Easy No Bake Chocolate Delight Dessert with Pecan Crust

Whip up the best ever no bake chocolate delight dessert with a buttery pecan nut crust. Easy layered dessert recipe with chocolate pudding, a creamy Dream Whip filling and a fluffy whipped topping! It's the ultimate make-ahead recipe that's perfect for potlucks, family gatherings or just a lazy weeknight dessert.

I'll confess, I have an obsession with no bake desserts. See, it all started with my mom's family-favorite cherry crunch, which was basically a cherry delight with a pecan pie crust, a Dream Whip cream cheese filling, and cherry pie filling on top. Quick and easy, with no baking involved!

Since then, I've branched off of that recipe and made all kinds of different flavors, including a strawberry delight, blueberry delight and even a pumpkin delight. Recently I decided to use instant pudding and make this easy chocolate delight recipe. And let me tell you, this is easily one of the best chocolate desserts I've ever eaten.

Why I Know You'll Love This Chocolate Delight Dessert

• This is a quick and easy, no bake dessert. I can usually make it in 15 minutes or less!
• You can actually make it ahead of time, so it's perfect for potlucks, holidays, picnics or other large gatherings.
• Chocolate delight is best served cold, straight out of the refrigerator, so it's perfectly light and refreshing for a hot summer day!
• The rich chocolate pudding filling is perfect for all you chocolate lovers out there, and this layered pudding dessert is topped off with a creamy whipped topping that almost reminds me of my favorite dessert, chocolate meringue pie– except this one is way easier to make!

Ingredients Notes & Substitutions

• Pecan Nut Pie Crust – Before making this recipe, you'll want to get a pie crust baked and ready to go. I use an easy homemade pecan nut pie crust for this chocolate delight dessert.
• Cream Cheese – For a thicker, creamier texture, I like to add a couple packages of full fat cream cheese to the whipped filling.
• Dream Whip – I use Dream Whip for both the filling and the topping. If you don't have any Dream Whip on hand, Cool Whip would also work well.
• Milk – You can also use 2% milk or even skim milk, but I highly recommend whole milk for this recipe.
• Vanilla Extract – You can use imitation vanilla, but I prefer a 100% real vanilla extract for most recipes.
• Powdered Sugar – I like to whisk a little bit of powdered sugar into the filling, also sometimes called confectioners' sugar.
• Instant Chocolate Pudding – For the sake of ease, I just use instant chocolate pudding mix from the store.

How to Make the Best Chocolate Delight Recipe

Before getting started, lightly coat a 13×9 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and press your pecan shortbread crust into the dish. You'll want to get it baked and let it cool to room temperature before adding any filling.

How to Make the Dream Whip Filling

1. Start by beating the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl, separately from everything else. I like to use an electric hand mixer for this step, but you can also use an electric stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
2. In a separate large bowl, whisk together 2 packages of the Dream Whip with 1 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, for about 4 minutes or 'til soft peaks form. Again, an electric mixer is handy for this step.
3. Add the whipped cream cheese and powdered sugar to the Dream Whip mixture, and whisk for 3 to 5 more minutes, or until smooth and creamy.
4. Finally, spread about half of this Dream Whip and cream cheese mixture to the pie crust that you pressed into your 13×9 baking dish in the first step. This will be the bottom layer for your chocolate delight.

Layering the Chocolate Pudding

Now that you've added the bottom layer for your chocolate delight dessert, it's time to add the next layer. Then we'll add one more Dream Whip layer; think of it as making a chocolate lasagna!

1. Whisk the chocolate pudding mix with another 4 cups of milk in a medium mixing bowl, until everything is totally dissolved. Then let it sit for about 5 minutes, 'til set up and thickened.
2. Next, use a spatula to scrape all of the chocolate pudding mixture out of the medium bowl and over top of the Dream Whip and cream cheese layer that you spread in the baking dish earlier.
3. Last but not least, spread the rest of the Dream Whip filling that you saved back earlier over top of the chocolate pudding layer.

How to Serve Your Chocolate Delight Dessert

That's it! Cover with cling wrap and let chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving. The longer it chills, the better this chocolate pudding dessert will taste!

Once chilled, I like to top off my chocolate delight dessert with chopped pecans or chopped walnuts and mini chocolate chips. This is a great make-ahead dessert to serve at a potluck or party, or really anywhere you need to feed a crowd.

Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ's

Recipe Variations

• You don't have to use chocolate pudding. In fact, you can use instant vanilla pudding, banana cream pudding, cheesecake pudding, butterscotch pudding, lemon pudding or even coconut cream pudding instead!
• Just use a different crust, like a graham cracker crust, shortbread crust, vanilla wafer crust, crushed pretzel crust, or even just a regular shortcut pie crust. The Oreo cookie crust from this white chocolate raspberry cheesecake recipe would be perfect for this dessert!
• Looking for more topping ideas? You could sprinkle chocolate shavings, mini M&M's, crushed Butterfingers or Snickers on top. Sometimes I like to drizzle chocolate syrup or caramel syrup on top!
• As mentioned at the top of the post, you can also make fruit delights, like strawberry delight, cherry delight and blueberry delight. Be creative!

More No Bake Desserts

• Lemon Icebox Pie
• Strawberry Cool Whip Dessert
• Strawberry Angel Food Cake Dessert
• No Bake Strawberry Lush Dessert
• No Bake Banana Pudding
• Cream Cheese Blueberry Pie
• Strawberry Cream Pie

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