Turtle Trifle

By  Cindy

Fall seems to have arrived over the weekend with the cooler evening and morning air.  I went on a girls weekend to Patoka Lake, and 50 degrees felt cold after last week's high temperatures.  We stayed warm around a fire and enjoyed being together.   I do love that I live in an area that has seasons.  Fall is a wonderful season with the beautiful turning leaves, pumpkins, and football games.  So many great events start back up in the fall and all of the great family holidays start over again.   

For our theme of trifles, I was looking for something really good.  Sarah and Christy always find some great recipe to make, so I have to try to keep up with them.  There is a little competition between us to find the best recipe.  I think I'm right up there with them this time.  I made this trifle and took it on my weekend trip with the girls, and they loved it.  Trifles are really easy to make and you can combine so many great ingredients to come up with your own favorite.  I think my favorite trifle is the Low-Cal Chocolate Trifle, which is on our blog.  This Turtle Trifle is probably my second favorite maybe because chocolate turtle candy from Libs is my favorite candy.  It is very rich and sweet with bites of pecan pie topped off with the crunchy toasted pecans. I made individual servings and I think one layer would have been enough for individual servings, since it is so rich.  I didn't use as much chocolate or caramel sauce either.  As a large trifle, I would follow the recipe exactly.  

I loved using the mascarpone cheese.  It's a really mild and smooth cheese that I had never tried before.  The recipe stated that cream cheese could be used instead, but I loved how the mascarpone tasted mixed with the whipping cream.  This would make a great dessert for a Thanksgiving dinner too, so keep that in mind in November.  

Turtle Trifle

Yield:  Makes 10 servings

Prep time: 20 minutes

Chill time: 1 Hour

8 ounces mascarpone cheese, softened*

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

1 (2-lb.) frozen pecan pie, thawed and cut into 1-inch cubes

1/3 cup chocolate fudge topping

1/3 cup caramel topping

1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1.  Beat mascarpone cheese, whipping cream, and vanilla extract in a large bowl at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth and firm.

2.  Place half of pie cubes in bottom of a 4-qt. trifle dish or tall, clear 4-qt. glass bowl.  Spread half of whipped cream mixture over pie cubes.  Drizzle with half each chocolate fudge topping and caramel topping.  Sprinkle with half of chopped pecans.  Repeat layers.

I put the whipped cream mixture in a large plastic sack and cut one of the corners off.  This made adding the whipped cream mixture neater and cleaner in the individual cups. 

3.  Cover and chill at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

*1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese may be substituted.

Mascarpone is rich double or triple cream cheese made from cow's milk.

 

recipe adapted from

MyRecipes.com

Southern Living December 2006