I envisioned days, even weeks, stretched out in front of me, leisurely perusing Pinterest, looking for that perfect recipe (or even coming up with my own). Then the next thing I know, it’s closing in on me, only a few days away. Funny, when I first heard about the potluck, it felt like ages away.
I have a love-hate relationship with potlucks. I love the social part of course, sampling new and interesting dishes, not having to cook that day and deciding on what I’m going to bring. Yet I hate deciding on what I’m going to bring.
Take this weekend for instance:
I have a Valentine’s Day potluck coming up at work on Tuesday. It’s now Friday. And in between the invite and life happening, a stomach bug has infiltrated my abode, taken down my entire family and left me bracing to be its next victim. I have tons to do this weekend, along with kids’ activities and I still haven’t an inkling of what I’m bringing to the potluck.
In my world, the potluck contribution bar is set pretty high. I already feel a ton of pressure to make something particularly awesome, to the point that it paralyzes me with indecision. Ugh! Now there goes 3/4 of the ideas I pinned when I thought I had a lots of time. And there is certainly no way in hell a new fabulous recipe is going to happen before then.
My bar has just been lowered.
St. Patrick’s Day Green Dessert
If this has ever happened to you, not to worry, I’ve got your six! If you are looking for St. Patrick’s day green food, here is a beautiful and tasty green dessert just in time for your potluck or dinner party. This retro potluck dish was a pretty popular one back ‘in the day’ – about 15 -20 years ago. I haven’t seen it around for a while so I decided to resurrect it, with a few changes.
You can make this St. Patrick’s dessert in less than 30 minutes, although it’s best to sit overnight in the fridge. If you have less time than that, 3-4 hours will do it. This Pistachio dessert square is also versatile in that you can change up the topping (use shaved toasted almonds, finely chopped pistachios, another chopped nut or chocolate shavings) and bring it to any potluck any time of year. I used to take it to summer, soccer team and work potlucks- back in the day, of course.
Happy Potlucking!
Looking for more green or St. Patrick’s Day Dessert Recipes? Give my Shamrock Irish Cream Dessert Shots a try! They can be made with or without alcohol:
And if you love pistachio, give my Spumoni Trifle a try! It can be made for Halloween or without the eyeballs and worms!
Pistachio Dessert
Ingredients
Base:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/3 cup ground pecans or can substitute ground almonds
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tbsp icing/powdered sugar
Layers:
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 250 g pkg cream cheese softened
- 1 & 2/3 cup icing/powdered sugar
- 3 oz melted white chocolate *Baker's white chocolate squares, NOT white chocolate chips
- 3 cups whipping cream if you really want to, you can substitute Cool whip
- 2 pkg. Pistachio Instant Pudding 4-serving size, 99 g each
- 3 cups cold milk
Garnish:
- green sparking sugar/sprinkles or toasted shaved almonds, ground pistachios or chocolate shavings
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 9X13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- For base: In a food processor, add ground pecans with butter, flour and 2 Tblsp icing sugar and blend until it clings together; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 12- 15 minutes or until lightly brown around edges; cool completely.
- Beat pudding mixes and milk with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Set aside and let stand until thickened for 5 minutes.
- Beat cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until well blended. Spread gently over cooled crust.* If the crust cracks a little,don't worry it's not a big deal.
- Pour pudding over cream cheese layer.
- Melt white chocolate in the microwave on 1/2 power for about 40 seconds or until melted. Put back in for 10 second intervals if not melted, stirring between.
- Beat whipped cream to soft peaks, then add melted white chocolate and beat to stiff peaks.
- Cover pudding layer with whipped cream by spreading gently, ensuring you keep the layers separate. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Notes
This recipe is part of The Country Cook’s Weekend Potluck
Oh the dreaded pot luck! Happy to be following your Pinterest board so the pressure is off!
🙂 well, I hope that you find lots of easy and quick recipes there, Sue!
🙂 well, I hope that you find lots of easy and quick recipes there, Sue!
No doubt that would go down well with a large Guinness. Thank you for sharing. Yum!
totally agree! sounds like a perfect pairing 🙂
totally agree! sounds like a perfect pairing 🙂
One of my all time favorites! Pinned and Tweeted! 🙂
Thanks! Yes, it’s and oldie but a goodie 🙂
Thanks! Yes, it’s and oldie but a goodie 🙂
I think potlucks are made for fun dishes, especially retro dishes as everyone loves them.
I agree!
I agree!
Whip the cream cheese before doing the pudding!
Sure-whatever works for you, Pauline!
Sure-whatever works for you, Pauline!
My whip cream layer flopped. I melted the white chocolate chips in microwave, it did not mix in with the whip cream at all. Thick and clumpy and parts were watery. Ended up melting more chocolate,then mixed that in with the cream cheese mixture. Went out to get more whipped cream and whipped it plain with powdered sugar and vanilla. Very disappointing!
Clara Ma: Sorry it didn’t work out for you. I see you used “white chocolate chips” and those are different than the white chocolate that the recipe called for. White chocolate is tricky to begin with and if you don’t melt it slow and low it tends to seize. But “white chocolate chips” don’t cooperate at all when it comes to melting – they don’t melt on a double boiler and seize in the microwave for some reason. That’s why I only use them in things like cookies, where they don’t need to melt.
In the future, if you have any other questions re: ingredients, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I would like to save you the trouble of making something that doesn’t turn out – I know how frustrating that can be!
Saw this on The Country Cook! This looks so fun and delicious!
Thanks, Julie! Hope you enjoy it 🙂
My mom used to make a dessert just like this (though I think we used walnuts in the crust instead of pecans) and I just LOVED it. I haven’t had it in year though. Pinning to try!
Hi Joanne. I hope that it is just like you remember! Enjoy… 🙂
I have never seen pistachio pudding in shops in Australia
Oh that is too bad, Rae! If you can’t find it online (if you click on the ingredient link for the pistachio pudding in my recipe it will lead you to amazon, where you can purchase) then alternatively, you could try vanilla pudding with some green food coloring and pistachio flavoring (if you can find the flavoring – I know you can buy that online too). Let me know how it turns out if you try that route!
Have my cake in rig for St.Patrick’s Day dinner with my husbands family. I’m sure it will be a hit.
Thanks, Sandra! I hope you all enjoy it!
I see the recipe calls for 3 c. whipping cream – is this the liquid before it is whipped or after it is whipped? Thanks!
Hi Sandra,
It’s the liquid, prior to being whipped. You need to whip it to soft peaks, then add the melted white chocolate, then continue whipping to stiff peaks.
Thanks! Terri
I made it! The baking chocolate got a bit lumpy but that is ok. I did add more powered sugar, salt (pinch) and vanilla to the whipping cream since I like it sweeter. While making it I was like a kid licking spoons, beaters – good thing no one was here to see me do it! Looks nice and I am sure it will be a hit. Am taking it to a funeral meal tomorrow. Thanks!
Glad it worked for you, Sandra! Too bad about the chocolate getting lumpy- I’ve never had that happen 🙂
I made this for my ladies’ group this week and it was a huge hit! I made it gluten free by using my home-made GF flour mix for the crust. Everyone had seconds. Will definitely make this again. Might try using some GF ginger cookies for the base for some extra zing.
Hi Colleen – that’s great~! Glad you were able to make it gluten-free and you all enjoyed it!