Snickers Salad

How to make the pudding and whip the cream

They say Snickers salad appears in many church cookbooks – it’s even recommended for charity picnics. You need to make the vanilla pudding in advance and chill it, and whip the cream. After that, all the cooking comes down to chopping the apples and candy bars, mixing and serving. And any store sells ready-made whipped cream in a can and instant pudding, so there should be no trouble at all.

1. Make the vanilla pudding. You can make homemade custard – eggs, milk, cornstarch and a little vanilla. Or, simpler and faster, mix the contents of a pudding packet with milk (the amount is on the package) and bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring. Once it has cooled, it’s ready: let it cool completely, as warm pudding will melt the whipped cream.

2. Whip a little less than a cup (150 ml) of heavy (30–33%) cream with 2 tbsp powdered sugar (18 g) into stiff peaks. Or buy a can of whipped cream – most people do.

   

How to cut the apples and candy bars

3. Prepare the apples: wash them, remove the cores with the seeds and cut into large cubes or slices about 1.5–2 cm in size. Don’t peel the apples – the nice green skin only makes the dessert look better. And the firm flesh hides the tough skin – you won’t even notice it. Straight away, before the apples turn brown, sprinkle them with 1–1.5 tbsp lemon juice and toss. Drain off any excess liquid.

   

4. Cut the candy bars and mix them with the apples. The most important ingredient is the Snickers bars. Yes, don’t forget to take off the wrappers, just in case… Cut the bars with a sharp knife into cubes a little smaller than the apple pieces.

   

   Mix the apples and candy bars in a large bowl. Extra ingredients are often added, which in my opinion are unnecessary: banana, nuts, diced pineapple, pear.

How to assemble the salad

5. Fold the pudding and whipped cream together. Pour the cooled vanilla pudding into a separate bowl and add the whipped cream. Gently fold them together with a spatula until the mixture is completely smooth and thick. Many recipes add sour cream or buttermilk to this mixture. I’ve never tried it – you get plenty of cream as it is, and usually some of it gets eaten on its own, separately from the salad.

   

6. Tip the apples and candy bars into the bowl with the cream. Gently mix everything with a spatula so the cream coats it all. You’ll get a fluffy, thick mixture that doesn’t run at all.

   

   I’ll admit, the first time I made this dessert, I wanted to grab a waffle cone and fill it up so it would look like ice cream. But, as a friend told me, this salad is traditionally served in a big white bowl.

Serving

7. To serve, use a large salad bowl if you’re getting ready for a party, or spoon the dessert into small bowls. The most popular extra for this dessert is caramel sauce. It’s easy to make from sugar and cream. Drizzle it over the salad – you’ll love it.

   

   The dessert is very simple, both in ingredients and in method. If you like, you can add nuts or more fruit (grapes, strawberries), and grated milk or white chocolate is often added too. Besides caramel sauce, other creamy sauces are used as well. These salads are very varied and not alike at all. What they have in common, though, is the Snickers bar. Don’t make the dessert ahead of time – the apples will turn brown. And don’t forget, it’s very high in calories.