Sinfully Delicious But Actually Kinda Light Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle

If you need a dessert for Thanksgiving and someone else already has dibs on pumpkin pie, give this a try!  It’ll look beautiful on the family table…for about 30 seconds until everyone devours it.

You guys know I have a serious weakness for peanut butter and chocolate.  We had our friends, Andy and Jacquie, over the other day to celebrate their birthdays, and I wanted to make them a birthday dessert.  They are food lovers like us, so I pretty much had carte blanche to make whatever I wanted.  I thought a chocolate peanut butter trifle would be perfect.  Trifles always impress guests, they are always delicious, and they are a lot easier to make than they look.  I also knew I’d be able to put candles in it for the birthday celebration!  And if I needed one more reason, it’s National Peanut Butter month!

The only thing I would maybe change about this next time is the amount of whipped topping I used.  I used two 8 ounce containers total – about 3/4 of one in the pudding mixture and the remaining 1 and 1/4 in the whipped topping layer.  I might consider using more in the whipped topping layer, because I thought it could have been thicker.  So in the recipe, I’m going to say 16-24 ounces (the equivalent of 2-3 regular sized containers), and let you decide.  Next time, I’ll use three…or at least two and a half.  Oh, and FYI, you will have a couple of brownies leftover for snacking.  🙂

Now, the really fun part…I lightened this up as much as I could, and you couldn’t even tell!  I used regular brownies, but I used fat free sugar free pudding, a mix of fat free and lite whipped topping, reduced fat peanut butter, and skim milk.  I mean, it still isn’t exactly “diet food,” but at least you can eat this and enjoy it without feeling too guilty!

Try this for a holiday party – it’s sure to impress!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle

Ingredients:

• 1- 9 x 13 pan of brownies (I used a box mix for this)
• 1- 5.1 oz box of fat free sugar free instant vanilla pudding
• 3 cups cold skim milk
• 1 cup reduced fat peanut butter
• 16-24 ounces whipped topping (lite and/or fat free)
• 6 Reese’s peanut butter cups, roughly chopped

Directions:

Cut brownies into about 2 inch squares.  Whisk milk into pudding until it starts to thicken.  Refrigerate for about five minutes to allow to fully thicken.  Whisk peanut butter into pudding – it will be thick.  Fold about 6 ounces (3/4 of one regular sized container) of whipped topping into the peanut butter pudding mixture.

In a trifle dish or clear bowl, arrange brownies in a single layer on the bottom, then layer 1/2 of the pudding mixture, and then half of your remaining whipped topping.  Sprinkle on just a few bits of chopped Reese’s – maybe 1/4 of what you have.  Repeat brownies, pudding, and whipped topping, and spread the remaining chopped Reese’s on top.

So easy and so good!