Mini pumpkin trifle is an easy pumpkin pie in a glass, which is great for Thanksgiving or any other celebration, when your oven is busy. This is a great no bake fall dessert, decorated with homemade caramel candy.
Mini pumpkin trifle has layers of spiced pumpkin puree, whipped cream and biscuit crumbs. All served in small glasses, so it is easier to make portions instead of using standard trifle bowl. Mini trifles look so cute and appetizing! You need no baking to make these mini pumpkin trifles, which is much easier than pumpkin cheesecake.
To my mind, mini pumpkin trifle is perfect Thanksgiving dinner ending.
So easy to make and fill the glasses. Save your precious time and prepare beautiful and tasty pumpkin desserts. Moreover, you can make these pumpkin desserts about 2 days ahead and store them in the fridge!
I would say that we love trifles, serving them in individual glasses. Mini pumpkin trifle has a great balance of sweet and spice, not too sweet overall. So these pumpkin desserts can we served as appetizers, too. And if you are not fan of pumpkin desserts, you should also check our Caramel Apple Trifle recipe.
Decorating mini pumpkin trifles
As a decoration I decided to make just an easy caramel candy with pumpkin seeds. By the way, it’s a good candy on their own and perfect if you have leftover pumpkin seeds. To make the caramel, dissolve sugar in water and heat until it caramelizes. Pour over pumpkin seeds and let it set. Then just snap it with your fingers and insert into dollop of whipped cream on top of the trifles! So easy to make, but looks amazing!
Biscuit crumbs
If you want more fluffy desserts, you can use a leftover cake instead of biscuit crumbs. I would even suggest you to make our Pumpkin chocolate chip bread. And just cut it with your glass and use instead of crumbs. Use your favorite biscuits – Oreo, ladyfingers, graham crackers or others. These crunchy layers, made with crumbs are essential in these mini pumpkin trifle!
Pumpkin layers
I love using homemade pumpkin puree in all of our pumpkin recipes. I mentioned in our post about pumpkin soup why I prefer homemade roasted pumpkin instead of canned. However, you can use canned pumpkin puree, just check that it is not a pie filling, but real organic pumpkin puree. The texture shouldn’t be too runny or too thick – smooth, easy to spoon. I love using Musquee de Provence or Butternut squash for making puree for sweet recipes.
You can add pumpkin pie spice to the puree or use a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger as in recipe.
To make white layer, I’ve made a homemade whipped cream. But you can actually use Cool Whip or light cream cheese if you are short on time. Cheesecake trifles will also taste good! But I love whipped cream for its light texture like clouds. Pumpkin trifles with cream cheese will be more dense. You can also use Mascarpone cream like in these Valentines trifles. But if you’re fan of cheesecakes, go ahead and whip some cream cheese instead of heavy cream!
Generally, I didn’t add much sugar in these desserts, except for the candy on top that is made from sugar and pumpkin seeds. By the way, if you want more color, you can drizzle some chocolate or cranberry sauce on top of the trifles. This pumpkin recipe makes 2 generous little trifles. We love this serving size. You can either divide it to smaller shot glasses or double/ triple it for big family gathering such as Thanksgiving!
What I love about trifles, is that you can make as thick layers as you like and in which order you want! The decoration may be only whipped cream and crumbs, but pumpkin seeds candy is totally worth making it. It is such a comforting fall dessert! You can find more dessert recipes on our blog.
You can store all layers in different boxes and assemble the trifles on Thanksgiving morning. Or if you have space in your fridge, you can store layered desserts or mini trifles for 2 days before celebration.
Hope you will have an amazing Thanksgiving dinner with these mini trifles as desserts instead of pumpkin pie!
If you like this pumpkin trifle recipe, leave a comment below and share it with your friends on any of your social networks!
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Mini Pumpkin Trifle
- a small tray with parchment paper
- heavy bottom clean small pot with a glass lid
- hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment
- piping bag or teaspoon
- mixing bowls and spoons
- 280 g pumpkin puree
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon ground
- 1 tsp ginger ground
- ½ tsp cloves ground
- ¼ tsp nutmeg ground
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 180 g heavy cream
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 100 g biscuits crushed
- ½ tbsp pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- Layer a small tray with parchment paper. Put pumpkin seeds on parchment paper in one layer, 1 inch one from another. Don’t make it too smooth.½ tbsp pumpkin seeds
- In a heavy bottom clean small pot put sugar and water. Put the glass lid on a pot. Heat on a low, wait until sugar starts to change color to golden (no mixing needed). Watch it like a hawk, it may take up to 15 minutes.½ cup sugar, ¼ cup water
- When your caramel is golden brown, pour it over pumpkin seeds and let it sit until it sets.
- Blend or mix pumpkin puree with spices and icing sugar.280 g pumpkin puree, 1-2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, ½ tsp cloves, 1 tbsp icing sugar, ¼ tsp nutmeg
- In a cold bowl, whip heavy cream with icing sugar until stiff peaks, about 5-6 minutes. Put whipped cream in the fridge.180 g heavy cream, 1 tbsp icing sugar
- To assemble, put in layers (use piping bag or teaspoon) – crushed biscuits, then pumpkin puree, then whipped cream like on photo. Repeat until you have the last pumpkin layer.100 g biscuits
- Pipe whipped cream on top, add pinch of crushed biscuits around.
- When your caramel with pumpkin seeds sets, crush it in your hands and insert small pieces in trifles.**
These trifles look so delicious and perfect for Thanksgiving! YUM!
Absolutely! Thank you, Natalie!
Hand me a spoon! I want to dig in immediately!
Haha, this is an easy recipe to enjoy!
Individual desserts are the best! This sounds so good. Perfect for the holidays!
Absolutely agree with you, Jen! This is good for Thanksgiving.
These look beautiful and sound delicious! Thanks for this great pumpkin dessert recipe.
Thank you, Andrea! That’s one of our favorite fall desserts.
What a great way to use up my leftover pumpkin. I always have some leftover since few recipes call for a whole can. I have never tried a trifle before but love the look of them. This looks amazing, definitely going to make this!
Definitely worth trying, especially when you have leftover pumpkin puree. So easy to make!