DRUMSTICK TREAT

DRUMSTICK TREAT
Layer 1:
16 Ellie's Peanut Butter Cookies, crushed *
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Spray an 8x8" baking pan with cooking spray. Add the crumbs and butter; mix and press firmly onto the bottom of pan. Freeze while preparing Layers 2 and 3. Prepare the pudding next so it has a chance to cool while preparing Layer 2.

Layer 2:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar free peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped

Beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, sweetener and vanilla; gently fold in the whipped cream. Spread over the chilled crust. Chill well before topping with the pudding.

Layer 3:
1 batch Chocolate Pudding with Carb Countdown Milk, cooled

Carefully spread over the peanut butter layer; chill well before adding Layer 4.

Layer 4:
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1 tablespoon Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1 tablespoon peanuts, finely chopped
Grated sugar free milk chocolate, optional

Add the Splenda to the whipped cream; carefully spread over the pudding layer. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts and grated chocolate, if using. Chill several hours before serving.

Makes 9 servings
Can be frozen

* 16 cookies make about 1 1/4 cups crumbs.

With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 410 Calories; 38g Fat; 10g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 9g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 394 Calories; 38g Fat; 10g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 5g Net Carbs

This is a pretty decadent dessert, the servings are generous and the carbs fairly low if you use liquid Splenda and Carb Countdown milk. This is my adaptation of a high carb dessert of the same name.

It wouldn't be practical for me to post every possible carb count for using every possible ingredient option for this recipe, so I've only posted the counts for using granular Splenda and liquid Splenda. This implies that either granular OR liquid Splenda would be used for every part of the recipe, including the cookies and the pudding. If you can't get Carb Countdown milk, you might have to use heavy cream and water to make the pudding. If you can't get xanthan gum, you might have to use an instant sugar free pudding mix. You'll have to adjust your carb count to take those changes into account. I also have not included the count for the optional milk chocolate topping since I don't use it. I made mine aiming for the lowest possible carb count per serving using liquid Splenda and the recipe as stated. If you can afford the carbs, this would be very good with instant pudding mix prepared with either Carb Countdown milk or part cream and part water. Below is a variation using sugar free instant pudding mix and Whipped Topping:

DRUMSTICK TREAT WITH PUDDING MIX
Layer 1:
16 Ellie's Peanut Butter Cookies, crushed
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Spray a 9x9" baking pan (an 8x8" pan would be too small) with cooking spray. Add the crumbs and butter; mix and press firmly onto the bottom of pan. Freeze while preparing Layers 2 and 3. Prepare the pudding next so it has a chance to set up while preparing Layer 2.

Layer 2:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1/2 batch Whipped Topping

Beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and sweetener; gently fold in the Whipped Topping. Spread over the chilled crust. Chill well before topping with the pudding.

Layer 3:
1 package sugar free instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup water

Prepare the pudding mix as directed on the package using cream and water instead of milk. Keep chilled until needed.

Layer 4:
1 batch Whipped Topping
1 tablespoon peanuts, chopped

Carefully spread Whipped Topping over pudding layer. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Chill several hours before serving.

Makes 9 servings
Can be frozen

With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 492 Calories; 47g Fat; 9g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 9g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 487 Calories; 47g Fat; 9g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 8g Net Carbs

UPDATE: For some reason when I added the melted butter to the cookie crumbs this time, they turned to mush. That's never happened before and I can only guess that either the brand of WPI that I used to make them is somehow different or that the sugar free Peter Pan peanut butter I used was the problem. To save the day, I pressed the mush onto the bottom of the pan and froze the crust until it was firm before adding the next layer. I won't know for a couple days what the texture will be like.

I also had a bit of trouble spreading the whipped topping over the instant pudding because it's so fluffy. I gave up trying not to get any pudding mixed into the topping and the chopped peanuts kind of covered up the mess anyway.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The crust was fine, but not quite like a normal crumb crust. It was very compact and almost like a candy crust. I should also mention that using instant chocolate pudding caused a bit of a problem with the appearance of the dessert. The red food coloring in the pudding bled into the white whipped topping on the top and turned it an ugly pink. That didn't seem to keep anyone from eating it though.

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