Thor's Pretty and Dessert is Good

You know what I love?  Movies and food.  This is a story of how the two came together for me recently.  A few days before the 4th of July, a friend had asked for my friend Carol's recipe for a dessert called Better than Robert Redford.  This is apparently a classic dessert that she learned from her Mother In Law, Ruth.  As I was perusing the recipe I was struck by two things...1st there was a good chance the friend asking for the recipe probably only has a vague notion of who Robert Redford is as I don't think she's out of her twenties.  And two adding caramel to this thing might be good.  So good in fact that it might warrant the dessert getting a new name. 

Which leads me to a movie I saw recently.  It's called Thor.  You might have heard of it.  It's based on the Marvel comic of the same name and apparently Thor makes an appearance in this new Avenger's movie that's playing at what they call a movie theater.  A movie theater is a place you go with your sweetie before you have kids.  After that you can still go to the movie theater, you just see animated films that normally don't have shirtless guys with abnormally large pecs.  So anyway back to Thor.  To say I have been smitten by Mr. Chris Hemsworth as Thor is a bit of an understatement.  And at the very least he deserves to have a dessert named after him!  So without further ado see the recipe for what I'm calling Better Than Thor below.  And if you would like to try the original Better Than Robert Redford you can go to the link below.  Please note however that Carol tipped me off that you need to double the crust ingredients in the recipe at the link or it won't be thick enough:

http://www.recipe.com/better-than-robert-redford-dessert/

Better Than Thor Dessert

·  2  cups

all-purpose flour

·  2  cups

coarsely chopped pecans

·  1 cup

(2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

•  Jar Caramel sauce

·  1  package (8 ounces)

cream cheese, softened

·  1  cup

confectioners' sugar

·  1  container (8 ounces)

frozen whipped topping, thawed

·  4  cups

milk

·  2  boxes (3.4 ounces each)

instant vanilla pudding

·  2  boxes (3.9 ounces each)

instant chocolate pudding

·   

Chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips

Pre heat the oven to 350.  Use your mixer to make a batter of the flour, pecans and melted butter.  Once it’s mixed spread it into a Pam sprayed ( or whatever technique you like to use for greasin’ it up) 13 x 9 rectangle Pyrex ( or whatever brand your 13 x 9 is).  Try to make it really even.  This  isn’t my strong suit and my crust looked a bit like rough terrain, but still tastes fine.  Martha Stewart I’m not.  Once you are happy with your spreading, bake the crust for 15 minutes.  Then cool completely.  This step could take awhile so maybe plan to take a break here and read War and Peace or something.  But clean your mixer first since you’re going to need it again.

Once the crust is cool, spread a jar of caramel sauce.  I use Hershey’s because it’s the only one at my store that doesn’t also qualify itself as passable for butterscotch.  Since I’m not 100% that those two are capable of passing for one another, I choose the one that doesn’t seem to have an identity problem.  Use the whole jar.  What else are you going to do with it? 

Let this set for a minute and meanwhile… beat your cream cheese and sugar in your mixer.  It was expensive, we might as well use it.  Once it’s fully combined fold in half of the frozen whipped topping.  ( I used Publix lite…I know, I know … it’s like drinking Diet Coke with a cheesecake or this.)  Then spread the mixture over the caramel.  This worked best by making six dollops across the caramel, then spreading the dollops.  Otherwise it’s all going to mix together.

Next make the vanilla pudding using 2 of the cups of milk per the package instructions.  Use the same dollop technique you used above to spread this over the cream cheese layer.  Then make the chocolate pudding using the remaining 2 cups of milk and again, spread as you have been.  Now spread the remaining whipped topping over the whole mess.  At this point, cover and refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.  Generally the longer it sits the better it gets. 

Sprinkle with nuts and mini chocolate chips.  Cut and eat.  Think about Thor.