So my friend Jennifer recently had a birthday and as I typically do for a friend’s birthday, I created a special dessert for her-Cookies and Cream Trifle. I love trifles because they are an easy 5 minute go-to dessert and you really can’t mess them up. I’ve actually saved several dessert disasters from the garbage disposal by dumping them in a pretty bowl, layering in some real whipped cream and calling them a “trifle”. For the record, Jennifer’s dessert had nothing to do with a dessert disaster and everything to do with the fact I wanted to make some white chocolate whipped cream and had some double dark chocolate chip cookies in the freezer. I knew the combination would be a match made in....well, a match I couldn’t wait to get in my mouth!
Now traditionally trifle is made by soaking cake usually in some sort of liquor and layering it with custard, sometimes fruit and of course whipped cream. I’ve created so many trifles from kitchen experiments gone awry that we now label anything that is layered in a bowl with whipped cream, a trifle. When my husband sees a trifle in the fridge his first question is, “So what recipe went wrong this time?”
In making Jennifer’s trifle I was reminded of one of the better trifles I’ve made which was the direct result of a pretty large kitchen catastrophe. Last Thanksgiving I was attempting a Cherpumple which is a cherry pie baked inside a white cake, stacked on a pumpkin pie baked into a yellow cake, stacked on an apple pie baked into a spice cake and then slathered with cream cheese icing. Seriously, I’m not making this one up.
After watching a short video on this monstrosity, I decided I could do that but only I would make everything from scratch! The man in the video used premade pies and boxed cake mixes. I figured that if it looked that good all store-bought, it would be a masterpiece from scratch. There’s one thing about me, I never take the easy way out but this was one of those times I wished I had.
Since it looked like it would serve 100 I decided I needed a big group to try it out on. My husband’s office was having their Thanksgiving lunch the following week and his co-workers had served as guinea pigs for many recipes in the past so why not wow them with what was sure to be the dessert of the year-maybe the decade.
Off I went measuring ingredients, slicing apples, rolling dough and all the other work that went into the 3 homemade pies. Whew, 3 pies from scratch and I was only 50% of the way done. I fell asleep that night with visions of frozen premade pies and boxed cake mixes. I’m pretty sure I heard them laughing at me.
The next night I was all set to finish the beauty. I got the first pie and cake in the oven and baked them. And baked them. Did I mention that I baked them? Toothpick test-still gooey. Baked, baked, and baked some more. Finally the toothpick came out clean enough that the center of the cake should be done. I let it cool for a few minutes and just could hardly contain the excitement as I dumped the cake over onto the cooling rack. One scrumptious layer down and two to go! Boy was this going to be the talk of the office! But this is where it all went really wrong. My gorgeous perfect cake with the luscious homemade pie in the middle just dumped out into a crumbled mound of pumpkin pie and cake. I was mortified. Well at least nobody knew what I was bringing. Or did they? Had my husband shared with the whole office that they were going to be treated to a Cherpumple? Surely he had just signed up for “dessert”. Please don’t let him have signed up to bring Cherpumple! I quickly rushed to ask him and, yes, he had shared with the office they were going to get to sample the granddaddy of all desserts. Panic!
Ok, well I have 2 pies left. It will just be a 2 layer Cherpumple. Baked the apple pie and the same thing-a big mound of apple pie and cake mess. My husband found it a little funny and jokingly said, “Well, we’ll just tell everyone it’s a Cherdumple”. I was not amused but decided I had to do something with it after all that work.
So I did the only thing I knew to do. I made a trifle. It was creamy pumpkin pie with a flaky crust, mixed with moist homemade cake, layered with real whipped cream, drizzled with homemade caramel, and it was good. Really good. It got rave reviews at his office. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for pulling it off……until someone asked for the recipe. I simply smiled and said, “Do you bake a lot? If you do, I’d be more than happy to share the recipe with you. But it is quite involved.” Luckily there was some comment from the co-worker how if it required much work, they were likely to mess it up. Oh if they only knew!
Here’s my recipe for Jennifer’s Cookies and Cream trifle. It’s sure not as much work as the Cherdumple, but it’s sure to get you some rave reviews and you won’t have to cringe when someone asks for the recipe!
Jennifer’s Cookies and Cream Birthday Trifle
4 oz. Good Quality White Chocolate (I’m a little partial to Dove®.)
1 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Tsp. Sugar
2 Cups Crumbled Double Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies*
Chocolate Shavings or Cocoa Powder for Garnish
Melt chocolate in the microwave at 20 second intervals until smooth. Stir between intervals as the chocolate will begin to melt from the inside first. Cool to room temperature. Beat cream and sugar until stiff peaks forms. Fold melted chocolate into the cream. Add 1 cup cookie crumbs to a 2-quart glass dish. Layer on ½ of the white chocolate cream. Repeat. Garnish top with chocolate shavings or cocoa powder.
*I used homemade double chocolate chip cookies to which I had added cocoa powder to the batter. You can use any store-bought cookie just make sure they pack a big chocolate punch (as rich as a brownie). That super rich chocolate goodness paired with the light, sweet white chocolate cream is amazing.
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