"Perhaps some of our Arkansas members can give a better explanation of the pie!"

Martha, that would be interesting. It looks too tasty to be called Possum Pie!

I was expecting Granny Clampett.

Made you look! Made you look! Yes, you made me look and it looks delicious!

it just lays in your stomach and fills you for hours ....

You swoon to the floor with delight after tasting it, playing possum? Why in the world would anyone name a delicious looking pie like that such a name

Sounds close to the recipe for The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford.

"you can find coconut meringue pie all over the state. You can find pecan and chocolate cream and sweet potato—all of which have been claimed here and there. But the one that crosses every line and shows up on menus just about everywhere is an Arkansas delicacy known as “possum” pie.

The pie is so-named because it “plays possum”—in this case, representing itself as something else."

http://arkansaslife.com/playin-possum/

Martha, yours looks much better than the pie on that site. When I saw your photo I was actually wondering how come this is calle a pie, so the name fits the bill.

Laceyvail -- I used the simpler version for my readers who are more likely to reach for the Cool Whip instead of making whipped cream and boxed pudding instead of making their own. But it is really tasty!!!! Swoon worthy even!

So can real whipped cream and cooked pudding instead of instant be substituted? I, too, loathe Cool Whip and instant pudding.... =(

[not that I need those calories, LOL]

Roxanna -- yes, I found recipes which used real whipped cream and pudding made from scratch. Similar to this one where you whipped the cream cheese, added whipping cream and sugar, then made a chocolate pudding and topped the cream cheese mixture and then whipped cream and sugar and put that on top. Same dessert -- just with real stuff and from scratch. My readers will make the version that I first posted but few would even try to make the from scratch version.

Thanks, Martha -- I think I will ignore the calories and try this "my way".

As I like to say, "I'm in shape. Round IS a shape!!" =)

It is really really good -- even the cool whip/boxed pudding version! It's the crust that makes it and it's the same for both!

Laceyvail, while I totally understand your aversion to instant pudding and Cool Whip, I do think you could have been more diplomatic in your post.

Yes, I apologize, but it was very early in the morning and it just struck me as so awful. I just can't stand the taste of artificial ingredients; I can always taste them. Now, with the real stuff, the pie sounds quite tempting.

Well, my mother was from Arkansas but I've never heard of this. I'll have to ask my 85 year old cousin who still lives there if she's ever heard of it. All that "fake" stuff in it sounds just awful.

I have, and have often made, a recipe very similar to this, but I've never heard it called Possum Pie. The original recipe (from a young Navy wife, don't know where she was from) called for a box of butterscotch pudding and a box of vanilla pudding. Another version was two boxes of Pistachio pudding. Perhaps the 'other' flavors wouldn't be called Possum Pie?

Anyhow, this is a very versatile recipe for a really REALLY good, quick and easy dessert! Flavor is limited only by your imagination! Thanks for posting it, Martha!

Rusty

Martha, thank you for posting this recipe : ) How fascinating that in addition to having guests to your home to dine on a regular basis (with beautiful place settings, might I add) you also write a cooking/recipe column! I certainly understand the need to keep recipes easy for a newspaper. Most people don’t do the type of cooking as one finds here on the Cooking forum (as well as other cooking forums). I do not have a single friend or acquaintance that cooks anything from scratch. Only yesterday did I meet a lovely couple from Moldova – she brought me a loaf of homemade bread when she heard we’d been without a kitchen for 5 months, and that we shared a love of making and eating homemade bread.

John Liu posted a thread called “Learning To Taste: The Dark Place” with a video, and it’s thought-provoking. We all have different degrees of what tastes very good, and I try not to be a food critic when dining at other’s homes. In truth, I have a several passed-down family recipes that use pre-made ingredients, and a couple of them just don’t taste as good to me when made with ‘from scratch’ ingredients. Funny what our palates prefer, isn’t it?

I am relieved to hear no opossums were harmed in the making of this pie ; )