I Tried Hello Fresh’s ‘Friends’ Trifle Kit—And It’s Shockingly Good

For $35, you get all of the ingredients to make a beef-based shepherd’s pie, and a raspberry and vanilla pudding trifle, layered with cakey ladyfingers. You also get the divided trifle dish and a Friends-inspired apron, so you can channel your inner Rachel Green, if method cooking’s your thing.

I easily spent close to two hours on this meal, from chopping the veggies to cooking the beef and layering the dessert trifle. And I had a very full sink of dishes in the end to show for it, but honestly, the flavor—and the novelty—made it well worth it. My husband and daughter got in on the action, and my one-year-old seemed to transform into Joey Tribbiani, impatiently pounding his chubby fists on his highchair tray and warbling gibberish that sounded strangely like, “you’re killing us! Will you serve the dessert already?” (But maybe that’s because I’ve watched that scene a few too many times.)

Rachel famously states, “It’s got all of these layers. First, there’s a layer of ladyfingers, then a layer of jam, then custard, which I made from scratch. Then raspberries, more ladyfingers, then beef sautéed with peas and onions. Then more custard, and then bananas, and then I just put some whipped cream on top.” 

Hello Fresh omits the bananas from the dessert, and for the shepherd’s pie, it relies on a classic mirepoix—celery, carrots and onion—in place of peas and onions. (The episode’s writer, Greg Malins, might be a little bummed to learn that, considering that in 2019, he told Entertainment Weekly: “It seemed to me peas was the funniest thing to put in the dessert trifle and then you throw a little beef in there,” he explains.”)

When I made the original recipe as Rachel described it (for science! And laughs!), the bananas overpowered the meal. It was just…beefy banana goo. Wrong on so many levels, and closer to Ross’s assessment that it “tastes like feet.”

In Hello Fresh’s version, the beef and veggie mixture for the shepherd’s pie simmer in a tomato-and-broth-based sauce, infusing the dish with a sweet-yet-savory flavor that’s rich and robust. It’s topped with a layer of mashed potatoes, which are covered in shredded white cheddar and broiled, offering a salty, cheesy note to really kick up the flavor.

You make the entire shepherd’s pie first, and once it’s out of the oven, you quickly assemble the dessert trifle, which features layers of raspberry jam, vanilla pudding and ladyfingers, topped with whipped cream and freeze-dried raspberries. The dried berries offer a tangy note to offset all the sweetness.

What’s magical about this concoction is that the heat from the fresh-from-the-oven shepherd’s pie helps the layers of the trifle meld together, softening the cakey ladyfingers at warp speed. That way you don’t have to wait for hours for the dessert to be ready—everything is good to go, all at once, so you can eat each course individually, or go full Friends and try them together.

The kit prepared about a cup more of each course than the trifle dish could hold, and I recommend resisting the urge to fill it all the way to the top, because when you serve it, flavors will mix. (Hello Fresh recommends filling both parts of the trifle most of the way up, leaving half an inch of the dish as margin to prevent spillover.) I did not listen, and yes, some raspberry trifle wound up on my mashed potatoes…and I didn’t hate it. (The tangy-yet-sweet berries worked surprisingly well with a tomato-based beef sauce.) But I still wouldn’t recommend it.

If you—or someone you know—is a serious Friends fan, you need to give it a shot. While the raspberry trifle was good, the shepherd’s pie was so loaded with flavor that it actually disappeared first. I can see myself returning to these recipes, and not out of a sense of novelty. (Dear reader, I am as shocked as you are!)

If you’re interested in trying it, set an alarm: The kits are offered first-come, first-served, starting Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. EST on HelloFreshFriendsTrifle.com.