Who is ready for a huge, floofy fluffball of a dessert?
This is Cherry Chocolate Ice Box Dessert!
AuthorRetroRuth
From Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, Desserts, 1963
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
Cool whole chocolate crackers so the chocolate does not melt. Crush them quite fine and set aside ¼ cup crumbs for the topping.
Mix remaining crumbs with butter and press them into a 9x9 pan.
Beat whip mix until very stiff. Add cream cheese and mix well. If you are using Cool Whip, cream the cream cheese in a mixer, and add ½ cup of Cool Whip. Mix until cream cheese and Cool Whip are incorporated, then add remaining Cool Whip and mix.
Spread cheese mixture carefully over crust. Spread pie filling over the top. Sprinkle reserved crumbs over pie filling.
Chill in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours before serving.
Ingredients
Directions
Cool whole chocolate crackers so the chocolate does not melt. Crush them quite fine and set aside ¼ cup crumbs for the topping.
Mix remaining crumbs with butter and press them into a 9x9 pan.
Beat whip mix until very stiff. Add cream cheese and mix well. If you are using Cool Whip, cream the cream cheese in a mixer, and add ½ cup of Cool Whip. Mix until cream cheese and Cool Whip are incorporated, then add remaining Cool Whip and mix.
Spread cheese mixture carefully over crust. Spread pie filling over the top. Sprinkle reserved crumbs over pie filling.
Chill in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours before serving.
Notes
This recipe is from the Desserts Volume of the Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers recipes collection. The version I have is from 1963, but these are still in print and you can order them through Amazon. If you haven’t ever heard of this series and you enjoy vintage recipes, you should check these out. They contain good, crazy and interesting vintage recipes all crammed together in one book. Lots and lots of recipes, which are pretty well organized and they have the information about teachers that submitted each recipe, which sometimes I find more interesting than the recipes themselves.
In any case, here is a whole sleeve of chocolate grahams.
I followed the instructions and threw the crushed grahams in the freezer after I had Alex crush them, and the chocolate did not melt, as promised. So, that was a success.
Fluffy filling! I couldn’t find Dream Whip at my local store, so I substituted a carton of Cool Whip instead. Now, this is fine, but Dream Whip actually sets up very slightly over time, so that you can actually slice things and serve them in slices pretty well without the Dream Whip portion flopping all over the place.
So I guess we are going to see if Cool Whip can do the same thing.
That…looks pretty good.
So, here we are after 24 hours of setting up in the fridge. The Cool Whip didn’t do too badly.
Not great, but not too bad. I think the cherries are a bit heavy and we didn’t smash the grahams enough to make a stable, sliceable base. But not too shabby. At least it’s still sort of in a slice.
And time to taste!
“What is that face? Is it not good? There’s no way this could be bad.”
“It’s not bad at all. It’s great. It’s just not as sweet as I was expecting. I really like it.”
The Verdict: Great
From The Tasting Notes –
This was, of course, great. It was light, with a slightly sweet creamy filling that went well with the tart cherries. The chocolate grahams were also a great touch. It never really set up completely, but that is fine. Also, this was not as sweet as we thought it would be. I used full-fat cream cheese, so that probably cut the sweetness down. This dessert was interesting because it would be a great one to tweak for whatever kind of changes you prefer. You could use lightened ingredients in the filling, you could make it sugar free if you buy the right ingredients, you could change the flavor of the base cookies and change out the fruit or leave it off. At my grocery store alone I saw mint, peanut butter and sugar free chocolate-covered cookies. So, go nuts!
That sounds divine! I love cloudy-like desserts…..a good one to make with my boy! 🙂
Totally trying this! Thanks.
Talk about a blast from the past! Except for using chocolate-covered graham crackers instead of plain, it looks just like one of my Mom’s favorite deserts. Sometimes it was blueberries, sometimes cherries, but it never lasted the night because we all loved it. I haven’t thought about this in years.
Often, the recipes scare me (lol!), but this? This is going in my pile of recipes to make soon.
Finding Dream Whip around here is hit-and-miss too. The last time I got it I ordered it online, but had to get a case of it and ended up sharing with friends. Glad to hear that the Cool-Whip worked as a substitute. This looks really good — chocolate and cherries go together so well. Tom’s face in the second shot is priceless!
I love cherries, and I love chocolate, but I don’t generally love them together. With this however, I will make an exception, as this looks delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Sounds divine and I would so serve it to guests
We make this every year! I prefer to top it with strawberries! Sooo good!
That looks delicious. I’m so excited that I just found your blog because I just finished reading a book about the craziest recipes from mid-century. It’s called Gatroanomolies by James Lilek.
If you bloom a couple teaspoons of unflavored gelatin in a little water and add it to your Dream Whip it should stabilize it. I have never tried it with Dream Whip, but I have done this will whipping cream and it works great.
This is chilling in my fridge now! I substituted whipping cream for the dream whip, so I sweetened it a little. I’ll let you know if it sets up. We also added a drizzle of melted chocolate on top!
Thanks for posting this recipe!
It did not set up, but it was delicious. I might use less cream next time or add a bit of gelatine to stabilize it next time.
I have that recipe book along with the meat book. I bought it at an estate sale, she had the whole cookbook collection.
I hate Cool Whip, so I was going to ask if homemade whipped cream would work – so glad someone tested it and posted! Thanks Nika!
I’m a long time reader & have collected old cookbooks for years. A few years ago I read about stabilized whipped cream. You made it by whipping cream cheese into homemade whipped cream. I don’t remember the amounts but I’m sure you can google it. When my kids were young we tried some of the old recipes but never went as far as you do. Maybe we should have.
Do you know what size package of Dream Whip you would use? I’ve seen 2.6 oz and 5.2 oz.
One envelope from the 2.6 oz box! It should give you two cups. Or you can use a tub of cool whip. 🙂