This delicious and easy to make Lemon Lush Dessert recipe has layers of shortbread crust, a sweetened cream cheese filling, lemon pudding and whipped topping. Light and creamy, it’s the ultimate lemon dessert!
Also known as Lemon Delight, Lemon Lasagna, Lemon Fluff and Lemon Velvet, this Lemon Lush Dessert is a retro dessert and a potluck classic. It has always been a popular dessert in the South, and it’s the perfect, luscious lemon dessert to serve for Easter, summer or backyard barbecues.
If you’re a lemon dessert lover, you might also like to try my lemon truffle cake, lemon sour cream pie or these lemon sugar cookies.
Ingredients Needed:
- Flour: Use all purpose flour for this recipe.
- Butter: I like to use salted butter. It will give the shortbread crust a little more flavor. It should be at room temperature, but not super soft.
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat cream cheese or reduced-fat. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature for easy mixing.
- Sugar: You need granulated white sugar for this recipe.
- Milk: Use 2% or whole milk for this recipe. It’s combined with the pudding to create the creamy lemon layer.
- Instant Lemon Pudding: Look for the instant lemon pudding in 3.4-ounce boxes in the pudding section of your market.
- Whipped Topping: I like to use Cool Whip!
How to make a Lemon Lush Dessert:
The First Layer:
Preheat the oven, and combine flour and butter with a couple of knives or with a pastry blender. You’ll press this “crust” mixture into a 9×13-inch pan and bake it until golden.
The Second Layer:
This layer is a super simple sweetened cream cheese layer (a mixture of cream cheese and sugar). It’s spread onto the cooled crust. It does not need to be baked.
The Third Layer:
This is the lemon pudding layer. You’ll whisk together the pudding mix with the milk until it’s thickened and creamy. Then you’ll spread it on top of the cream cheese layer. It’s a good idea to get this layer a bit firmer before adding the final layer, so you’ll refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes (preferably more).
The Fourth Layer:
The final layer is a layer of Cool Whip. If you want to make it all look pretty, add some grated lemon zest on top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Recipe Substitution Suggestions:
- Use homemade lemon pudding instead of instant lemon pudding.
- Change up the pudding, and you have a new dessert recipe! Use chocolate pudding or butterscotch pudding instead of lemon.
- Use a graham cracker crust or lemon Oreo crust in place of the shortbread crust.
- It’s okay to use homemade whipped cream in place of the Cool Whip.
Recipe Tips
- Add lemon zest to the crust or the filling to add extra lemon flavor. Lemon extract may be added to the pudding for extra lemon flavor too.
- Use room temperature cream cheese for easy mixing.
- Cool the crust completely before adding the lemon layer.
- This lemon lush dessert is best when you are able to refrigerate it overnight before serving.
How to store Lemon Lush:
Lemon Lush Dessert can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 or 4 days before serving. This makes it a perfect dessert to make ahead! I don’t recommend freezing this dessert.
Favorite Lemon Dessert Recipes:
Lemon Lush Dessert
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
- Two 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 3½ cups milk
- Two 3.4-ounce boxes instant lemon pudding
- 12 ounces Cool Whip
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, use two knives (or a pastry cutter) to combine the flour and butter until crumbly. Press into the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan. Bake about 25 minutes, until the crust is golden. Remove from the oven and cool.
- In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the cream cheese and sugar. Spread evenly over the cooled crust.
- In another medium-bowl, whisk together the milk and lemon pudding mix for about 4 minutes, until thickened. Spread over the cream cheese layer. Chill in the fridge until set, at least 30 minutes. Top with the Cool Whip, and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
