Chocolate Lasagna

Wow!  I will say that I am never going to make this again unless it's for a larger group than my household (i.e. potluck), because leftovers are calling me even now!  I will resist though,  because any more sugar and I will have a terrible tummy ache!

 I had seen this on facebook several times, and when I surfed Pinterest for a recipe, I found this delicious one, made by a real person in a real home kitchen :)!

You'll need:
1 package of Oreo cookies (or several packages of minis)
6 TBSP melted butter
1-8oz cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 TBSP cold milk
1-12oz tub of cool whip (thaw)
2- 3.9oz Jell-O Instant chocolate pudding
3 1/4 cup of milk
1 bag of mini chocolate chips


If you read my blog much, you'll know by now that I always have to add or edit something when I'm building in the kitchen, so here are my changes/additions:
I doubled it, which required quite a few packages of Mini Oreos in order to cover the bottom of the pan (I don't have any small baking pans, just half sheets).


I also could only find one package of instant chocolate pudding, so I used one package of vanilla chocolate pudding instead.  I added instant coffee to the crust layer, and the top layer of whipped cream mixture - that was an oops, adding the entire carton of whipped cream to the cream cheese, but it ended up being delicious, and I used that with the coffee for the top layer.  Couldn't find the chocolate chips I knew I had stashed, so we substituted the carob chips from the freezer (on the inside instead of the top), and they were glorious :).

Instead of crushing the cookies in a food processor as suggested, we smashed them (in a plastic bag) with a rolling pin, then mixed in the melted butter.  I added a little coffee to the butter before putting it into the microwave, so it ended up with that caramelly flavor from the coffee/butter/heat combination. 

 

Mix the cream cheese till it's light and fluffy before adding the milk and sugar.  Once that's well mixed, add your whipped cream.  Now the original recipe calls for 1&1/4 cup of the whipped cream here and the rest of it as the top layer, but I didn't read quite far enough in the directions and mixed the entire tub of whipped cream here, using half now (bottom layer), and setting half aside for the top layer.

I whipped together the instant chocolate pudding and 3&1/4 cups of milk in the blender so that I could leave the cream cheese mixture in my mixer bowl.   Once the pudding thickens, spread it over the first layer of cream cheese.  Place the pan in the fridge for 15-20 minutes until the layers set a bit.

I sprinkled the chocolate chips on this layer, and let them sink into the pudding while it gelled.

 

 I added a bit of instant coffee to the rest of the cream cheese/cool whip mixture, then whipped it till it was fluffy again before spreading it across the top and popping it back in the fridge for a few hours before supper.

 

Served this for Father's Day with another new family favorite, crockpot lasagna!