Auntie Barb’s homemade Thanksgiving squares
Looking for an alternative to pie? This Thanksgiving, try Auntie Barb’s homemade pudding squares.
Auntie Barb Kapuakela, who moved into her new Habitat home this past August with her siblings, is excited to host the holidays at her new home for the first time in years. As a long-held tradition, she’ll be making her famous chocolate and banana squares, a layered dessert starting with a cookie crust and topped cool whip and chopped nuts.
“Growing up, we used to get together at Thanksgiving and we would cook ham, turkey with all the fixings, and all of our family would come together,” Barb recalls. “As everybody got bigger and moved on, and as my siblings and I got older, we didn’t get together as much. This year, we get to host again. My youngest nieces and nephews will finally get to experience that feeling of coming over to a full house!”
This year, we get to host again. My youngest nieces and nephews will finally get to experience that feeling of coming over to a full house!
Read on for the full recipe, and share in Auntie Barb’s tradition this Thanksgiving!
Chocolate & Vanilla Banana Squares
Cookie base layer (make first)
Ingredients:
2 blocks grade AA butter (soft)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Mix together butter and sugar. Then add salt & vanilla extract. Adding 1 cup of flour at a time, stir together until dough shapes into a ball. Finally, mix in walnuts. Spread onto a 9 x 9 greased casserole dish, and bake at 350 until golden brown (about 10-15 minutes). Set aside to cool. (Optional: Leave in the ice box for 5-10 minutes.)
Auntie Barb’s tips: save some of the nuts to sprinkle over the top when finished! Or, swap walnuts for macadamia nuts.
1st layer: cream cheese
Ingredients:
1 6oz package of cream cheese (soft)
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 tubs of 9oz cool whip
Directions:
Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together. Add 1/4 of the cool whip into cream cheese mix and fold it in until fluffy. Set aside.
2nd layer: pudding
Ingredients (for chocolate squares):
2 boxes of chocolate instant pudding
3 cups whole milk
Directions:
Mix and set aside.
For vanilla & banana squares, mix 2 boxes of vanilla instant pudding with 2 cups whole milk. Slice 2 bananas and set aside to top cream cheese layer.
3rd layer: cool whip & nuts
Use the remaining cool whip to serve as the top layer, and sprinkle the remaining nuts on top.
Last step – combine the layers!
Once the cookie base is cool, assemble the layers in the following order:
- cookie base on bottom
- cream cheese mix
- (for vanilla & banana squares, add sliced bananas here)
- pudding mix
- cool whip
- sprinkle nuts
Enjoy!
Let us know how they turned out! Share your pictures of Auntie Barb’s recipe at info@honoluluhabitat.org.
