Chocolate Toffee Crunch Trifle

For the past five and a half years, I’ve been lucky enough to work in a lab that feels more like a collection of friends and family than random coworkers.  We have a nice tradition of going out to lunch for someone’s birthday, followed by a cake/pie/dessert of the birthday person’s choice.  About a year ago, I made this trifle for my university’s church fellowship summer picnic, and it was a huge hit.  Before I brought it to that event, it sat in my workplace’s refrigerator for the day, where it served as an endless source of temptation to my labmate, Jason.  He practically begged me to let him have some, which, of course, I did not. Recently, Jason was preparing to defend his Ph.D. thesis, and I told him that for his celebration afterwards, he could pick any kind of cake or dessert he wanted and I would make it for him.  Not surprisingly, this was his top choice!

What You’ll Need

• 1 box of chocolate chunk brownie mix
• 1 3.9 oz. box of sugar-free, fat-free instant chocolate pudding
• 1 14 oz. can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 oz. container fat-free whipped topping (Cool Whip)
• 2 2.8 oz. Heath brand toffee bars
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• ½ cup water

What To Do:

Prepare the brownies according to the box’s instructions, then let them completely cool.  I recommend letting them cool for at least 2 hours, since the firmer the brownies are, the better. Once they are cooled, cut the brownies into 1” squares.

In a large bowl, mix together the condensed milk, water, and pudding mix until it is fully blended (it will be fairly runny).

In a separate bowl, combine the whipping cream and the sugar.  Beat vigorously with a whisk for 2-3 minutes until the cream has reached a stiff consistency to the point that it forms peaks and does not fall off of the whisk when lifted.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture using a spatula.  You have to be careful not to overwork this mixture, as the whipped cream can lose its thickness, and you want this to stay light and fluffy. 

Continue folding until it is evenly mixed throughout and there are no remaining visible streaks of color.

Finally, break the Heath bar into a rough crumble (small chunks). Those of you in well-equipped kitchens can do this in about 3.2 seconds using your handy dandy food processors.  I, however, lack such a fun kitchen utensil (but it’s on my Christmas list, hint hint). Since I couldn’t use a magical machine to do it for me, I went the old-fashioned route and pounded the holy hell out of the candy bars with a can of beans while they were inside a Ziploc bag, reducing them to a fairly even consistency.  This extremely loud pounding may or may not have a) freaked the hell out of my cats, b) caused me to worry that I might dent my new counters, and c) ripped open the Ziploc bag, leaking toffee crumbs all over the counter whenever I moved the bag.  That’s just how I roll.

Now that all the fun stuff is done, it’s time to assemble the trifle!  It should go without saying that it helps if you have an honest-to-goodness trifle bowl, since they are deep enough for all of the layers in this dish.  If not, any deep bowl will work (glass is preferable since it’s so pretty when it’s done!).

Start out by covering the bottom of the bowl as completely as possible with your brownie squares.

Next, sprinkle a generous handful of the toffee bits over the brownies.

Then, spoon the chocolate whipped cream on top. Make sure you add enough to fully cover the brownies with room to spare (you will have plenty left over for the other layers!). Cover this layer with the fat-free Cool Whip, taking care not to mix the two cream layers.

Repeat this once more with the remainder of the ingredients.  The Cool Whip should nearly reach the lip of the trifle bowl once you’re done. 

I had some teeny-tiny toffee crumbs left over in my mangled Ziploc bag, which I then sprinkled on top for garnish.

This makes at least 8 healthy servings, and my coworkers managed to polish nearly the entire thing off minus the one scoop I managed to sneak away for my hubby.  My boss, who tends to have a bit of a sweet tooth, declared this “one of the best desserts he’s ever had”.  While I don’t like to use such lofty praise for my own dishes, this is pretty frickin’ awesome.  It’s seriously loaded with chocolate, which is not what I usually prefer, so I can only manage a small serving, but it’s delicious enough that even I am tempted to go back for seconds.  The use of the whipping cream helps balance out the chocolate pudding, and believe it or not, this isn’t overly sweet. You can leave the toffee bar out if you don’t like the texture, but I think the crunch brings this to a whole new level (I’ve tried it both ways).  All in all, this is a relatively easy dessert that will impress your guests and is sure to disappear quickly!