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This Mud Pie Recipe is made with creamy layers of sweetened cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream over a crunchy and buttery crust. Decadent, rich, delicious!
Featured in this recipe
This mud pie recipe is simple to make, yet rich and indulgent, just the way a perfect dessert should be! We love to make it during the summertime because it’s cool and refreshing, and serves a crowd. Perfect for summer picnics, barbecues or backyard gatherings or even quiet summer nights on the patio when the mood calls for something sweet. Layers of chocolate, buttery crust, cream cheese layer, and fluffy whipped topping make this a dessert that is absolutely to die for!
Ingredients in Mud Pie
This recipe is a delightful twist on a classic Mississippi mud pie recipe, but with a few shortcuts to make it a bit easier and faster to make. Each layer uses only a few ingredients, many of them store-bought. Here’s what you need:
CRUST:
- Flour – a cup of all purpose flour is all you need
- Butter – I like to use unsalted butter for this recipe to control the amount of sodium in the dish.
- Pecans – finely chopped. You can use a food processor or chop them by hand.
CREAM CHEESE LAYER:
- Cream cheese – make sure the cream cheese is softened to room temperature; it’ll whip together more smoothly with the other cream layers
- Powdered sugar – Sift the sugar before adding to the cream cheese to avoid lumps
- Cool whip – you’ll use about half a carton in this layer.
CHOCOLATE PUDDING LAYER:
- Instant chocolate pudding mix – You can use one small package of butterscotch and one chocolate, or just two packages of chocolate pudding.
- Milk – use whole or 2% COLD milk.
- Cool whip – use the rest of the carton of cool whip for this layer
Layer it Up
- To make the crust, use a stand mixer to mix the melted butter, flour and chopped pecans together. Then press it into the bottom of a rectangle pan. You could also use a 9-inch pie plate. Bake in the oven for just about 15 minutes, then cool completely. Once it’s mostly cooled, you can pop the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the process.
- For the cream cheese layer, whisk together room temperature cream cheese with the powdered sugar and cool whip until light and fluffy, then pour over the cooled pecan crust.
- Next, beat the instant pudding with the cold milk on medium speed in a large bowl for a couple of minutes. Then carefully spread over the cream cheese layer.
- Finally, use a knife to spread on the remaining cool whip and chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator to set.
Suggestions and Variations for this Mud Pie Recipe
- The chocolate pudding layer can be easily swapped out for any other kind of pudding flavor. We have made it with pistachio pudding, butterscotch and lemon and they’re all so tasty! You could also try cookies and cream, chocolate mint, or plain vanilla. The pudding layers completely change the entire dynamic of the dessert, making it wonderfully versatile and delicious.
- For an added layer of texture, add crushed up candy bar, cookie crumbs, chocolate chips, or chopped walnuts or pecans to the top as a garnish.
- Drizzle chocolate sauce or hot fudge sauce over the top of each serving.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mud Pie
It’s best to chill this dessert until the very last minute, then slice immediately before serving, so the layers hold their shape.
Keep leftovers covered tightly in the fridge for up to five days. I love leftovers because the crust gets nice and soft and mixes beautifully with the layers. So yummy!
You can swap out the pecans in the crust for chocolate cookies to make a chocolate cookie crust instead!
More Tasty Summer Dessert Recipes
Summer dinners on the patio call for something light and sweet. Try a few of these favorite indulgent recipes for your next warm weather gathering.
- Frozen Banana Split Dessert
- Blueberry Jell-O Salad
- Cinnamon Swirl Cake
- Chocolate Pudding Cake
- Four Layer Banana Pudding Dessert
- Duke’s Hula Pie (Copycat)
- Easy Berry Pie
- Coconut Cream Pie From Scratch
Mud Pie Recipe
Video
Equipment
- 9 X 13 inch Pan
- Hand Mixer
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup pecans finely chopped
For the cream cheese layer:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 9 ounces cool whip ½ of carton
For the pudding layer:
- 2 3.4 ounce packs of instant pudding mix 1 butterscotch and 1 chocolate
- 2 1/2 cups milk cold
For the topping:
- cool whip other ½ of carton
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Mix thoroughly and press into the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 min, then cool.
For the cream cheese layer:
- Beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip til smooth.
- Spread evenly over cooled crust.
For the pudding layer:
- Beat for 2 minutes then spread evenly over the cream cheese layer.
For the topping:
- Spread on remaining cool whip and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Notes
- make sure the cream cheese is softened to room temperature; it’ll whip together more smoothly with the other cream layers
- sift the sugar before adding to the cream cheese to avoid lumps
- I like to use unsalted butter for this recipe to control the amount of sodium in the dish.
Nutrition Information
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This was so delicious! My husband is a major chocolate lover lover and he gives it two thumbs up!
Oh yum, what a lovely dessert. Looks delicious, creamy but so light. I will definitely make this for my family. They will love it.
Loved it! Thank you for sharing, just the perfect sweet treat I needed!
Yum! This looks so delicious and tasty! My family is going to love this!
Wow, this was so good! Loved the different layers in this recipe.
Such a delicious and easy pie to die for! This would be so good for Thanksgiving.
I have actually never had the traditional version before but each layer of this is so good! We loved it!
This pie is seriously nothing short of amazing! My daughter is obsessed, my wife is obsessed and this is not going to be made all the time. Thank you!
This looks like it would be perfect with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. I haven’t had mudpie in ages now.
I love mud pie, we use to have it all the time during the Summer as kids. My girls love it as well!
It’s been ages since I’ve had mud pie and this reminded me how much I’ve been missing!
I make this all the time but it’s called Four Layer Delight. It’s not anything like the Mud Pies I know and I’m from the South.
This is a favorite, but we call it “Piggy Pudding”
This looks delicious! Is a cube of butter the same as one stick of better? Sorry if that is a stupid question but I am just not sure.
Yep! 1 cube=1 stick
Thanks!!
Yummy! I brought this to a dinner we were invited to and it was a HUGE hit. I could eat the entire pan all by myself. I LOVE your blog, thanks for all the great ideas!
Pretty and simple is what we need sometimes. There are those days, I like to fuss and experiment. Then, there are the others when I want someone to give me an easy way to make a delicious, good looking dessert. This sounds like it fills the bill.
My grandma used to make this every holiday and it's always been my favorite! I've never known exactly how to make it and I'm so excited to have found this! 🙂
made this for my work party, everyone loved it! I love your recipe blog!
OOOOOOH Yum! That looks so good. We are Americans temporarily living in England through my husband's job, and we can't get Cool-Whip here. Bummer!! It's in tons of American recipes that I will just have to wait to make.
I am a canadian living in Australia, and same deal here. No butterscotch chips, graham crackers, or cool whip. That wipes out all my favorite recipes! You should see my suitcase after a trip home – it’s all filled with food!
This was my favorite dessert growing up, and I still love it. I've tried just about every flavor of pudding and they are all fabulous!
MMMMmmmm! My mom used to make that…I'm going to have to try it soon…
I have something similar on my website. It is sooo good. I love this dessert!