Cream Puff Trifle with Two Bird's Custards

We hosted my husband's family for a belated Christmas gathering in between Christmas and New Years. I love my in-laws - they are a great family who love each other deeply, love to laugh, and love to eat. It's always a fun time when we get together. I wanted to keep the menu relatively simple, so we enjoyed The Pioneer Woman's Drip Beef, Two Ways. Both are delicious, but our favorite is the one with the pepperoncinis. As sides, I did roasted potatoes, steamed sliced carrots, and my mother's Zucchini Imperial.

(Please forgive my tiny photos - I took them with my phone.)

For dessert we had my sister-in-laws wonderful apple pie, various Christmas cookies, and I made this Cream Puff Trifle with Eggnog and Chocolate Bird's Custards. It is a winner, but it needs some tweaking.

I was inspired by this recipe that I found on Pinterest (of course). To me trifle is a traditionally British dessert, so I wanted to use Bird's Custard. And then when I was at the store, I saw the eggnog and thought, "Hey, that would make some really delicious Bird's." Then to go with it I thought to make some chocolate Bird's. Because, chocolate.

You can find Bird's in the international section of most large grocery stores. If yours doesn't have it, then Amazon.com does. I made the custards following the directions on the Bird's can. I used the exact same amount of eggnog instead of the milk for the one custard. I also added 1/4 tsp rum extract. To make chocolate custard, just add 1-2 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa and then increase the sugar by 1/2 Tbsp. Make sure the blend in the cocoa well with the custard powder and sugar before adding the milk.

You can make these custards ahead of time and just store them in the frig for a day or two. I made them the day before our gathering since I didn't want to assemble the trifle until the day of.

I bought one of those large tubs of frozen cream puffs from our bulk warehouse store. There was no way I was spending the time or arm power making the number of cream puffs I needed. Nor was I making the pastry cream and then filling all of those cream puffs. These frozen little bombs of pastry goodness worked perfectly. I got the kind not chocolate covered, but those would be perfectly fine, of course. Also, I may try this with those tiny frozen eclairs sometime.

I also used whipped topping (also known as Cool Whip) instead of real whipped cream because it's more stable. And then I melted some dark chocolate chips, adding a little shortening to keep it from hardening up too much (although it did when the whole thing was put into the frig later).
Since the cream puffs were frozen, I moved them to the frig the day the same day that I made the custards so that they would be thawed at the time I assembled the trifle.

The Ingredients:

1 tub frozen cream puffs
1 large tub whipped topping
2 prepared recipes of Bird's Custard, one with 1-2 Tbsp cocoa + 1/2 Tbsp sugar added to the custard powder; the other with eggnog instead of milk plus 1/4 tsp rum extract
melted chocolate chips mixed with a dash of shortening to keep it semi-liquid

To Assemble:

Put a few dollops of the chocolate custard on the bottom of your trifle bowl and spread it out to coat the entire bottom. Then layer a generous amount of cream puffs into the bowl, making sure that there is a clear circle around the edge. Layer dollops of eggnog custard over the cream puffs and then chocolate custard on top of that. Here's where I'll tweak - put a thin layer of whipped topping on top of the custards. I feel that I used way too much in that middle layer. Really a few light dollops are probably all that's needed. Repeat the cream puffs, custards, and finish with the whipped topping. Be generous with the cream puffs in each layer - this is another tweak because I feel that I didn't use enough. After you finish adding all of the layers, drizzle the melted chocolate over the top. I find that using a fork works well and keeps large blobs from falling like happens with a spoon.

And voila! You have a lovely, yummy trifle. You can make this several hours in advance of serving, but store it in the frig until about an hour ready to serve.