Baileys Cookies 'N Cream Pudding

The holidays are in full swing, but this simple adult dessert can be served year-round. It's smooth and light, but so easy to make. A perfect substitute for milk and cookies by the fireplace, or for unwinding on a Summer night.

The dairy aspect of Baileys Irish Cream makes it so wonderfully versatile to use in dessert recipes in order to give them that extra kick that many of us need in the midst of this busy--and cold--time of year.

Luckily, this recipe won't add any stress to an already busy time of year. It's quick and simple, but depending on how you present them, you can make it look like you spent hours perfecting them.

Ingredients:

1 small pack instant chocolate pudding

1 small pack instant vanilla pudding.

2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups Baileys Irish Cream

Whipped cream for decoration

Oreos for decoration

Directions:

Start out with the vanilla pudding package in a mixing bowl.

Add 1 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of Irish Cream. Usually the small instant pudding packs call for 2 cups of milk, but when splitting it with Irish Cream I go with a little less of the cream. Otherwise, the pudding doesn't thicken as well. If you really feel that you need to round up to an even cup of Irish Cream for some reason, I guess you could just treat yourself to a 1/4 cup drink while you make it.

Mix the pudding and liquids. This feels like it takes a bit longer when you're using Irish Cream, but it will eventually thicken into a pudding consistency.

Once the pudding has thickened, fill your cups about halfway with it and place them in the fridge.

Next, you'll make the chocolate pudding in the same manner that you made the vanilla, sticking with 1 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of Irish Cream. It's still enough Irish Cream to get the taste of it mixed in with each of the pudding flavors, so no need to worry that the taste will be completely washed out by lowering the amount compared to milk.

When your chocolate pudding has thickened to the proper consistency, fill your cups the rest of the way.

At this stage, if you plan on serving the puddings later, cover your cups and place them in the fridge to avoid that not so pleasant layer uncovered pudding gets from forming on the top.

When you're ready to serve your puddings, top them with a little bit of whipped cream and some crushed Oreos. Since I wanted my cookie pieces to be rather large, I simply used the back of a spoon and pressed down on the cookies before sprinkling them over the whipped cream and pudding. If you want finer pieces, feel free to use a rolling pin or a food processor to crush the Oreos.

The last step is to serve and enjoy!

Pudding has a certain nostalgia to it if you grew up like I did, where it was the occasional treat for dessert. My favorite was (of course) chocolate, but butterscotch was a close second (and why are there not more butterscotch flavored foods in the world?). This recipe let me remake that childhood favorite into an adult treat, but it didn't lose the magic. There was that anticipation that I remember having as a child when pudding was going to be the dessert of the evening.

If there's ever a year to revisit and revamp old favorites, it's this one. If this recipe could help you with that, then I'm glad. If not, then I hope you find another one that will.

Happy Holidays to everyone!