Easy Christmas Trifle

5 from 8 votes

This Easy Christmas Trifle layers brownies, pudding, whipped cream, and candy for a festive, no-stress holiday dessert everyone will love!

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 1041kcal

6 REESE'S Peanut Butter Trees Might need more depending on how you want to decorate
1 cup Green Candy Melts*
1 tablespoon Refined Coconut Oil or Shortening*
Holiday Sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray two 9x13 baking dishes 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.
2 cup butter
Stir cocoa powder into melted butter, making sure there are no clumps. Set aside.
1.5 cup cocoa powder
While the butter mixture is cooling, in a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
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 fully incorporate before adding the next.
4 cups sugar, 2 teaspoon espresso powder , 2 teaspoon vanilla, 8 large eggs
By hand, with a large rubber spatula or mixing spoon, fold in the flour mixture. Folding in the flour will help the brownie batter retain air.
Divide the batter between the two prepared baking dishes, then sprinkle each batter-filled dish with chopped candy.
1 cup REESE'S Peanut Butter Cups, 1 cup HERSHEY'S Chocolate KISSES
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Combine cold milk and both packages of instant chocolate pudding mix. Whisk for two minutes, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4 cups milk, 2 boxes instant chocolate pudding

Add the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of an electric mixer—whip on medium high until soft peaks form.
4 cups heavy whipping cream, 1 ⅓ cup powdered sugar, 1 tbs vanilla extract

Melt 1 cup of green candy melts, each with 1 tablespoon coconut oil or shortening. 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. *
1 cup Green Candy Melts*, 1 tablespoon Refined Coconut Oil or Shortening*
Place candy melts in a piping bag with the tip cut off to form a small hole. 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 of the tree. Set aside to allow to harden.
6 REESE'S Peanut Butter Trees, Holiday Sprinkles
Once the candy melts have fully set up gently stick a skewer/cake pop stick into the bottom of each decorated candy*.

Break up your brownies into small 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 top with the remaining whipped cream.
Add sprinkles to the top, then stick in the decorated REESE’S Peanut Butter Trees.
If making individual Trifle cups, simply assemble each individual cup the same you would’ve a large trifle dish*.

Tips and Tricks

Refined coconut oil doesn’t have a coconut taste; unrefined does. You can use either, or even shortening, to thin 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.
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 liquid and not hold the sprinkles in place. I’ve found piping on all the green candy melts at once, then going back to add sprinkles gives enough time for the first few trees to 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 on the size of the cup.