Chocolate Orange Brownie Trifle: A Christmas Day Showstopper!

We spent Christmas day at my in laws this year, and I was tasked with the Christmas day dessert.  I spent months planning what I was going to make, and changed my mind a million times in between! In my mind a Christmas dessert should always involve peppermint, but since it gives my husband insane heartburn that was off the table! So then we came up with the idea of chocolate orange...I'm not really a fan of orange flavoured desserts - you won't have seen anything on my blog featuring orange before for this reason! so it's slightly ironic that this dessert turned into the craziest orange overload ever!!  In my mind it's also not Christmas without a trifle, but I don't like custard and knew I didn't want to make a boring old traditional trifle so a brownie trifle with mousse layers seemed like a great alternative! and before I knew it, this 9 layer beast had been dreamt up in my head!

I knew it needed to look impressive sitting on the table (that's how I imagined I'd serve it...as it turned out I served it straight from the fridge and dished it up into bowls whilst everyone was in a different room so no one saw it anyway!!) but it made me happy at least that it looked pretty in the bowl! I had planned to do Christmas tree shaped brownies around the inside of the bowl, but my Christmas tree cutter was larger than I had remembered it being! so I settled on stars...which are still slightly festive! Luckily they were so moist they just stuck to the side of the bowl all by themselves! and then the subsequent layers that I filled the bowl with held them in place! 

Layers of brownie chunks started off the fun...followed by a nice thick layer of milk chocolate orange mousse, and then a layer of chopped up Terry's chocolate orange pieces...

Followed by another generous layer of brownie chunks, these were level with the brownie stars around the bowl too.  This was topped with a generous layer of white chocolate orange mousse...

followed by, you've guessed it, more Terry's chocolate orange pieces!

 Some piped on whipped double cream brought everything together, and I used mini Terry's chocolate orange pieces to decorated, and crumblings of flake too...because it's not a trifle unless it's been crumbled with flake - fact!

There were a lot of components but all were pretty straightforward and it came together quicker than expected.  I used the amazing Ghirardelli brownie box mix from Costco because when it's 8pm on Christmas Eve and you haven't started on dessert yet, you need to cut some corners! but if you had more time than me you could obviously make your own brownies! I also used shortcut mousse recipes, that didn't require egg, because I didn't have time for things to go wrong so a cream cheese no fail mousse was the way forward! 

Although you'd think it would be too much orange in one dessert, it was perfectly balanced by the creaminess of the mousse layers, and the richness of the chocolate brownie and the tang from the cream on top helped to break through the sweetness - I wanted another helping immediately after eating my first! which for an orange hater shows just how yummy this dessert really was! 

 

Chocolate Orange Brownie Trifle:

Serves 15-20

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

2 pans of chocolate fudge brownies (8x8 size and 9x13) 

I used Ghirardelli Brownie mix - you could make your own from scratch

Milk Chocolate Orange Mousse:

125g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

225g cream cheese 

110g cup caster sugar

1 tbsp orange juice

1 orange (zest)

250ml double cream, whipped

White Chocolate Orange Mousse:

225g white chocolate

225g cream cheese 

110g cup caster sugar

1 tbsp orange juice

1 orange (zest)

250ml double cream, whipped

2 Terry's chocolate oranges

350ml double cream

2 bags of Terry's chocolate orange mini pieces

1 cadbury's flake

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare a double mix of brownies.  Line your brownie pans with greaseproof paper.

I spread the brownie mix thinly in the larger 9x13" pan and left it thicker in the 8x8" pan.  Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, the thinner brownies will require less baking time.  

Let cool. 

Lift out the greaseproof paper from the 9x13" pan and using a star cutter cut out 12 stars.

Lift out the greaseproof paper from the 8x8 pan and cut brownies into cubes.

Press your brownie stars around the inside of the trifle bowl.  Fill bottom layer of trifle bowl with packed together brownie cubes, set the rest aside for later.

Whisk 500ml double cream using a stand mixer. Once soft peaks start to form it is done.  Transfer it to a bowl, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed.

Meanwhile chop the milk and dark chocolate into small pieces and melt in a heatproof bowl, set above a pan of boiling water.  Set aside to cool.

Beat the cream cheese, caster sugar, orange juice and orange zest together until light and fluffy.  Fold in the cooled chocolate, and fold in half of the whipped cream from the bowl in the fridge.  Your milk chocolate mousse is finished.

Spread over the layer of brownie chunks in the trifle bowl.

Chop Terry's chocolate orange pieces using a knife, and spread a layer of them over the chocolate mousse.  Add another layer of brownie chunks.  

Now it's time to prepare the white chocolate mousse using the same method as before.  Chop the white chocolate into small pieces and melt in a heatproof bowl set above a pan of boiling water.  Set aside to cool.

Beat the cream cheese, caster sugar, orange juice and orange zest together until light and fluffy.  Fold in the cooled chocolate, and fold in the rest of the whipped cream from the bowl in the fridge.

Spread your white chocolate orange mousse over the brownie chunk layer in the trifle bowl.

Sprinkle over more Terry's chocolate orange pieces.  

Whisk 350ml double cream in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form.  Transfer into a piping bag and using a star tip pipe small little stars all over the top of the trifle.  Crush a cadbury's flake and sprinkle the pieces over the cream.  

Arrange the mini Terry's chocolate orange pieces so that they overlap slightly over one another in a circular pattern around the edge of the cream, and do a smaller circle in the middle of the bowl too.

Refrigerate the trifle until it is ready to be served.

Eat and enjoy! 

FYI: The ingredients listed are enough to make two bowls of trifle.  I made a slightly smaller bowl alongside the main trifle bowl (without the star brownie shapes around the edge) and so if you only want one trifle you could halve the mousse quantities but would still need two pans of brownie if you plan on doing the star shapes.  

A Peanut Butter & Brownie 9 Layer Trifle!! and the end of exams!

I am writing this blog post and it feels so good not be doing it sneakily! I'm officially allowed to look at cupcakes and my google reader and blog as much as I like because I am done with exams! Hooray (yes my husband does have to monitor my every internet move because if he didn't I would spend all day looking at cupcakes rather than looking at experimental validity!)

As a consequence of said exams and essays, I am wayyy behind in blogging, how inconvenient of them to get in the way right?! So I bring you the dessert that I made for our Christmas Day feast! In my family growing up, probably like most other English families, we had Trifle on Christmas Day - which is great if you like custard and cream but I don't! My mom used to make me my own special little trifle in a bowl sans custard and cream! 

This year we spent Christmas Day at my mother-in-laws and I offered to make the dessert.  I still wanted to keep it somewhat traditional so stuck with trifle...but as my husbands family are all peanut butter lovers and mine are not I decided it was my chance to unleash this 9 layer beast on them, courtesy of Paula Deen!

Although it seems like it should take alot of preparation, it really didn't.  My husband helped me make it on Christmas Eve and between the two of us it had been whipped up and left to set in the fridge within an hour.  Easy peasy...and for the delicious results it was definitely worth it.  I had never tried Jell-o pudding mix before and was a little skeptical but once you whipped the peanut butter into it it became a creamy peanut butter flavoured dream! Combine that with moist fudgy brownie, bites of peanut butter cups covered in chocolate, a taste of peanut butter frosting and some sour cream and whipped cream to cut through the richness and you're talking about one mouth watering dessert!

This dish was a little pricey to make, I had been in London the day before to source the Jell-o vanilla pudding, peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips from Partridge's because you can't buy those ingredients at regular supermarkets here. So, unless you're happy to spend more on making a dessert than you would on a meal out, it might be best to save it for a special occasion! but if you live in America and those ingredients are freely available on your supermarket shelves then bake away!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Trifle
Makes 12-15 servings

From Cooking with Paula Deen

1 (17.6-ounce) package brownie mix, prepared according to package directions, and cut into small squares

2 (3.4-ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix

3 cups whole milk

1 2⁄3 cups creamy peanut butter, divided

1⁄2 cup butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar, divided

4 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided

1 1⁄2 cups sour cream

1⁄2 cup caster sugar

2 cups double cream

15 chocolate peanut butter cups, cut into fourths

Garnish: chocolate peanut butter cup bells and peanut butter chips (melted)

For pudding layer:

In a medium bowl, combine pudding mix and milk, whisking until combined. Whisk in 2⁄3 cup peanut butter; set aside.

For peanut butter layer:

In a large bowl, combine remaining 1 cup peanut butter and butter. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add 1 1⁄2 cups icing sugar and 2 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla, beating until well blended; set aside.

For sour cream layer:

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, 1⁄2 cup caster sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir until well combined; set aside.

For whipped cream layer:

In a large bowl, combine cream, remaining 1⁄2 cup icing sugar, and remaining 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Set aside.

To assemble trifle:

In a trifle dish, place 1⁄3 of brownies in bottom of dish. Spread 1⁄2 of pudding mixture over brownies. Top with 1⁄3 of brownies. Spread peanut butter layer over brownies. Sprinkle with peanut butter cups. Spread sour cream layer over peanut butter cups. Top with remaining 1⁄3 of brownies. Spread remaining 1⁄2 of pudding mixture over brownies. Top with whipped cream. Garnish with peanut butter cups, if desired and drizzle with melted peanut butter chips.

As there were only 4 of us sharing this dessert on Christmas day we had tons left over! It is super rich so small portions are the key! So on boxing day I took the rest of it up to my family, remember the family who don't like peanut butter, and let's just say this dessert changed their mind! Now both sides of my family are peanut butter lovers!