Chocolate Delight aka "Sex in a Pan"

This dessert goes by many different names, depending on who you ask, and where they're serving it or who they're serving it to! I found this one on South Your Mouth (LOVE that blog!!) and knew I had to give this one a try myself. It looks like the quintessential southern dessert to bring to a get together or pot luck. This one falls into the convenience food category for sure. Cool whip, pudding mix, and some cream cheese are the essentials. My Kitchen Aid mixer got a great work out for this one, but sure made quick work of the different layers that had to be mixed together!

I wanted the crust to cool quickly (since I started making this later in the evening) so after it came out of the oven, I put a clean dish cloth over the top and laid ice packs on top. This worked well to cool the crust in a reduced amount of time. This recipe makes a generous 9x13 pan and is irresistibly creamy and delicious. It is VERY rich and sweet, so a little goes a long way! This one will definitely be on my "go to" list next time I need a dessert for a get together!

Chocolate Delight slightly adapted from South Your Mouth

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened and sliced into chunks
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
Pinch of salt
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
16 oz. Cool Whip, divided
2 3.9-oz. boxes instant chocolate pudding
3 cups milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Pulse 1 1/4 cups of pecans in a food processor or blender, until they are small/fine pieces. Add them to the flour and butter in a bowl and use a pastry blender to cut butter into mixture. Use hands to work mixture together until a nice shortbread dough forms. (I had to work it for a few minutes by hand to warm the butter up and get everything to combine, just using the pastry blender resulted in a very floury and not doughy mixture!) Once you have a dough, press it into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Mix softened cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add in half of the Cool Whip and mix well until combined.  Spread cream cheese mixture evenly onto cooled crust.
4. Mix pudding mixes and milk with an electric mixer until combined, then mix on medium speed for two more minutes. Spread chocolate mixture evenly onto cream cheese layer.  
5. Spread remaining Cool Whip onto chocolate layer then sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chopped pecans.