Dirt Pudding for Kids

Dirt pudding cups (worms & dirt) are fun kid snacks (or when you need an easy craft food project). They make perfect party treats for Halloween, birthday party themes, or just an easy summer recipe for kids!

HOW TO MAKE DIRT PUDDING

What Is A Pudding Dirt Dessert Cups Recipe?

Pudding dirt cups are kids’ pudding snacks with cookies. The individual pudding dirt cups are made with pudding with crushed cookies added to the top to make it look like you’re eating dirt or soil. 

(Don’t ask. It’s a one of those super popular desserts for kids whenever there’s a party!)

And, bonus? It’s an easy recipe to make with kids or if you need an easy preschool recipe or even if you’re looking for toddler cooking for kids recipes.

 

Some people also call this dirt pudding dessert:

• Dirt dessert
• Oreo dirt cups
• Graveyard dirt cups
• Dirt cake
• Dirt cake cups
• Dirt pudding pie cups
• Dirt and worms pudding cups
• Worms & dirt
• Worms in dirt dessert

So, if you’ve heard any of those, this is the same (or variation of) those dessert recipes.

 

 

Dirt Pudding Ingredients

Dirt pudding is made with just four main ingredients:

• Chocolate pudding
• Milk
• Frozen whipped topping (like CoolWhip)
• Chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos)
• Gummy worms (optional)

Some make these dirt cups with cream cheese or dirt cups without cool whip and heavy cream they whip themselves, but we like to keep things simple for this recipe and make our pudding cups with with pre made pudding and Cool Whip.

 

If you want a more homemade version and want to make your own whipped cream for this recipe (it’s easier than you think), check out our:

Easy Homemade Whipped Cream Recipe

 

Other Fun Dirt Pudding Ideas and Flavors

We made our dirt pudding with worms because we paired this recipe with children’s books about gardening and growing, but you can leave the worms out if you want.

(Although, the worms make fun Halloween party ideas if you’re making the dirt cups for that.)

But, you don’t have to make this a dirt pudding cups with gummy worms recipe or even a dirt pudding with chocolate pudding!

You can change around what you put on top of the dirt cups (or in the pudding cups) based on your theme:

• Dinosaur dirt cups with plastic dinosaurs on the cookie dirt
• Marshmallow flowers or flower candies on top for a spring garden
• Golden (vanilla) cookies and vanilla pudding for a beach theme with tiny beach balls or sharks
• Mini animals and tractors for a farm animal theme
• Mini trucks for a construction or monster truck birthday party theme
• Fall pumpkin patch dirt cups with mini pumpkins
• Chocolate rocks for a geology theme lesson
• Dirt cups for halloween or dirt pudding graveyard with RIP signs and zombies or bones coming out of the cookie dirt (these tombstones and grabbing hands would be awesome with this recipe!)
• Vanilla pudding with vanilla cookies dirt and chocolate sprinkles for an ant house (see ours here)
• Parfait dirt cups with the cookies layered between pudding and whipped cream on top

Just tailor these kid-friendly dessert ideas to your party theme!

 

OK, let’s get to the dirt and worms pudding cups recipe!

DIRT PUDDING RECIPE

You can make dirt pudding with Oreos or with any other chocolate cookie.

We also make our Oreo dirt pudding recipe without cream cheese, but a lot of people like to add in softened cream cheese.

Also, if you don’t want chocolate dirt cups, just switch out the pudding and make vanilla dirt cups!

Here’s how to make quick and easy dirt cups!

Yield: 6

Dirt Pudding

Print

Dirt pudding cups are easy recipes that are fun for parties, fun back to school treats, or theme parties.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups cold whole milk
• 1 package instant chocolate pudding (3.9 or 4 ounce package)
• 8 ounces frozen whipped topping (like Cool Whip) thawed
• 16 chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos), crushed
• 20 gummy worms or sour gummy worms, optional, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk milk and pudding until pudding is dissolved. Set aside to thicken (about 5 minutes).
2. Place sandwich cookies into a resealable bag. Seal bag. Using a wood kitchen mallet or wood spoon, crush the cookies to a fine consistency (until it looks like dirt).* Set aside.
3. Once pudding has thickened. Fold whipped topping into the chocolate pudding. Stir.
4. Add 1/2 of the crushed cookies to the pudding mixture. Gently stir.
5. Spoon pudding mixture into individual cups. Chill for at least 60 minutes (or until ready to serve).
6. Remove pudding cups from refrigerator. Sprinkle top of each cup with remaining crushed cookies for the "dirt." Gently press gummy worms into top of mixture (optional, but awesome).
7. Serve immediately.

Notes

*The cookie crushing is one of the most fun parts of this recipe for kids! Set aside your food processor for this recipe and let the kids whack away at the bag of cookies! They'll have a blast!

The serving size for this will depend on the size of cup you use. We used small orange juice glasses and got 6 cups out of this.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 388Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 324mgCarbohydrates: 70gFiber: 1gSugar: 32gProtein: 8g

Nutrition information is estimated. Changes to the recipe and use of different brands may cause changes to the nutritional information to vary slightly from the ones provided here.

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HOW TO STORE DIRT PUDDING CUPS

Dirt pudding should be stored chilled until ready to use and will keep in the refrigerator for around 3-4 days. If you’re chilling the cups before a party or serving, I would chill the pudding in the cups and add the crushed cookies before serving. If you have to chill with the cookies on top, the cookies will get soft eventually. Just add new crushed cookies for a refreshed crunch once you remove from the refrigerator.

 

Children’s Book Pairing

If you’re making these pudding cups with dirt (and worms or even gummy bugs / bug grahams), it’s a great kid snack to pair with garden and growing books for kids. (If you haven’t tried pairing recipes with books for kids, it’s a fun way to learn!)

Try these garden books for kids:

Let us know how your dirt pudding cups with gummy worms recipe turned out (or if you used something other than gummy worms)!