silver dollar (remember those?) down to that of a quarter. To me, they now taste very artificial, so I bypass them where I can.
Instead, I decided to use those thin chocolate wafers–the ones used to make that zebra dessert. Not only do they add some contrast to this dessert, they also taste very good.
However, they are pretty expensive at around $4 and change. If you can’t be that extravagant, then good old graham crackers will do, and they even have chocolate grahams, so problem solved and purse saved!
The Recipe
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 boxes (4 serving size) white chocolate instant pudding (see NOTES)
- 2½ cups milk
- 8 oz whipped topping
- 1 box Famous Chocolate Wafers (see NOTES)
- 4½ cups mixed berries (I used strawberries, red raspberries and blueberries)
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pudding mix until smooth.
- Slowly beat in the milk; beat for 1 minute.
- Spread about ¼ cup of the cream cheese mixture on the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch pan. This will keep the cookies stable.
- Stir in 3½ cups of the berries (the remainder is reserved for topping) into remaining cream cheese mixture.
- Fold the whipped topping into the cheese/berry mixture
- Place a layer of the chocolate wafers on the bottom of the pan.
- Spread half of the pudding/berry mixture on top of the wafers.
- Place another layer of wafers on top of the pudding/berry mixture and spread the remaining pudding/berry mixture on top.
- Chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Top with remaining berries.
Nabisco puts out these cookies. They are very thin wafer cookies but are getting hard to find. Grahams, Oreo Thins, or vanilla wafers may be substituted.
I’m confused. Step 3 says to spread 1/4 c of cream cheese mixture on bottom of pan. #4 says to stir in berries (where?) and then #5 says to place cookies on bottom of pan. Is that on top of the cream cheese mixture? Help.
Hi Juli–you stir the berries into the cool whip/pudding mixture. Then you spread a little bit on the bottom of the pan to stop the cookies from moving around whilst you are assembling the dessert. You place the first layer of cookies on top of that (they won’t move around then). Then you spread 1/2 the pudding mixture on top, top with more cookies, then spread the remaining pudding mixture on top of that. Then add additional berries on top of the whole schmeer for garnish. Hope this helps.
There are recipes online for making your own vanilla wafers (allrecipes.com is one I used). Due to gluten issues, I had to hunt one down for a homemade banana pudding my son was begging for me to make (I just sub in my own flour). The recipe is very easy and tastes better than store bought.
Your recipe looks much better with the chocolate cookies and is what I would use. Thank you for sharing and I can’t wait to try it.
I really don’t care for vanilla wafers myself and I am getting pretty tired of grahams too LOL. When I saw those Nabisco chocolate wafers in the store I thought it had possibilities!!! And the best part is they taste great just for cookie eating. Win-Win!
Judy ~
Thank you so much for taking your time to clarify some of the directions for those of us who may have been slightly confused.
VickiT
You are so welcome Vicki! Have a happy and safe holiday!