Follow your (chocolate) bliss: Can you really have too many cool, creamy desserts in the summertime?

When I was in high school, our family spent a week with my mother’s side of the family on my great-aunt Marilyn’s cotton farm in Wichita Falls, Texas. One night, Marilyn and my great-uncle Wendel hosted a big family potluck. Everyone brought something. There were the usual suspects: fried chicken and smoked brisket, macaroni salad, salted beefsteak tomatoes, barbecued baked beans, fruit salad, ambrosia. After eating my fill of savory foods, I headed back to the groaning table for dessert: a layered chocolate creation that I thought was the best thing I’d ever tasted. I’ve never had anything like it since then. But little did I know, the recipe was always out there, on the internet. Or at least it was out there by the late ’90s, when the internet became a thing.

Last week, a recipe for Chocolate Delight popped into my newsfeed. There before my wondering eyes was the chocolate concoction of my youthful dreams: layers of pecan shortbread crust, sweet and fluffy cream cheese, instant chocolate pudding, Cool Whip and chocolate shavings. I could see at a glance this was a classic middle-class dessert, from an era when people used food from a package, can or box without the slightest ounce of self-consciousness. But to my unformed 1988 palate, this was some serious, high-level eats.

I bought ingredients and tackled the recipe with high hopes. It was quick and enjoyable to assemble. I set my brain on “cruise” because it was nothing more complicated than blending and layering. The most arduous step is the pecan crust, which must be baked for 20 minutes to ensure crispiness, but even that step is fun because it involves bashing the nuts to a fine grit. I love pounding the heck out of things in the kitchen.

I do realize that I made a similar no-bake layered dessert a few weeks ago (Coconut Cream Delight) but Chocolate Bliss is totally different because it’s not coconut. Also, can you really have too many cool, creamy desserts in the summertime? I think not. So fire up your hand mixer and get your rolling pin ready for nut-bashing because here we go.

The first element to make is the toasted pecan shortbread crust. Set the oven to 350 degrees and put whole pecan pieces in a plastic bag. Use a heavy object — a rolling pin, a double-size can of baked beans or your cat — to bang on those tasty little nuts until you’ve got enough pecan pieces and powder to fill 1 cup. Of course, you can use a food processor to crush the nuts, but why would deprive yourself of the pleasure?

Mix the crushed pecans with 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup melted butter. Stir with a fork or mash with your fingers until everything is thoroughly blended, then use your hands (or your cat, if he’s still around) to smoosh the pecan-flour-butter mixture into a single even layer on the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Put it in the hot oven and set it to bake for 20 minutes then cool to room temperature.

While the shortbread crust is baking, make the cream cheese layer by blending an 8-ounce brick of cream cheese with 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 cup of Cool Whip or other whipped topping. You can also use real whipped cream if you’re a purist but be sure to whip the cream before blending it in with the cream cheese so the mixture has a certain fluffiness. Set aside.

Next, make the pudding layer by mixing two small (3.4-ounce) packages of instant chocolate pudding with 3 cups milk. Now here’s where things can get interesting, if you want them to. Who says you have to use only chocolate pudding? Not me. You can mix chocolate and vanilla pudding, chocolate and banana pudding or chocolate and pistachio pudding. You can even leave the chocolate out all together and use just vanilla or just banana or just lemon pudding. Go crazy and break out the butterscotch pudding if that’s your thing. Or you can play Betty Crocker and make the pudding from scratch or make a boozy dessert with a jigger of rum or bourbon. The point is, play with your pudding but mix responsibly.

Furthermore, who says the crust has to be pecans? Try crushed walnuts, pistachios or macadamia nuts. Do what I do and stealthily sneak in some nuts that your spouse doesn’t like just to see if he notices. Better yet, don’t.

When the crust has cooled, spread the cream cheese layer on the nutty shortbread crust first, then spread on the pudding layer, then use the rest of the whipped topping for the top layer. Shave or grate a 1/4 cup of your favorite chocolate (I refuse to enter the dark chocolate vs. milk chocolate debate; this country has suffered enough) and sprinkle it on top like the chocolate fairy.

You can eat it immediately if you can’t wait. I support that choice and will likely join you. However, you can leave it in the fridge for two or three hours to firm up a bit. It’s also fine if you make this the night before a potluck and chill it overnight. (I’d only advise this if using the Cool Whip option. Sometimes whipped cream, as delicious and unprocessed as it is, can start to break down after too long in the fridge.)

In spite of the pretty pictures you might see on the internet showing perfectly square pieces with four clearly visible layers, pieces of this dessert do not come out neatly. Abandon your hopes for Instagram and fearlessly scoop a hunk of chocolate bliss onto your plate. If the layers get all smooshed together, remember that it’s all mixed up in your stomach anyway. You’re actually doing your digestive system a favor by pre-smooshing food.

As for me, I had a bite in my mouth even before the chocolate shavings had fully settled on the Cool Whip. It was sweeter than I remember it. I guess I’ve lost my sweet tooth since I was a teenager with the metabolism of a small, anxious rhinoceros. As a middle-aged woman with the metabolism of a sloth under heavy sedation, I’d have liked the chocolate pudding to be more bittersweet. I wondered if a smidgen of unsweetened cocoa powder added to the pudding would give this dessert more sass. Fortunately, the salty, buttery pecan crust and the tangy cream cheese saved it from being uniformly sacchariferous.

But if you’re a kid at heart and you love cool, extra-sweet chocolate pudding creaminess, then by all means, follow your bliss.

Chocolate Bliss

1 cup crushed pecans

1 cup flour

½ cup melted butter

One 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

One 8-ounce container Cool Whip or other whipped topping, divided

Two 3.4-ounce packages instant chocolate pudding

3 cups milk

Shaved chocolate for garnish

Set oven to 350 degrees. Crush enough pecans to fill 1 cup. Mix flour and butter with pecans until butter has been evenly absorbed. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely. Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar and whipped topping until combined. Spread onto cooled crust. Mix both packages of pudding with milk until thick then spread on cream cheese layer. Spread remaining whipped topping (about 2 cups) onto pudding. Sprinkle with shaved chocolate. Can be eaten immediately but chilling helps firm up the pudding.