Worms and dirt for dessert? Trust me. Kids will love this Oreo dirt dessert and you will too!
★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
You can make this dessert in a pan like a cake, or layer it in a trifle bowl. Decorate it with worms or, with a little creativity, you can dress it up for any holiday.
This delicious dessert is a crowd favorite for several reasons. It tastes amazing, it's easy to make, and it's just so fun to eat dirt.
What is Dirt dessert, exactly?
Dirt dessert is a classic American dessert made by blending pudding, cream cheese and cool whip then topping or layering with crushed Oreos.
The crushed Oreos look a lot like dirt especially when you add in gummy worms or other candies that make you think of Earthy dirt.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
You only need 6 ingredients to make this Oreo Dirt Dessert!
You'll need: cream cheese, instant vanilla pudding mix, milk, Cool Whip, Oreos and gummy worms.
It's very important to buy and use instant pudding mix or the filling will not set.
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
This is easy enough for kids to make!
This recipe is fun to make with kids and if you have older children, they could probably make it themselves.
No cooking required. Gottta love that right? Perfect for the summer months or you can even make it when camping. Just a little blending and layering.
Here are the steps:
- Blend cream cheese, instant pudding and milk.
- Fold in Cool Whip.
- Add Oreo cookies to a large ziplock bag. Crush them using a rolling pin.
- Layer filling then cookie crumbs in a trifle bowl or flat cake pan.
- Add decorative toppings!
Gummy worms are added to the top layer to give the illusion of edible "dirt" or take it a step further and add other toppings. More ideas below.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Share with friends! So you don't eat it all yourself... 😉
Just warning you, this dessert is addicting. 🙂 But seriously. This feeds a crowd! So it's great for parties and picnics.
Using a Trifle Bowl
You can prepare this dessert in a trifle bowl. This option is fun because all the layers are visible so people can see what they are digging into. 😉
Or maybe you want it to look more like a cake. In that case, you can prepare this dirt dessert in a flat cake pan.
Layer this with a "dirt" or white top layer.
You can layer this so that the Oreos are on top, or so that the pudding mixture is on top if you want a white background for your decorations.
You can top this with fruit for a patriotic look (perfect for a 4th of July or Memorial Day celebration) and the red and blue fruit show up nicely with the white layer on top.
Here's a fun way to decorate this dessert for Halloween!
Want individual servings of this dessert?
Serve this dirt dessert in individual cups like a cupcake. You could use small disposable cups, or reusable silicon cupcake liners.
You could even use flower pots! Get creative.
People sometimes prepare this dessert in little cups and add edible or silk flowers or plants to the "dirt" which would be cute for a wedding or baby shower.
Try looking for food-safe mini flower pots to serve them in. Or line regular flower pots with cupcake liners, and then place a real, fondant, or silk flower in each pot.
This would be really cute for a girl's birthday or graduation party too. You could choose any color flower to match the other party decor.
Since this recipe for dirt dessert is pretty easy and doesn't take a lot of time to make, you can spend more time planning out the look of the dessert. Have fun with it!
The "dirt" theme is pretty versatile and can transform to fit almost any party theme.
This is a great dessert for a little boy's birthday party made with gummy worms!
Halloween!
For Halloween party, turn this tasty dirt dessert into a spooky graveyard with graves made from Milano cookies labeled with a food-safe marker, royal icing or melt chocolate and pipe it onto each cookie using a very fine piping tip.
Use edible fondant succulents and turn this into a pretty wedding dessert.
Or add trucks and it would make a cute birthday "mud" cake... You can get really creative with things when dirt is your starting point, ha!
This dirt dessert is perfect for potlucks, birthdays and holidays too.
You truly don't even need a special occasion to make this yummy dessert though. It's so delicious and is always a hit at potlucks or family gatherings. Kids especially love the worms, of course, but honestly adults get a kick out of them too!
We made this for Easter this year and topped it with green sprinkles and candy eggs so it looked like an Easter Egg hunt. The possibilities are endless!
Two Ways to Crush Oreos
You can use a food processor, or you can place the Oreos in a large ziplock bag and go over them with a rolling pin until the turn into crumbs.
Use vanilla Oreos to make "sand."
Prefer a beach theme? You could swap out traditional Oreos and the "dirt" look with vanilla Oreos and create a "sandy" looking dessert! This would be great for a beach or ocean themed party. You could serve them in mini beach buckets and add drink umbrellas!
You could combine this sandy theme with this other Jello dessert of mine — Jello Fish Bowls — to create a beach and water dessert.
How long is this Oreo dirt dessert good for?
I would recommend making this and serving right away.
After a few hours, the Oreo crumbs can begin to get a little soggy. For that reason, I would not recommend making it the night before.
Looking to cut calories but not taste?
Try substituting vanilla Greek Yogurt for half the cream cheese and half the Cool Whip. The creamy texture and sweet-tart flavor of Greek yogurt tastes great and makes and awesome substitute for lighting up the original recipe.
★ More Recipes You'll Love ★
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This easy Oreo Dirt Dessert recipe was featured on Hearth and Soul!
Oreo Dirt Dessert
Ingredients
- 16 oz. cream cheese softened
- 8 oz. Cool Whip
- 1 box instant vanilla pudding 3.9 oz
- 3 cups milk
- 25.5 oz Oreos (Party Size package)
- 1 small package gummy worms
Instructions
- Place cream cheese in a mixing bowl, add instant pudding mix and milk then blend with a hand mixer until smooth. Stir in Cool Whip and place dirt mixture in fridge until ready to assemble.
- Place Oreos into a plastic bag and lightly roll with a rolling pin until the cookies crumble and you can't see the white cream anymore and it begins to actually look like dirt.
- Assemble in layers. Oreo "dirt" crumbles on the very bottom, then cream cheese mixture, alternating until the last layer of Oreos is on top.
- Refrigerate until served. Add worms or other decorations to your dirt dessert right before serving!
My tips are assemble as close to serving as possible so the Oreos don’t get soggy. Use Philadelphia cream cheese. Blend the Oreos in a food processor instead of using a rolling pin. It’s night and day and really comes out looking like dirt. I used a fun Halloween bucket that resembles a pale you would bring to the beach and I stuck a small beach shovel in there to make it look like a bucket of dirt.
I love this dessert and I made your recipe perfectly the first time. Now that I'm trying to make it again, I have failed 3 times and feel defeated. The pudding, cream cheese, milk mix just stays liquid and won't solidify at all. Any suggestions!?
Oh Emily, I'm sorry! I would guess that maybe you picked up regular pudding instead of instant pudding. The packaging is very tricky. "Instant" is in very small lettering. I've made this mistake myself. I hope this helps!
What size package of Oreos are you supposed to use??
@Angela G., thank you so much!!! I am going to make sure I double check it and try again.
I also noticed with many of the generic cream cheese brands they stay clumpy, and don't work as well as good old philadelphia brand when cooking... and using whole milk... less than whole milk is not as thick and creamy, and a little more watered down each step you go down in percentage...
If I mix it all together instead of layering, do you think there would be an issue?
The Oreos may get a little soggy if you don’t layer. Ideally you’ll want to have Oreos as a top layer so they keep some of their crunch.
Turned out good! I used a blender for the Oreos and that was a lot easier.
Glad you enjoyed it!