Minty Treats

Whew! The last two days I've been busy putting together a photo book from our first anniversary trip so it will be ready to send to print tomorrow! (Which also means I have finished sorting through our pictures from Portland and will share the rest of our trip with you later this week. Finally!)

This past weekend we had a full house! We hosted three sets of guests, including overnight guests...some of my hubby's extended family who were in town for a wedding. We ate some delicious food, visited with friends & family, and the weekend was over before we knew it!

I made this dessert this weekend and wanted to share! Its a minty fresh twist on the well-known & loved Dirt Cake. I have loved dirt cake for years and I love the combination of mint & chocolate, so I wanted to see if I could create a mint version.

Since we had company for dessert two nights in a row, and I didn't want tons of yummy leftover dessert in the house tempting me to eat it all week, I decided to make individual serving cups of the dessert. I had the perfect amount for our guests and wasn't serving an already cut or dug into dessert the second evening. And dirt cake is always the best on the 2nd or 3rd day after being in the refrigerator overnight!

Mint Dirt Cake

Ingredients:
1 Package of Mint Oreo Cookies
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 stick of Butter, softened
1 cup Powdered Sugar
12 oz. Cool Whip
2 small boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding
3 cups cold Milk
1 teaspoon Peppermint extract
10-11 individual serving cups OR a 9x13 baking dish

Crush the oreos. You can crush them in a food processor, or seal them in a ziploc bag and use your rolling pin to crush them.

Using a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, margarine, peppermint extract and powdered sugar in a medium mixing bowl until fluffy. Stir in the Cool Whip.

In a separate bowl, mix together 2 small boxes of vanilla pudding & 3 cups of cold milk. (I used 1% milk, but any variety would work fine. I also substituted one small box of pistachio pudding for one box of vanilla. I only had one box of vanilla on hand, so I made do with what I had! I couldn't tell any taste difference and the pistachio actually gave a nice light green color to the filling.) After the pudding mixture is set, stir it into the cream cheese mixture and blend it together well.

If you are using a 9x13 dish, spread 1/2 of the crushed oreos in the bottom of the ungreased dish. Spread out the filling evenly in the dish, covering the oreos. Top with a layer of the remaining oreos and pat the top layer with pressure to help the layers hold together.

If you are using individual serving dishes (glass ice cream serving cups or fancy glass coffee glasses work well), put a scoop of crushed oreos in the bottom of each. Add approximately an inch of the filling in each glass, top with another layer of oreos & filling, and top with oreos. You can garnish each glass with a sprig of mint & a cookie before serving.

Refrigerate a minimum of 2-3 hours, but it is at it's absolute best after being chilled in the fridge overnight!

We really enjoyed the mint twist on this dessert and I will definitely be making it again! It is a perfect fresh dessert, especially for the summer. Enjoy!