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Easy Christmas Trifle Recipe

Easy Christmas Trifle Recipe- Layers of tasty brownie, chocolate pudding, and homemade whipped cream! All topped with holiday sprinkles and decorated REESE’S Peanut Butter Cups!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 15
Calories 552kcal
Author Lisa

Ingredients

Christmas Decorations

  • REESE'S Peanut Butter Trees for just trees
  • HERSHEY’S Stocking Stuffer Shapes if using trees and snowflakes
  • Green Candy Melts*
  • Bright White Candy Melts
  • Refined Coconut Oil or Shortening*
  • Holiday Sprinkles
  • Skewers or Cake Pop Sticks

Brownies- you will need to make two batches of these

  • ¾ cup + 3 tbs unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa Powder*
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup chopped REESE'S Peanut Butter Cups and HERSHEY'S Chocolate KISSES I used candy from the HERSHEY'S Holiday Assortment candy

Chocolate Pudding

  • 4 cups milk cold
  • 2 3.9 ounce packages instant chocolate pudding

Whipped Cream

  • 4 cups cold heavy whipping cream
  • 1 ⅓ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tbs vanilla extract

Instructions

Brownies- you will need to make two batches of these

  • Preheat oven to 350°F and spray 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray
  • In a microwave safe dish melt the butter. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until the butter is completely melted.
    melted butter
  • Stir cocoa powder into melted butter making sure there are no clumps. Set aside.
    butter and cocoa powder mixture
  • While butter mixture is cooling, in a separate small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
    flour mixture for brownies
  • In a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, mix together the butter mixture (it’s okay if it’s still warm), sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla. Then add the eggs one at a time, letting each egg become fully incorporated into the batter before adding the next.
    brownie batter with eggs added
  • By hand, with a large rubber spatula or mixing spoon, fold in the flour mixture. Folding in the flour will help the brownie batter keep the air in it.
    brownie batter
  • Pour into the prepared baking dish then pour chopped candy over the top.
    brownie with candy pieces unbaked
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
    brownie baked
  • Repeat steps 1-8 for the second batch of brownies.

Chocolate Pudding

  • Combine cold milk and both packages of instant chocolate pudding mix. Whisk for two minutes then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
    chocolate pudding in bowl

Whipped Cream

  • Add the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of an electric mixer. Whip on medium high until soft peaks form.
    whipped cream in bowl

Decorating the Trees and Snowflakes

  • Melt 1 cup of green candy melts and 1 cup white candy melts (in separate bowls), each with 1 tbs coconut oil or shortening at a time. Heat for 30 seconds at 50% power, stir, repeat until melted. If the candy melts are still too thick stir in more coconut oil 1 teaspoon at a time until you get your desired consistency. *
    green candy melts in bowl
  • Place candy melts in a piping bag with a small writing tip* (Wilton #3).
    green candy melts in piping bag
  • Place your REESE’S Peanut Butter Trees on a parchment lined baking sheet and pipe on a green tree on each one. Then add sprinkles to it*. I used a star sprinkle for the top of each tree then sprinkled on small round sprinkles to the rest the tree. Set aside to allow to harden.
    adding sprinkles to decorated trees
  • Place your York Peppermint Pattie Snowflakes on a parchment lined baking sheet and pipe on a white snowflake on each one. Then add sprinkles to it. Set aside to allow to harden.
    York Peppermint Patties being decorated
  • Once the candy melts have fully set up gently stick a skewer/cake pop stick into the bottom of each decorated candy*.
    adding a skewer to tree

Assembling the Trifle

  • Break up your brownies into small pieces.
    brownie in pieces
  • In a Trifle Dish add a layer of brownies, a layer of whipped cream, and a layer of chocolate pudding, then add another layer of brownies, whipped cream, and pudding, and add the remaining whipped cream on top.
    adding whipped cream on top of brownies
  • Add sprinkles to the top then stick in the decorated REESE’S Peanut Butter Trees or York Peppermint Pattie Snowflakes.
    adding decorated tree to top of trifle
  • If making individual Trifle cups, simply assemble each individual cup the same you would’ve a large trifle dish*.
    trifle in a small glass
  • Enjoy!
    Christmas Trifle close up

Video

Notes

Tips and Tricks
  • Refined coconut oil doesn’t have a coconut taste, unrefined does. You can use either or even shortening for thinning your candy melts.
  • The amount of coconut oil or shortening you use for thinning the candy melts can vary by several tablespoons due to the brand of candy melts, how old they are, etc.
  • I use a writing tip to pipe on the melted candy melts but you can also just cut a small hole in the corner of a ziploc baggie.
  • If you let the candy melts sit in the piping bags for too long, they will harden! So, make sure to get all your decorating done all at once.
  • Make sure to add sprinkles before the candy melts set up completely. That being said, if you add sprinkles right away the candy melts might be too liquidy and not hold the sprinkles in place. I’ve found piping on all the green (or white) candy melts at once, then going back and adding sprinkles gives enough time for the first few trees (or snowflakes) to have set up before decorating.
  • I used cake pop sticks but had to cut them to be the correct length for the trifle.
  • How many layers of brownies, pudding, and whipped cream you can fit in cups will vary based off of the size of the cup.
  • Nutrition info does not account for 2nd batch of brownies

Nutrition

Calories: 552kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Cholesterol: 162mg | Sodium: 115mg | Potassium: 250mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 41g | Vitamin A: 1385IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 139mg | Iron: 1mg