No-Bake Pumpkin Trifle is the Fall Dessert You Didn't Know You Needed

Trifle may be best known from Friends fame, but don't let Rachel's catastrophe deter you; this dessert is delicious when done right. Really, it's nearly impossible to mess up unless two pages of your cookbook are stuck together (or, in reality, your internet's not working).

Most often made with layers of fruit, cake, custard, pudding, and/or whipped cream, trifle is a traditional English holiday dessert. But it's definitely not limited to the holidays – you can customize it for anytime of year.

I decided to swap these ingredients for bold pumpkin flavors courtesy of Trader Joe's. Gingerbread cookie crumble, pumpkin spice filling, and homemade whipped cream layered in mason jars make this pumpkin trifle recipe a deceivingly simple crowd-pleaser. 

No-Bake Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

• Prep Time:30 mins
• Cook Time:0
• Total Time:30 mins
• Servings:8
• Medium

Ingredients

• 8 oz pumpkin cream cheese spread
• 1 cup canned pumpkin purée
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 13 oz pecan pralines
• 4 chocolate mousse pumpkins
• 13 oz triple ginger snap cookies

• Step 1

  Gather ingredients.

  

• Step 2

  Pour ginger snap cookies and pecan pralines into a gallon-size Ziploc bag and crush on a hard surface to make the crumble.
  
  #SpoonTip: Don't overdo it. This layer should provide some crunch.

  

• Step 3

  With an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, pumpkin, 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice until smooth.

  

• Step 4

  In a separate bowl, beat cream, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract until mixture thickens.

  

• Step 5

  Pour a layer of the crumble about an inch thick into each mason jar.

  

• Step 6

  Spoon the pumpkin filling layer into a gallon-size Ziploc and cut off one of the corners to make your own piping bag. Pipe the filling into the jar, and then repeat with the whipped cream.

  

• Step 7

  Repeat until each jar is full and there is a whipped cream layer on top. Garnish with a dash of pumpkin pie spice and top each jar with a chocolate mousse pumpkin.

  

Serve it for Friendsgiving, at a fall dinner party, or make a jar for yourself and refrigerate the leftovers (if there are any, but no promises). There's really no such thing as too much pumpkin, and this trifle will silence any doubt about that.