The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford
Tue, May 31, 2011
Around the World, Cakes, Cupcakes & Brownies, Desserts, DessertStalking, Honest Cooking, Itsy Bitsy Foodies Sightings, North America, Photograzing, Search by Course, United States
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The first time that my husband spent Thanksgiving with my family we were all gathered around the dessert table after dinner and my Aunt pulled out a pan of a layered pudding dessert. My husband exclaimed, “The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford! This was my favorite growing up!” We all started laughing because we only knew it as the layered pudding dessert. Not to mention that it was especially funny coming from my husband. A quick search on Google, however, revealed that my husband wasn’t nuts. There is actually a dessert with this name.
So here it is. The recipe that my husband grew up on. This rich, creamy and chocolaty dessert definitely isn’t for the weak. A little bit of the buttery cookie crust topped with vanilla-chocolate pudding and whipped cream goes a long way. The dessert is a crowd-pleaser and it’s simple to make, so it’s great for parties. The original recipe calls for frozen whipped topping but I couldn’t resist using homemade whipped cream.
- 1 cup unsifted flour
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 4½ ounces homemade whipped cream
- 1 large package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 large package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 3 cups cold milk
- Roughly 4½ ounces homemade whipped cream
- Chocolate shavings
- Mix together the flour, butter and chopped nuts until the dough is crumble-like.
- Press the mixture into a greased 9x13-inch pan.
- Bake the cookie crust at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
- Let the cookie crust cool.
- Beat the sugar into the cream cheese until it is smooth.
- Fold in the whipped cream.
- Spread the mixture over the cooled crust.
- Beat the milk into the pudding mixes until the mixture is smooth and thickened.
- Spread the pudding over the middle layer.
- Spread whipped cream over the top.
- Sprinkle the the dessert with grated chocolate candy bar, such as Baker's Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Shavings.
- Cover the layered dessert and refrigerate it until you are ready to serve it.
Tags: butter cookie crust, cake, chocolate, decadent chocolate dessert, layered dessert, pudding, walnuts, whipped cream
We call this recipe Sex-In-A-Pan here in Nova Scotia… love it. I make it now with a brownie on the bottom instead of the cookie layer as I really love chocolate but my Mom still makes it with the cookie layer.
M
Mishelle, the brownie bottom is a great idea. I’ll have to try that sometime. What funny names for a dessert!
I like the funny names, it makes me look at them to see what’s in it.
The last time I made it me and 3 friends were having a chick nite – we had chick movies, frothy girlee drinks and 4 forks. We suffered for all of it the next morning BUT it was one heck of a way to spend an evening with no children or other halves.
M
Oh wow, that looks pretty amazing and yummy! This is getting filed away for special occasions 🙂
Thanks for bringing back great memories of an incredible dessert! It is still one of my very favorites (and so is Robert Redford)!
Thank you for this! It brings back such great memories of my childhood. People always laughed when I told them what my favorite dessert is, but this is it! I am officially making this instead of a boring old pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow!! I doubled the cream cheese layer of course! 😉
You’re welcome, Sara. I hope that you had a happy Thanksgiving!!
Mmmmm, my absolute favorite dessert! We call this Chocolate Lusch though… And this is the cake that I requested every year for my birthday. Love it SO much. Might have to make it this week!
I think we used crumbled heath bars instead of chocolate shavings!
My family calls it “Lucky if there’s any left”!
We called this Ruby Radle cake. My aunt Ruby had the recipe and after she passed, no one knew what the name was. We named it after her. We seperate the vanilla and chocolate pudding and use powder sugar in the cream cheese layer. With splenda and sugar free pudding, you can make this diabetic friendly too. Pecan Sandies work for the crust also, but not diabetic friendly… YUMMY!
My sons call it “Chocolate Delight”.
NOW I know why we always called this a Robert Redford! Once in a while my mother will just call it layered dessert, but I have never used anything but Robert Redford when referring to it. All my 25 years of life (well, most of them) I’ve been asking her why we had named it after him, and she never knew!
My mother used to make this whenever I flew down to Houston for a visit. This brings back lovely memories of times I spent being with her.
We called it “Chocolate Goup” and we still make it every Christmas! Your picture is so pretty compared to ours!
~Fern
It’s Chocolate Delight!
We call it millionaire’s pie!! But it could be called same as Susan’s “Lucky if there’s any left”!
It is always a hit with my relatives! I use powdered sugar instead of sugar, and I use cool whip as opposed to whipped cream. I always top mine with chopped pecans!
I could also call mine “Next best thing to George Clooney”!! =)
We call it “Better than Sex” not exactly a name you can announce at a church gathering!!!! 🙂
We call it Four Way Delight, but we use French vanilla pudding instead of chocolate.
I have been making a version of this for years and we call it better than sex pie. But I use powdered sugar in the cream cheese layer and do the chocolate and vanilla puddings as separate layers. Everyone loves this pie.
We call it Chocolate Lush. We also make it with different puddings, pistachio, lemon, butterscotch… all the flavors are AWESOME!
For years this has been called Yukki Pudding at my house. It is wonderful with lemon instant or butterscotch instant pudding.
My great aunt made this all the time when I was growing up! She called it dream cake! The only thing she did differently was to use powdered sugar with the cream cheese layer. I have tried it with chocolate and banana pudding too! OMG! talk about good!!!! this brings back great memories!!
My Grandma always called it “Bride’s Delight” because she didn’t like the name “sex in a pan” but it is the same wonderful stuff whatever you call it! I love this stuff and am excited about this recipe! My Grandma made it every year for Christmas and I never got the recipe from her. Thanks!
My family always called it ‘Fat cat’ and this is the first time i have ever seen it anywhere else!!
My aunt used to make this and I could never find the recipe…I’m going to go CRAZY with it though and instead of chocolate pudding use nutella!!!! Oh my goodness I can hear the oooo’s and ahhhh’s now!!! You know you all want to go and try it this way now too!! Will update on how it goes 🙂
My family makes a version of this but with crushed Oreo mixed with melted butter as the bottom crust. Yummy!
We call it “Holy Smoke” in this area, and it is super yummy. Thanks for sharing.
I have waiting for someone to pin this recipe! We call it Chocolate Delight and we use graham crackers mixed with the flour. Thank you for the pin!!
This is always a favorite at the potlucks!
I meant it to be 5*
We call this Chocolate Melba. Make it ever holiday.
My mom always made this with coconut pudding. My gtandpa came to visit one time and he tasted it and said that it tasted “musty.” My sister and I just stared at him and thought “how rude!” He then smiled and said “Must have more!” We called it the “Musty Dessert” after that!
This has always been hubby’s favorite dessert. It is often made at the firehouses that he has been stationed at. We call it “four layer delight”. He prefers pistachio, but I like chocolate 🙂
Is there a substitute i can use instead of cream cheese? I just cant seem to like the stuff.
We have always called this Better Than Sex Cake, and I have friends asking for the recipe ALL the time! So good!
My grandma makes this dessert for holidays and birthdays. She found it in one of her hundreds of cookbooks she owns. We call it, “Sin” and it’s an absolute favorite!
Oh, and I’ve also had a version with lemon pudding. It was so refreshing.
At a place in Southern IL, this is called Chocolate Yum Yum.
Everybody I know that fixes this since I was a child many many years ago call this 4 layer delight. And it is yummy.
My mom used to make this at every holiday gathering, and now I do the same. We use chopped pecans or walnuts on top instead of chocolate shavings, and also cool whip instead of whipped cream. Delicious!!
Funny how many names this yummy dessert has. My aunt always made this for our family Sunday dinners and called it Possum Pie.
We call this Awesome Sh*t!! It is truly great and the variations are limitless!!!
My mom’s recipe for this is called Luscious Pie, and there’s no vanilla pudding in it…all chocolate pudding (not sure why it even needs vanilla pudding?). It’s so good! Seeing the pin on pinterest reminded me of her pie, and I’m planning to have it on Mother’s Day nexr week.
Yes, better than Sex dessert, but we called it Lemon Lust when I was younger. Of course, it is made with Lemon pudding. I may have to try the brownie crust with chocolate pudding tho.
I’ve heard it called Baptist Redemption. I put a tablespoon or two of sugar in the crust. You can use sugar free pudding made with fat free milk. It will still be really good.
I grew up eating it at my grandmother’s house and now it’s my husband’s favorite. But…we use lemon pudding instead of the choc and vanilla and we call it Lemon Lush. We’ve made it with the choc pudding before and I’m a confirmed chocoholic, but with this dessert – Lemon Lush is the only way for us!
I have eaten this for thirty years and we always call it “Girdle Buster”. Love it!!