Yummy Peach Trifle, An Awesome Summertime Dessert

One of my favorite desserts for this time of year is a trifle made with fresh Georgia peaches. Georgia is the "peach" state so you just can't get much better than a yummy peach trifle for a summer party on the porch.

This dessert is super easy to make and is loosely based on one I tore out of a magazine many years ago. The recipe didn't make enough for the huge trifle dish I have and I wanted it to have a richer taste, so, I increased the amount of the ingredients and "doctored" it up a bit.

To give this trifle a richer taste, I always substitute sweetened condensed milk for part of the milk called for in the recipe. I've also been known to mix in a bit of whipped topping into the pudding on occasion.

I have a pretty large trifle dish. If your trifle bowl is toward the smaller size, you may not need as many ingredients and you may wish to only layer the ingredients twice. My bowl is so large, I always need to layer the ingredients three times. If you need a trifle bowl, there are a good many on eBay and Amazon.

Here's how I make it:

Ingredients:
•2 (3 1/2-ounce) packages of instant vanilla pudding mix
•4 cups of milk (I substitute a 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk for about 1 1/2 cups of milk)
•9-10 peaches (peeled and sliced) If the peaches are kind of small, buy a few extra
•5-6 tablespoons of granulated sugar
•2 good-size loaves of pound cake
•1/2 cup bourbon (you can leave this out if children will be eating this dessert)
•1 cup whipping cream (whip 2 cups for lots of whipped cream piled high)
•2 tablespoons powdered sugar
•1/2 cup sliced almonds (okay to use less than this...they just get sprinkled across the top)

Directions:
Prepare the pudding mix according to the package directions, except substitute 1 1/2 cups of milk with a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk. (One year when I made this, I also mixed in an 8 oz container of cool whip.) Cover and chill for 5 minutes to allow the pudding to thicken.

Toss the sliced peaches with the granulated sugar.

Cut the pound cake into 1/2 inch slices. Cover the bottom of your trifle dish with cake slices. Drizzle the cake slices evenly with about 1/3 of the bourbon. I always use Blanton's or Maker's Mark and will sometimes drizzle a little extra just to make sure each cake slice gets a little bourbon. (The original recipe called for 1/3 cup of bourbon but I've increased all the ingredients in this recipe to fit my large trifle bowl.)

Spoon a third of the sliced peach mixture over the cake.
Spread a third of the pudding over the peaches.
Repeat twice more with the remaining cake slices, bourbon, peach mixture and pudding.
Cover and chill at least two hours.

A few minutes before serving time:
Beat whipping cream at medium speed with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form. (Tip: Whipping cream does best if the bowl and beaters have been refrigerated for a little while before you start.)
Spread the whipped cream over the trifle.
Sprinkle the almonds on top.

If you would like more whipped cream, double the recipe using 2 cups of whipping cream and 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar. My trifle bowl is so large, I think it would have looked better if I had doubled it.

If you really want to go all out, you could make your own pound cake and pudding from scratch. I never do that, but it would be seriously good!


Here are a few pics from when I made this trifle for a 4th of July party recently. I forgot to take pics once I added the whipped topping, but I took one after we had started digging in. :)

Peeling the peaches....you can see the pound cakes I bought at Kroger in the background. I normally buy two loaves at Publix, but this year I was in Kroger and just picked them up there, instead. They looked smaller so I bought three instead of two. I ended up having about half a loaf left over.

I sliced the peaches up the night before the party so the next day I could just assemble the trifle.

The next day, I began the layering. In this pic, I had just added a layer of pound cake.

The peaches got darker in the refrigerator overnight. Peaches always do that but they are perfectly fine. After I drizzled the bourbon over the cake, I added a layer of peaches.

Next, I added a layer of pudding.

I repeated the steps for the second layer. Here I am starting the third layer, once again beginning with the cake.

Again, I drizzled the cake with bourbon and added the final layer of peaches. The reason some of the peaches are brighter yellow is because I added another peach I had missed the night before to the trifle. You can see how peaches get a little darker after they are cut up. They were also drizzled in sugar overnight, too, so that may contribute to the change in color. I added the final layer of pudding after this pic was taken.

I forgot to take a pic right after I added the whipped cream, but here's a picture after we had begun digging in. You can see the layers and the sliced almonds on top.

Yum! This is one dessert I HAVE to make at least once each summer. Enjoy! :)

You'll find the recipe for a cranberry trifle under the heading "Party Ideas" at the top of this blog. OR, just click HERE .