Our Most-Searched Chocolate Dessert Recipe

Hint: It's a delight!

Not everyone is a chocolate lover, but for those that are, listen up. We publish a lot of chocolate dessert recipes. This list alone has 103 entries. We have easy chocolate recipes like our One-Bowl Chocolate Cake and more elaborate ones like our Over-The-Moon Chocolate Pie, and many that fall somewhere in between.

While the South loves a good chocolate cookie or brownie as much as the rest of the nation, the chocolate dessert that really takes off in this region is a layered treat that comes from none other than Erin Napier. (Well, her grandmother.) Can you guess what it is? It goes by many names but to us, this popular dessert is called a Chocolate Delight, a fitting name for what is easily one of our most popular recipes.

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What Is Chocolate Delight?

The layered dessert uses store-bought staples like instant pudding mix, frozen whipped topping, and chocolate syrup to create an easy treat the whole family will love. It all starts with a press-in pecan crust, then a cream cheese layer, followed by chocolate pudding, before finishing the dessert with whipped topping and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. It doesn't require fancy equipment—just a 13-x-9-inch pan, spatula, and handheld electric mixer. Those looking for a workout could whip the cream cheese filling by hand though.

While Erin Napier’s grandmother, Ouida Walters Rasberry, called this dessert "Chocolate Delight," we quickly learned after publishing the recipe that it’s a dish that goes by many names. A few we learned from readers are:

• Chocolate Torte

• Cocoa Silk Pie

• Yum Yum Pie

• Better Than Paul Newman

• Texas Panhandle

• Next Best Thing to Robert Redford

• Mamma Mountain Mudslide

• Preacher’s Pie

We love how creative so many of these name are. (I mean, how fun is "Next Best Thing to Robert Redford"!?) But all this is to say, if the recipe looks familiar but you’ve never seen it called a Chocolate Delight, that might be why.

What Readers Love About This Dessert

Speaking of the readers, they have much to say about this dessert (other than just what they call it where they’re from.) With an average rating of 4.9 stars, we can confidently say that this recipe is a winner.

“Thank you to Erin Napier for giving her grandma's sweet recipe (pun intended). I will be making this again for the Easter get together in the apartment building I live in,” wrote one Southern Living reader who loved it so much, they are making it again.

Another reader wrote, “One of my all-time favorites. I have even served it in stemmed wine glasses using Pecan Sandies crumbled on the bottom, then layered up. Easy, but looks so elegant.”

The lovely thing about this recipe, as that reader points out, is that you can customize this dessert quite easily. A few readers commented that they use fresh whipped cream instead of whipped topping, which we love to see.

Others garnish with chopped pecans or shaved chocolate rather than chocolate syrup. Some like to make the pudding from scratch, a delicious extra-credit choice. One reader even recommended making it with butterscotch instant pudding mix. The possibilities are endless, but we do insist that you try it at least once as written, because we love the recipe as is too.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.