Thursday Treat: Reese Trifle

Since Halloween is tomorrow, I decided to share a recipe that I picked up some time ago.  I love chocolate. I also love peanut butter.  Naturally I love Reese's Cups.  This is a dessert that contains all three.  It's a little time-intensive to make but the result is worth it.

Note that this is not for diabetics or anyone who has allergies to either peanuts or chocolate.

Reese's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Trifle

To make this you will need:

Trifle dish or other deep cake dish
Cake pans
Medium sized saucepan
Mixing bowls and spoons
Measuring cups and spoons

Plain chocolate cake, either homemade or store-bought
500 mL (16 oz) 35% heavy cream
Two 110 g (3.8 oz) packages chocolate pudding
One 283 g (10 oz) bag peanut butter chips
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
12 Reese Peanut Butter Cups, chopped
One 170 g (6 oz) package Reese Pieces

Directions:

• Prepare the chocolate cake and the chocolate pudding according to their respective directions, and allow to cool.
• In a saucepan, melt the 10 oz package of peanut butter chips on low heat; stir in 1/4 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of the heavy cream, and 1/4 tsp of vanilla until combined. Allow to cool. This is your peanut butter sauce.
• Whip the remainder of the heavy cream.
• Break up the chocolate cake into approximately 1 cm/half-inch pieces and layer it on the bottom of the trifle bowl. Top with thin layers of chocolate pudding, peanut butter sauce, chopped peanut butter cups and Reese's pieces, and a layer of whipped cream.
• Continue building the trifle with these layers until you've run out of ingredients (or room in the dish).

Keep refrigerated until served.