No-Bake Lemon Blueberry Four Layer Dessert in Jars

My Mom's favorite cake was Lemon Cake, but she liked any lemon desserts.  August 14th would have been my Mom's 91st birthday.  I always try to make some sort of Lemon Cake or dessert in her memory. I got my love of baking from her, after all. In the past I have made Triple Lemon Layer Cake and  Lemon Blueberry Cake to mention a few.

August 14th is also my dear blogging friend, Gina@SPcookiequeen's  birthday.  Gina was one of my first  blogging friends, and she has been a dear friend since then, especially since I found out that she  and my Mom shared the same birthday, August 14th.  This year for my Mom and Gina, I made the No-Bake Lemon Blueberry Four Layer Dessert.  Gina lives in Northwest, which has been experiencing an extended summer heat wave with temps  at 100 degrees. I wanted to make a dessert that wouldn't need Gina to turn on her oven.  My Mom loved this dessert, but she had only made it in a 13x9 pan.  I changed a few things.  I added a blueberry layer on top of the cream cheese layer, and I put the dessert in jars.

Now,  I know that I am always late to the party, but I wanted to try a dessert in the jars.  I found out that I don't have that much patience, and it takes a lot of time to fill the jars, neatly.  I am not  a perfectionist either, but the jars sure look cute, and they are perfect for a picnic or potluck.  Have you made desserts in jars, and what do you think about them?  Either way that you make this dessert, it is pure heaven.

Since I was making the dessert in a jar, I made a regular graham cracker crust, and tamped it down in the bottom of the jar. Then I mixed the cream cheese and folded in the  Cool Whip.  You can use whipped cream also, but I wanted to make a lighter version of this dessert. Spoon the cream cheese mixture carefully over graham cracker crust. Sprinkle blueberries over the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate jars, while the pudding is prepared.  Prepare pudding  using 3 cups of milk for two small boxes of pudding. Let pudding set  I also used Almond milk which has fewer calories than low fat milk. Carefully spoon the pudding over the blueberry layer. Top with another layer of Cool Whip or whipped cream.  Voila! You have a very cute dessert in a jar, that tastes wonderful with the crunchy graham cracker crust to to the luscious cream cheese layer to the sweet blueberry layer, topped with a tangy sweet pudding layer, and whipped topping.  The beauty of this versatile dessert is that you can vary the crust, or change up the pudding flavors; chocolate, lemon, pistachio. even vanilla, depending on your fancy.

 No-Bake Lemon Blueberry Layered Dessert

 Yield: 8- 8 oz. jelly jars

 Ingredients:  

 ***1^st  Layer, the crust ** 18 graham cracker squares, about 1 ¼ cups crushed, 5 Tbsp melted butter, and 2 Tbsp sugar

 ***2nd layer the cream cheese layer*** 1 package (8 ounce size) cream cheese, softened 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 cup Cool Whip or whipped cream, 1pint of fresh blueberries

 ***3 rd layer, the pudding layer***
2 small pkg Instant lemon pudding., or flavor of your choice

3 cups milk I used Almond Milk 

 ***4^th layer. the topping *** 1 cup Cool Whip,Blueberries, Mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or chocolate curls or garnish of your choice.

 Directions:

Mix ingredients for 1^st layer.  Spread  on the bottom of the jar.  Tamp down with the end of wooden spoon, or muddler.

Mix the ingredients for the 2nd layer the cream cheese layer, and carefully spoon on top of crust. Sprinkle blueberries over the cream cheese layer.

Mix the ingredients for the 3rd layer, the pudding layer, and spoon on Top of 2^nd layer.  Chill for 30 minutes

 4^th layer, top with a thin layer of Cool Whip, and garnish with blueberries.  Refrigerate until serving time.