This Lemon Hush with its crumbly, buttery crust, cream cheese filling, lemon pudding and cool whip topping is sure to become an Easter must have dessert.
**Update: this post was originally shared in March 2012. Photos and text have been updated to reflect the current feel of my blog. The recipe has not been changed.
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This Lemon Hush is one of my top 5 favorite desserts of all time. ALL TIME I say. It has a weird name so let’s discuss everything that goes into this dreamy lemon dessert so you can fully understand just why you need it in your life.
The first layer is a super simple shortbread crust that comes together in a snap. Flour, butter and walnuts are zapped in the food processor (or you can cut it together by hand with a pastry cutter or two forks). Once it resembles crumbly sand, press it into a 13×9 pan and bake.
While the crust is baking, you can mix up the next two layers. The first is a cream cheese layer that adds a creamy and tangy flavor profile to the lemon hush. This layer is another 3 ingredient wonder consisting of cream cheese, powdered sugar and Cool Whip.
The lemon layer comes next and is simply lemon pudding mix and milk. It calls for less milk than the box states so that it gets thicker and holds together better.
So once the crust is cooled, the layers are carefully spread over the crust. Like I said earlier, it’s really crumbly so I take little dollops and drop them all over the crust and carefully spread them together so that I don’t pull the crust up.
The last little layer is more Cool Whip, because why not. And a sprinkle of chopped walnuts for more crunchy texture.
It’s creamy, tangy, buttery and has a nice crunch from the nuts. It’s just so much goodness, flavor and texture in one bite.
And it’s perfectly refreshing and springy for Easter.
Lemon Hush
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 stick unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup walnuts
For the cream cheese layer:
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 8 oz. Cool Whip, thawed
For the lemon layer:
- 2 3.4 oz. boxes instant lemon pudding mix
- 3 cups whole milk
For the topping:
- 4 oz. Cool Whip, thawed
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, butter and walnuts until a crumbly mixture forms. If you don’t have a food processor, use a pastry cutter or two fork to combine the ingredients. Press into a 13×9 pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool.
- Mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar and Cool Whip until completely smooth. Drop in small dollops all over the crust and carefully smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until very thick. Dollop over the cream cheese layer and spread evenly.
- Spread the Cool Whip over the lemon pudding and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Cover and refrigerate until firm.