Peanut Butter Cup Trifle

We recently celebrated Alexander's 15th birthday. I cannot possibly be old enough to have a 15 year old. Yikes!!! When I asked him what dessert he wanted on his birthday, he said that all my desserts were so good that he couldn't choose so I could choose. He knew he'd love it. He is an awesome teenager so I needed to find an awesome dessert for him. I took advantage of it to make something new, which I don't get to do very often anymore. I wanted something peanut-y for National Peanut Month. (I did make plain brownies for Sabrina because of her allergies. She loved them.)

I've had this recipe in my file for a year since I first saw it on The Sisters Cafe. I decided to make half the brownies, but make the full recipe of the pudding goodness and we'd save half of that for something else later in the week. Elisa was so nice to help me put the trifle together and didn't hear me when I said I was only putting half of the pudding in. So we ended up with the entire amount of peanut butter pudding with half of the brownies and candy. So it really looks like our brownies are drowning and you can barely see them. That was okay because it was still oh, so very divine!

Peanut Butter Cup Trifle

9x13-inch pan of brownies, cut into 1 inch pieces

5.1 oz. instant vanilla pudding
3 c. milk
½ c. creamy peanut butter
2 t. vanilla
8 oz. container thawed whipped topping (Cool Whip), divided
20 peanut butter cups, crumbled (buy in a 10-pack. Not the bite-sized)
6-8 peanut butter cups or chocolate curls to garnish.

Combine pudding and milk. Beat for 2 minutes. Add peanut butter and vanilla, beat until smooth. Gently fold in 2 cups cool whip.

Layer in trifle dish ½ the brownies, ½ the crumbled peanut butter cups, ½ the pudding mixture. Repeat. Top with cool whip and peanut butter cups. Chill until serving.