Now this is my sort of trifle! When I first saw this recipe in the delicious Magazine I knew I would one day make it. How could you resist making a trifle that contains chocolate brownies with dark chocolate sauce and Kahlua, fresh thick white chocolate custard and whipped cream with white chocolate and walnuts… are you drooling yet?
Well I certainly am.
You certainly need to leave room for THIS dessert! With the gorgeously rich chocolate layer at the bottom – I must admit I had a little trouble finishing it, after eating a rather largish meal beforehand – others didn’t seem to have this same problem and cleaned out their glass. I loved the addition of the walnuts and white chocolate to the cream, which really complimented the chocolate layer wonderfully. I was expecting a little more participation from the white chocolate custard, but it got a little lost between the other two stronger flavours. I also found it didn’t thicken as much while cooking as I was expecting (something like the Portuguese custard tarts) so I may have overcooked it a little – unfortunately. :o( . Once cooled it was set, with no problems spreading the cream layer on top.
Apart from the long waiting times between layers setting, the entire recipe doesn’t take terribly long. It’s fantastic having a dessert already waiting for a diner party and I had easily made double the batch, using 14 baked brownies from the previous day. The other problem I had with the recipe (apart from the custard overcooking) was the addition of water to the melted chocolate…
The first tablespoon of boiling water was added to the melted chocolate and delicately stirred in… and the mixture became a conglomeration of thickening hard chocolate!! The more I stirred, the more it thickened – I was supposed to be making a sauce!! After an immense amount of stress on my part, Nick came to the rescue and took over stirring wildly, while adding boiling water faster than I was game – the recipe did say to add one by one to stop the chocolate seizing. Once the initial thickening had occurred, the chocolate formed a lovely sauce, which thickened up in the fridge to be decadently rich and slightly runny.
Choc-A-Block Trifle
Recipe from delicious magazine March 2008 by Valli Little
Serves: 6
4 good-quality chocolate brownies (about 85g each) (I used 7 of my home-made brownies)
¼ cup (60ml) Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
275g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
3 egg yolks
1½ tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
600ml thickened cream
150g white chocolate, roughly chopped
¼ cup (30g) toasted chopped walnuts
Dark chocolate curls (see note), to decorate
Break up brownies into small pieces and place in the bottom of a 1.5 litre dish or 6 x 1 cup (250ml) serving glasses. Drizzle over the Kahlua, then set aside.
Place dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). Allow to melt, then stir very gently until smooth. Remove from heat and add 225ml boiling water, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring to make a sauce (don’t add water more quickly or the chocolate will ‘seize’ and become grainy). Pour sauce over the brownies, then cover and chill for 2 hours.
Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl with electric beaters until thick and pale.
Heat 300ml of the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until just below boiling point. Pour the hot cream mixture over the egg mixture, stirring to combine. Transfer to a clean saucepan and place over low heat. Stir for 2-3 minutes until a thick custard forms.
Place two thirds (100g) of the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Pour the custard into the bowl, stirring until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is well combined. Cool completely, then pour over the chocolate brownie base. Chill for 2 hours.
Place the remaining 50g of white chocolate in a food processor with the walnuts and pulse until fine. Whip the remaining cream to soft peaks, stir in the walnut mixture, then spread over the trifle. Chill for at least 2 hours until set, then serve decorated with chocolate curls, if desired.
layers of goodness indeed! i can only imagine how rich that dessert would have been (and how tasty!)
(and oh, i sympathise totally re chocolate + adding water to it. its terrifying and so easy to think “i’ve stuffed up! start again!”)
looks awesome! can i get you to make for my birthday? 🙂
Always been a fan of trifles and that looks seriously awesome!
I am definitely drooling!
oh my…brownies AND trifle? sounds too good to be true! love the last shot of all the layers!
OMG….this looks fabulous..luscious and creamy dessert…
It was only yesterday I had a real taste for some strawberry trifle…..but now I am totally drooling over your pics of s chocolate trifle! Looks so gorgeous just like what you would get in a good restaurant.
Wow! These look even better than they sounded! Jeremy is so impressed!
What a beautiful chocolatey dessert! It must have been nerve-wracking adding water to chocolate, so it’s great that it worked out well in the end.
Arrrgh! I so should not have looked at this right now. I’m so on the verge of baking up a batch of brownies for this 😆 it looks and sounds magnificent!
🙂
Hi Shez – Very rich and very tasty indeed 🙂 Thanks for sympathy with the chocolate and water… it was a little stressful 😕
Hi Simon – Thanks 😛 . When’s your birthday? Hehehe 😛
Hi Amrita – Thanks, I haven’t had a heaps of trifles, but I like the chocolate content of this one 🙂
Hi Beta Gal – Excellent!! Hehehehe
Hi Steph – Almost too good to be true 🙂 Thanks – that last one was my mum’s spoon, she got the layers heaps better than my attempt (second last)
Hi Parita – It sure is 😛 Thanks
Hi Jeena – Hahaha, maybe you could combine the two? 😉
Hi Sarah – Very cool, glad to hear it! Thanks for visiting 🙂
Hi Arwen – It was very frustrating with the chocolate. Hope I’ve helped someone by sharing my experience 🙂
Hi Lorraine – Hahahaha, and then you could have some left over brownies too… they’re always good 😛 Thanks!
OOohh yuuuuuuummmm! *drooollll* I’ll take all 10 of them plleeassee XD
The picture with all the individual servings lined up is great – but I think I would have sugar overload just having all those glasses so close by. 🙂 I don’t remember seeing that recipe in Delicious last year, but there are so many. I end up with so many tags on pages that I want to come back to later. I always have way too much to try!!!
I am shamelessly drooling. These individual trifles would be a perfect make-ahead dessert for a dinner party. How can anyone resist brownies, white chocolate, cream, and Kahlua?
oh my god, what an awesome dessert. I’ve never seen a chocolate trifle before, maybe I have lived long enough yet. But this seriously looks decadent, I was drool just reading the heading!
Brownies in a trifle??? Sounds so wrong, it MUST be good!
Hi Ffichiban – Hehehe… I know.. 🙂
Hi Julia – I certainly had a bit of a sugar overload 🙂 The recipe was in the March 2008 along with many other chocolate recipes I want to try 😛
Hi Leela – They are great for a dinner party – and no one can resist them 🙂
Hi Maria – Hehehe, I hope to see more chocolate trifle recipe out on the net!
Hi Y – It is VERY good 🙂 Hehehe
if you add the water all at once the chocolate will not seize. dont do it 1 tablespoon at a time that is when the chocolate seizes 🙂
Hey, just checking out your site after talking to your mum.
This looks AMAZING and we can’t WAIT to try it……
Is cornflour the same as cornstarch???
Hi Joanne
Yes, cornflour and cornstarch are the same. In Australia it’s called cornflour.
Thanks for visiting!
Anita
Is it possible to scramble the egg mixture when adding the hot cream? My cream/white choc mixture came out tasting very eggy… but it was perfectly smooth… maybe the eggs I used were a bit too big. I have added extra white choc and a bit of vanilla extract and put it in the fridge to set, fingers crossed!