The Bay of Naples, home of fabulous pastries and desserts

Elegant Neapolitans or The Soda Cracker Dessert

.....the dessert de celebre in this pastoral valley half a world away from Naples where Neapolitans were first concocted by the Little Nuns of the convento Trentatre on the Via Pisanelli.

Via Pisenalli

Is there to be a wedding?

A fancy tea?

An evening dessert party?

Nothing deters the ladies who cater for charity in the Similkameen from providing this exquisite dessert that never palls and is always welcomed.

Sometimes making the Soda Cracker dessert is a group effort, but Thursday morning in my humble kitchen and with humble ingredients I set about making a nine by thirteen glass* (important) pan of this delicious concoction for a Saturday wedding reception.

I assembled the soda crackers, the quart of milk, two large packages of instant pudding mix and a large tub of Cool Whip.

I put on a pot of homemade soup to warm while Charles hung for fifteen minutes before lunch (this is another story altogether only mentioned here in reference to time!!)

Here we go!

I combined the quart of milk and the two large packages of vanilla instant pudding, whisking them together for two minutes until the mixture is of pudding like consistency.

I gave the container of Cool Whip a little stir to add some air and fluffiness.

Then I began the assembly, covering the bottom of the glass* pan with rows of unsalted soda crackers.

I eyed the pudding mix, dividing it in three and spread one third of it over the crackers, followed by one third of the tub of Cool Whip.  The I started again with soda crackers, pudding and cool whip, three times in all.

I covered the pan with Saran Wrap and slid it into the fridge where it has been sitting for forty-eight hours and magically morphing into the most delectable Neapolitan dessert - all ready to be cut into squares, topped with a fruit sauce and served on fine china with sterling silver dessert forks or paper plates and plastic spoons - depending upon the occasion.

It goes without saying that this dessert has unending possibilities.

Would you like lemon with a raspberry sauce, chocolate with blackberries or cherries, vanilla with an almond peach sauce, or a lovely apricot?

Soda crackers have magical qualities, - they get sweeter as you chew them and over a two day period in the fridge  become a fine Italian pastry - amazing!

I finished my magic-making just as Charles came for lunch - speedy alchemy....