St. Patrick's Day Treats

I love making themed food for holidays. One of my more popular desserts for St Patrick's Day is my Minty Pudding Parfaits and Shamrock Pretzels. Both are easy enough to make along with your children!

Minty Pudding Parfait, St Patty's day treat




Ingredients
  • 1 – 4.5 serving size White Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix
  • 1 – 4.5 serving size Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding Mix (or vanilla flavored)
  • 4c. milk
  • 5 drops of green food coloring
  • ¼ tsp. peppermint extract
  • 15 Mint Oreo Cookies (or regular Oreos will work just as well including off brand too)
  • 1 tub of Cool Whip
  • 1 Chocolate Bar to make chocolate curls for garnish (optional)

Instructions
In two separate bowls, prepare each of the two pudding mixes per the directions on the box: Mix with 2 cups of milk. To the white chocolate pudding add 5 drops of green food coloring and ¼ tsp. of peppermint extract. Mix well. Refrigerate to set.

While the pudding is setting, put about 15 Oreos in your food processor and grind until you have pretty fine crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor put the cookies in a sealed plastic baggie and crush with a rolling pin to get your crumbs. (Good job for the kids!) Set aside.When the pudding is set, take half of each bowl of pudding and put it in a separate bowl. You should now have 4 bowls: 2 bowls of chocolate fudge and 2 bowls of green white chocolate.

Use a knife to draw a peace sign in the Cool Whip. This is my little tip for dividing it up into three mostly-equal parts. Take one of those parts and add it to one of the bowls of chocolate pudding. Mix well. Take a second part of the Cool Whip and add it to one of the bowls of green white chocolate pudding. Mix well. You should now have 4 bowls of pudding: 1 dark chocolate and 1 light chocolate; 1 dark green and 1 light green. You’ll have ⅓ a tub of Cool Whip left, too. Time to assemble!

Put a spoon in each bowl of pudding, the Cool Whip, and the cookie crumbs. Let’s put these babies together! Line up your wine glasses or whatever cups you’re using. Start with a heaping spoonful of cookie crumbs in the bottom of each glass. I used my fingertips to sort of flatten out the top. I didn't really press it down and pack it in, just kind of made the top smooth so I’d get a mostly-flat line between my layers.

Then one color at a time, layer in your puddings. I layered mine like this: dark chocolate, dark green, light chocolate, light green. You can mix it up anyway you’d like! After every layer I used the back of my spoon to smooth out the pudding. My suggestion is to start in the middle and sort of push the pudding to the outside edge (remember you want to be able to see the lines of each layer from the outside of the glass), then once you have the whole layer spread out to the edges use the back of your spoon to smooth out the top as best you can. Keep a few paper towels nearby to wipe up any smudges along the rim of your glass. Doesn't have to be perfect!

Once you get all the puddings layered in your glasses top it off with the remaining cookie crumbs.

Then use that last ⅓ of the Cool Whip tub to add a dollop on top of each glass.

Use a vegetable peeler or small grater to create chocolate curls with your chocolate bar and sprinkle on top for a pretty garnish if you’d like!

Notes
If you’re not a big mint fan just omit the Peppermint Extract. You can even use Pistachio Pudding which is already green! This recipe is easily adaptable for any holiday. Just match the pudding colors with the theme of your celebration.


This is another treat my children enjoy making!


shamrock pretzels, st patty's day treat


The original instructions I saw were to place all the pretzels together, then place the candy in the center and place in the oven to melt. Maybe Hershey Kisses would've worked?? But these green candy wafers didn't work like that. So I decided to come up with a better way to make this work. I melted the green wafers alone with a little bit of shortening then drizzled them on the pretzels. I did both the filling in the whole thing & just placing candy in the center. Both ways worked to hold the pretzels in place, so it's all a matter of preference. But they do look pretty good wouldn't ya say??

To make this you need mini pretzels and sticks. If they are too long, just break the sticks in half. Place a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet and arrange your pretzels like the pictures above. Melt the chocolate (could use white chocolate with green food coloring if you can't find green melting chocolate). For a slightly smoother melt, add a little bit of shortening (like crisco) or paraffin wax, melt either on stove top, mini crockpot or in the microwave (but make sure you only melt it a little at a time & stir after each time until it reaches the right consistency). Drizzle on the pretzels however you like & let harden. 

Do you have any traditional St. Patrick's Day treats or foods you like to make? If so, leave me a comment, I am always looking for new ideas!

3 comments

  1. I usually make green soup (either brocoli or spinach) for lunch and a traditional Irish stew for supper with irish bread...For sweets, I've made kiwi muffins in the past...among other stuff that I can't remember!

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  2. That is SO cute! I love it! I just put up the Mommy Club Linky- I'd love if you'd share this on it- so adorbs!

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  3. These look wonderful! Wow! :-) Thanks for linking up with "Try a New Recipe Tuesday." Hope you will be able to join us again this week.

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I enjoy hearing from each & every one of you! Thanks for taking the time to comment. :)