This brownie trifle recipe is the perfect no-stress dessert for chocolate lovers. Made in adorable individual servings with store-bought ingredients, it's easy to assemble, looks impressive, and tastes amazing and no messy scooping required!
A Quick Look At This Recipe
- 📋 Recipe: Brownie Trifle (Individual Servings)
- ⏲️ Ready In: 20 min.
- 👪 Servings: 4 individual trifles
- 🔪 Difficulty: Easy
- 💭 Top Tip: Use individual glasses or jars for easy serving and gorgeous presentation.
Why You'll Love This Brownie Trifle Recipe
- Individual servings make it foolproof -No worrying about clean slices or messy scooping, each person gets their own perfect portion.
- Ready in 20 minutes -Simple assembly, and ready to serve.
- Uses store-bought shortcuts -Two-bite brownies and instant pudding mean you're assembling, not baking.
- Looks absolutely stunning - hose beautiful layers in clear glasses always impress guests.
- Perfect make-ahead dessert -Actually tastes better after chilling overnight.
- Endlessly customizable -Swap the candy bars, change the pudding flavor, or add your favorite toppings.
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These individual brownie trifles are always a crowd pleaser and really easy to put together. They're the perfect dessert for the chocolate lover.
The best part? Making these in individual servings means no messy cutting or scooping. Everyone gets their own perfectly portioned dessert that looks like it came from a bakery. Plus, they don't neen to set like a large trifle, so make them ahead or serve them right away.
If you're a chocolate lover you might also like our Chocolate Charcuterie Snack Board -another impressive chocolate dessert that's easy to make. Also check out our Easy One Bowl Brownies, and Easy Dirt Pudding Recipe. You might also enjoy Easy Individual Mini Trifle Cups and Caramel Apple Trifle.
What is a Brownie Trifle?
A trifle is a classic English dessert made with layers of cake, custard, whipped cream, and often fruit or jelly. Traditional trifles are assembled in a large glass bowl so you can see all the beautiful layers.
A brownie trifle takes this concept and makes it even more indulgent by swapping sponge cake for rich, fudgy brownies. Instead of custard, we use chocolate pudding (so good!), and we layer it all with fluffy whipped cream and crunchy candy bar pieces.
Ingredients
Find a full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.
- Brownies: Two-bite brownies are a great store bought easy option or use your favorite homemade brownies cut into bite-sized pieces. Our One Bowl Brownie Recipe would be perfect.
- Pudding: We used instant pudding made with milk, but you could also use already preprated chocolate pudding, or homemade chocolate pudding.
- Whipped Cream: We used a few shortcuts for this recipe, but the whipped cream isn't one of them. We love homemade whipped cream. It only takes a few minutes to make and tastes so much better than a substitution like cool whip, but you can use whatever you prefer.
- Chocolate Bars: In Canada, we call these Skor Bars, but any hard toffee bar covered in chocolate would be perfect. Or substitute your chocolate bar of choice.
Variations
- Peanut Butter Cup: Love peanut butter cups? Substitute them for the chocolate bars and add a peanut butter touch. You could also add some real chopped peanuts as well for a little crunch.
- Turtle Chocolate Trifle: If you're a lover of turtles chocolates, substitute them in for the chocolate bar pieces. You might also add some caramel sauce and/or chocolate sauce as an extra layer, or add a layer of butterscotch pudding too, and some chopped pecans.
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry: Love chocolate covered strawberries. Why not omit the chocolate bar pieces and substitute yummy layers fresh cut strawberries to create a wonderful chocolate covered strawberry version of this treat with fresh fruit.
- Black Forest Brownie Trifle: If you love Black Forest cake, add a layer of cherry pie filling to your chocolate trifle and substitute chocolate curls and chocolate shavings for the chocolate bar pieces. You could even use chocolate cake instead of the fudgy brownie bites.
- For The Holidays: Add colorful red, green, and white sprinkles for Christmas, star sprinkles and sparklers for New Years, heart sprinkles for Valentine's Day, or broken up mini eggs for Easter.
- Gluten Free: Substitute gluten-free brownies for the brownie chunks. Use a gluten-free box of brownie mix to make the brownies. The pudding, skor bar, and whipped cream are all gluten-free.
How to Make Individual Brownie Trifles: Step by Step
Step 1: Prepare Your Containers Use 4 individual glasses or small jars to make individual chocolate trifles. You can also double this recipe for one large trifle in a large bowl or trifle dish. Clear containers show off those gorgeous layers beautifully!
Step 2: Create the First Brownie Layer Slice 1 ½ or 2 of the two-bite brownies into quarters, and create a brownie layer on the bottom of each of the four glasses with the brownie pieces.
Step 3: Add the Pudding Layer Prepare the chocolate pudding according to the package directions, and add about ¼ cup of pudding on top of the brownies in each glass, as the pudding layer in the trifle.
Step 4: Add the Whipped Cream Layer Whip the cream with sugar and vanilla, and use a big spoon to add about ¼ cup as the next layer.
Step 5: Add the Candy Topping Chop the chocolate bars, and sprinkle over the top, as the final layer.
Step 6: Repeat All Layers and Chill Repeat all the layers again in each glass, starting with the brownies, then the pudding, the whipped cream, and finishing with the Skor bar pieces on top of the trifle. Once the whole thing is put together, chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
The longer they chill, the better they taste! When ready to serve, you can add a final sprinkle of candy or a drizzle of chocolate sauce if you want to make them extra special.
Expert Tip
Make the layers visible: If you want those picture-perfect layers, spread each layer all the way to the edge of your glass so people can see the stripes from the outside.
Make-Ahead
- Make them the night before: Perfect for party prep - they taste even better after sitting overnight.
- Add final candy topping just before serving: This keeps the candy crunchy if you're making them more than a few hours ahead
Storage
Store the individual trifles covered (plastic wrap works great) in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. After that, the brownies can start to get too soft and the whipped cream may start to deflate.
Can You Freeze Them? I don't recommend freezing these trifles. The whipped cream doesn't freeze well and will become watery when thawed. The pudding texture also changes after freezing.
More Chocolate Desserts
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! Double the recipe and layer everything in a large trifle bowl or glass serving dish.
I use 8-12 ounce glasses or small mason jars. You want something tall enough to show off the layers but not so big that it's too large of a portion. Anything from a juice glass to a small dessert cup works great.
Either works! Homemade whipped cream tastes better in my opinion and only takes a few minutes to make. But if you're short on time, Cool Whip or any frozen whipped topping is a perfectly fine shortcut.
You can make them up to 24 hours in advance and store them wraped in plastic wrap in the fridge. The flavors meld and improve after sitting for a little while.
Make sure you're using instant pudding mix (not cook-and-serve) and let it sit for the full 5 minutes after mixing. It should thicken to a spreadable consistency. If it's still thin, pop it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
If you try these Brownie Trifles or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
Recipe
Easy Chocolate Brownie Trifle
Ingredients
- 280 g package Two-bite Brownies
- 113 g package Instant Chocolate Jello Pudding
- 2 cups milk
- 191 g package Skor minis chocolate bars
- 473 mL Whipping Cream
- 2 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
Instructions
- Use 4 individual glasses, or small jars to make individual chocolate trifles, or double this recipe for one large trifle in a large bowl or trifle dish. To begin with, slice 1 ½ or 2 of the two-bite brownies into quarters, and create a brownie layer on the bottom of each of the four glasses with the brownie pieces.
- Prepare the chocolate pudding according to the package directions, and add about ¼ cup of pudding on top of the brownies in each glass, as the pudding layer in the trifle.
- Whip the cream with sugar and vanilla, and use a big spoon to add about ¼ cup as the fourth layer.
- Chop the chocolate bars, and sprinkle over the top, as the final layer.
- Repeat all the layers again in each glass, starting with the brownies, then the pudding, the whipped cream, and finishing with the Skor bar pieces on top of the trifle. Once the whole thing is put together, chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist says
Any chocolate lover will adore this delicious and easy to make brownie trifle.
dnr says
Glad to hear they liked it 🙂
Stephanie says
This trifle is so yummy! I just made it for a party with family this weekend, and it was a hit!
Emily {WhipperBerry} says
Yum! thanks for linking up!
Tammy says
Soooo loving the bunting. 🙂
Allana says
Martin never eats my trifle, but has informed me that not only is yours better but that I have to switch to making it this way at Christmas. Out goes Grandma's trifle, in comes Dannyelle's, I guess! It was amazing!
Kim says
Oh my! The dessert looks wonderful. The bunting is the cutest thing I've ever seen!
connie says
probably the best trifle I've ever eaten.
Heather Benjamin says
This is an easy recipe to make and is always a hit! Very tasty and can be made up ahead of time. Great idea, thanks!