Marco Death Pudding 01

This is Bryn's first attempt at making Marco Death Pudding, on August 30th, 2013.

Recipe Used

Ingredients:

• 1 15-ounce package vanilla sandwich cookies (you can also substitute graham crackers)
• 1 3.9-ounce package butterscotch instant pudding
• 2 cups cold milk
• 8 ounces whipped topping (like Cool Whip)
• Gummy bones (you can also substitute candy or marshmallow bones)
• 8 Swedish Fish (or any fish-shaped candy)
• 8 toothpicks
• orange bobas (for the monster eggs)
• chocolate 'rocks' (for the rocks the cadets stand on for safety)

Directions:

• Place the vanilla sandwich cookies in a large zip-top plastic bag, and use a rolling pin to crush them into small pieces. Don't worry about removing the cream filling before putting the cookies in the bag – at first they will clump together, but as you continue to crush them, the cream will blend with the cookies and you won't even notice it. Continue to crush the cookies in the bag until they are in fine crumbs.
• Next, make the pudding. Pour the dry pudding mix into a large bowl, then add the cold milk. Whisk everything together until all of the dry pudding dissolves and it's smooth and free of lumps. Let the pudding sit for about 5 minutes, until it thickens and is no longer liquid. If it has the delightfully gloppy texture of pudding, you're ready to go on.
• Add the whipped topping and approximately half of the cookie crumbs. You don't have to measure, just eyeball half the bag and pour it in.
• Gently stir everything together until the streaks of whipped topping disappear, and the cookies are well-mixed into the pudding.
• Divide the pudding mixture evenly between eight cups – each should hold a little over 1/2-cup of pudding.
• Tap the cups on the countertop a few times to level the pudding, then insert a few gummy bones into the pudding and press them down a little so that they're embedded.
• Pour the cookie crumbs over the pudding and gummy bones so that the entire top is covered with "sand." Smooth it into an even layer with your hands, and then add a few more gummy bones sticking half-out of the "sand".
• Finally, stick a toothpick into the candy fish and leave "Marco's Staff" lying forlornly in the "sand". :D

Pictures

I used Golden Oreos, but you can use whatever vanilla sandwich cookie you feel like using.

Destruction with rolling pins! As you can see, blotches of cream filling stick to the inside of the bag. If you want to, you can scrape them off later.

View inside the bag. A few larger chunks at the top, but the bottom of the bag is mostly all tiny crumbs.

I used the banana cream pudding because I liked the shade of yellow on the box. Butterscotch looked too dark and I wanted something other than plain vanilla.

I couldn't find a whisk in the house, so I made do. I'm afraid the final product ended up with a few lumps.

Mixing in the whipped cream and the cookies! I forgot to thaw my whipped cream, so it still is holding the impression of the bowl it came in. In the future, you can always run some hot water over the container to soften the whipped cream. It started to melt as I was mixing it, but I'm afraid there were prob still some lumps of cream here and there.

I didn't realize how much lighter in color it would get once the whipped cream is mixed in. I think next time I'll try butterscotch instead - even though it seemed medium/dark brown on the box, I think the whipped cream will lighten it to a nice sandy brown.

I couldn't find any gummy bones, and I didn't want to make it without something gummy, so I used two worms per cup. If you really want it to match the theme, you can imagine that they are monster worms living under the sand, finishing off any remains that the sand sharks leave behind.

I think half the cookies added into the mix is too much - I barely had enough cookies for the top of the pudding cups, and I only ended up with 6 cups when the recipe advertised 8.

Swedish Fish, orange bobas, and chocolate rocks. The chocolate rocks come in a mixture of colors, but the tan ones blended in too much with the vanilla cookies. I really like how the reddish-brown ones stood out.

Frontish view: The toothpick nearly vanished as the weight of the candy fish pushed it down. On these I ended up sticking "Marco's Staff" in at an angle, so you can see the toothpick, but next time I'd probably use a bamboo kabob skewer, so that it has enough length to stick down into the pudding.

Top view: I love love LOVE the way the decorations look. It really looks like monster eggs and a rock path! Overall, I am thrilled with how this turned out. :D

Alas, Marco, we barely knew thee... *nomnomnom*