by birthday request

For the past two years, my oldest son has opted for a homemade dessert instead of our standard birthday cake from the bakery.  He loves to scroll thru Pinterest with me and starts narrowing down his choices a full month ahead of time.  Last year he chose the famous cinnamon roll cake, and it was a huge hit.  This year he decided for the peanut butter brownie trifle originally seen HERE.  His birthday isn't for a couple more days, but we celebrated this weekend with a sleepover and he opted to have his special dessert when his friend was here. 

I followed the original recipe for the peanut butter filling, but in an effort to save time, I substituted cool whip for real whipped cream.  I also added reese's pieces in addition to the Reese's peanut butter cups.  Here's all you need to get started:

 

 

I baked two batches of brownies (1 batch is never enough and 2 batches are too many, but you can always find a good home for your leftover brownies) in 9x9 pans.  I made one box of instant Jello chocolate pudding according to directions on the box, and the peanut butter filling which is essentially the same as the filling of a peanut butter pie (8 oz. cream cheese softened, 1 c. peanut butter, 1 c. powdered sugar, 2 T. milk, and 1 c. whipped topping).  Additional ingredients included one package of Reese's minis and 1-2 cups of Reese's pieces.  I started by cutting the brownies into chunks and arranging them on the bottom of my trifle bowl (it doesn't seem to matter what you layer in a bowl like this, it always looks pretty!) cutting smaller chunks of brownie to fill in the gaps.  Next I added about 1/2 of the peanut butter mixture, followed by a handfull of the reese's minis.  I tried to keep the peanut butter layer from squishing up against the side of the bowl just to keep it all pretty. 

 

Then I added 1/2 of the chocolate pudding for the next layer, followed by a layer of whipped topping and a handful of Reese's pieces. 

 

If you wanted to make this recipe in a smaller serving bowl, you technically could stop right here and it would still taste fine.  But because I think bigger is better, and because I love making desserts to impress, I recommend going through this exact same sequence of layers again (brownie, peanut butter, reese's minis, choc. pudding, cool whip, reese's pieces, and reese's minis again).  The end result was beautiful and delicious!  I had to hide it in the garage fridge just to make sure no one was tempted to stick a finger in before the birthday boy's sleepover.

 

If you're looking for portion control or don't have a trifle bowl, you could just as easily prepare individual servings of this dessert by layering the ingredients in parfait glasses or cheap plastic cups.  It doesn't really matter how it is presented, as long as it is eaten and enjoyed!