A few weeks back I got to thinking about the desserts that were popular when I was a child. We often had special meals at church and there was always deliciously sweet things to eat on the dessert table.
I remembered how much I loved blueberry yum yum and decided to make it. I looked for a recipe, but didn’t seem to have one that sounded exactly right. I called Granny and she couldn’t find her recipe so I started searching online.
I found this recipe and made it.
As I was putting the layers together I had a flash of memory. The blueberry yum yums from my childhood had a layer of graham crackers—not crumbled up but whole crackers.
I got in touch with one of my longtime friends who was often beside me in the table line at church dishing out her own helping of blueberry yum yum. I thought I remembered her mother making the dish. I was right about that part, but my friend hasn’t sent me the recipe yet.
The alternate blueberry yum yum recipe I found online was very tasty. The Deer Hunter deemed it something I should get in the habit of making. But my mind just won’t be satisfied until I make the dessert I remember from so long ago. If you have an old recipe for blueberry yum yum that calls for a layer of whole graham crackers and I believe vanilla pudding please send it to me 🙂
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My Mother n law makes something like that but it’s not called Yum Yum. She calls it 4 layer delight. It sounds the same though with all the ingredients. She usually puts in a pecan for good measure. It is a super hit with all the kids for generations now that she is Great Grandma to many! You can make it any flavor you can think that is a favorite. Great down home dessert!
I don’t have a recipe but that dessert looks delicious!
The recipe you found is exactly the one I go by to make a Yum Yum. After my wife died my daughter was talking about how she missed her Mama’s blueberry yum yums on holidays. I told her I had helped her mama make them and would try to replicate it. I went on the internet and found a recipe that was close to what I had seen and helped do. It was the exact recipe you linked. The only real difference was Yvonne used Dream Whip instead of Cool Whip or whipped cream. I went with the Dream Whip. Missy says it tastes the same as her mama’s. That makes me happy!
I didn’t stop with blueberry though. I made cherry, strawberry, peach and apple yum yums. I even made a red, white and blue one for the 4th of July with cherry and blueberry on the ends apple filling in the middle.
Have you ever thought of making your own graham crackers? Graham are not really crackers, they are cookies. I found a recipe that seems fairly simple. Instead of having to try to fit rectangular crackers in a round pan for instance you could make one big cracker in a springform pan and make more than one if you wanted layers in your yum yum. Or you could bake the dough on a sheet pan then before it cools cut it to fit the pan you are going to use to assemble your yum yum.
I think the reason most people started using crumbles instead of whole crackers was because most of the time when you buy them they are all broken up anyway. Or maybe because it wudden fattenin enough so they figured out how to add a whole stick butter into it.
By the way, I make yum yums for my kids and sometimes for their friends but I don’t eat them myself!
My grandmother used pre made Graham cracker crust. She mixed her cream cheese with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and confectioners sugar then made dream whip to it’s directions and folded the cream cheese mixture into the dream whip and used comstock blue berry pie filling.
I always fix this. We live it at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. I have to fix cherry yum yum to. It is probably my favorite.
These Yum Yums sound a lot like a recipe given to me by Miss Anne in Tennessee. She calls it Chocolate Eclair Cake and it goes like this:
1 box graham crackers
2 small boxes instant French vanilla pudding**
3 1/2 cups Milk**
1 Nine oz. Cool Whip
1 can chocolate frosting
Prepare pudding *but* only add 3 1/2 cups of milk. When pudding sets, fold in Cool Whip.
Line bottom of 9×13 baking dish with unbroken graham crackers.
Spread half of mixture on graham cracker layer.
Place another layer of graham cracker down.
Spread remaining mixture over cracker layer and place final layer of graham cracker over that.
Spread frosting over cracker layer and refrigerate 3-4 hours.
A rich dessert that’s good with coffee or milk.
I love recipe swapping! Thanks All!
Never heard of yum yum desserts….but my WV daughter in law calls any thing I make with cool whip, white trash desserts….then reaches for a second helping.
We used to have some wonderful home made deserts of all kinds but in this age of watching ones weight, cholesterol, sugar intake, chemical intake so desert now seems to be a piece of fruit. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with fruit, I love it…..but…..it’s not a Blueberry Yum Yum!
I don’t have the recipe, sorry.
I’ve never heard of yum yum desserts. I guess I’m not southern enough. They do sound yummy though. Desserts I remember most from my childhood are Graham cracker puddings, chocolate and lemon meringue pies, grandma’s stack cake, and blackberry desserts. I might try to make a yum yum with a BlackBerry mixture in the middle. I recently made BlackBerry Breakfast Bars, which are very good.
MMmmm…sounds good……anything with blueberries has to be good…..sure would be good with my coffee right now..
Mrs. Tipper,
Try this variation:
1 large box Jello instant vanilla pudding
2½-3 cups milk
Mix pudding and milk. Mixture will be thick. Next fold in:
1 8 oz. tub Cool whip
Set aside.
Layer the bottom of a 9×13 pan with whole Graham crackers. Spread on half of the vanilla pudding/cool whip mixture, add another layer of whole graham crackers and top with remaining pudding/cool whip mixture. Top with blueberry pie filling.
You can add a thin layer of Cool Whip on top of the blueberry pie filling or leave it as is.
Hope this one comes close to what you had as a young girl!
Do you remember the Gerber baby food Blueberry Buckle? I think of that often any time I hear anyone mention blueberries. It was a favorite of my oldest son (and me too!)
Julie-thank you! I believe that’s it 🙂 The girls loved Blueberry Buckle!
This is how I make my graham cracker pudding. Folding in the cool whip makes it extra delicious. I just top it with crushed graham crackers – no blueberry pie filling. This would be good with a variety of different flavors of pie filling to top it with or just fruit (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.)
This brings back memories of my grandmother’s cherry yum yum from many years ago.