A Not so Tipsy Trifle Recipe

As far as my Dad was concerned, Christmas wasn’t Christmas until someone placed a large decorative glass bowl of devilishly sweet trifle onto the buffet table. Whenever my Mother would ask what sweets should be prepared for our Christmas day feast, “Trifle!” was always the answer. Onto a little bit of history about the trifle recipe.

Trifle History

The humble trifle is an English invention that started life sometime in the 1500′s as a whipped cream dessert flavored with ginger and rose water. Eventually the custard was added as well as alcohol to soak the sponge and help create the pudding like texture. The Italians also have a version of trifle which they call Zuppa Inglese which means English soup!

Growing up in the Southern hemisphere, Christmas day has always been  a warm occasionally blistering hot affair. Once we’d finished ripping the colorful wrap from our presents, a trip to the beach or outdoors for  a barbecue was usually on the cards. Christmas fare came in many shapes and  sizes from the traditional Ham on the bone with whole seeded mustard, right through to a freshly caught crayfish, sliced down the middle, slathered in creamy butter and thrown on the hot grills to  barbecue and sizzle.

Trifle has the wonderful ability to be either  a hot day dessert or a mid winter treat, but Trifle will always be summer food to me, thanks to my wonderful Dad’s love of its layered spongy goodness. Many stories and variations have been written about trifle, and my Dad’s favorite version omits the alcohol and includes lots of summer sweet berries, egg yellow custard and lashings of sweetened whipped cream. I’ve taken Dad’s delight one step further and have included grated dark chocolate for added taste and interesting texture.

Summer Berry and Chocolate Trifle

Makes one extra large glass bowl to serve 10-12 as part of a dessert buffet or 6-8 as the only dessert.

This dessert must be started the day before you intend to eat it.

Ingredients

1 punnet of strawberries ~ hulled and cut into quarters

2 punnets of fresh summer berries of your choice like rasperries, blueberries or boysenberries

1/3 jar of good quality pitted cherries + 1/2 cup of the cherry juice

1/3 cup of brown sugar

300mls full fat milk

1 vanilla pod ~ seeded scraped

8 large  free range egg yolks

75g caster sugar

300mls of cream for whipping

3 heaped Tbsp of icing sugar

1 medium sized trifle sponge

150gms of bittersweet dark chocolate ~ 120g chopped and 30g grated

A handful of fresh berries for garnishing the top of the trifle

Method

• Prepare the  berries  by placing the fresh berries of your choosing into a saucepan along with the brown sugar. Place onto medium to high  heat or induction setting 7 and bring the berries to a gentle simmer. Allow the berries to cook until soft and a wonderful syrup has formed. Allow to cool.
• Gently heat the milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan on medium heat or induction setting 6 along with the scraped vanilla seeds and vanilla pod. Whilst the milk heats whisk together the yolks and caster sugar in a large bowl until well combined.
• Heat the milk until it almost comes to the boil and then pour over the yolks and sugar whilst whisking to combine well. Remove the vanilla pod and toss know that you’ve extracted all the flavor from it.
• Pour the custard mixture back into  a clean pot and place on a medium to low heat or induction setting 5 and gently cook stirring constantly until the custard thickens , or coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
• Break or cut the trifle into large chunks and place a generous layer of the sponge on the bottom of the glass bowl bowl you intend to serve it in.
• Using the juice from the cooked berries and the juice from the cherries, pour half the  liquid over the sponge. Add another layer of sponge and pour over the remaining juice.
• Top the soaked sponge with half the chopped chocolate and then cover with the berries and cherries.
• Pour over the cooled custard smooth on top with a spatula.  Place cling film directly on to the custard layer  and set in the fridge to cool and set overnight.
• Just before you are ready to serve the dessert, whip the cream and icing sugar until it forms semi stiff peaks.
• Remove the cling film from the bowl and sprinkle over the remaining chopped chocolate and top with the whipped cream.
• Garnish the top of the trifle with fresh berries and a good generous sprinkling of the grated chocolate. Cover again with cling film and keep chilled in the fridge until ready to serve.

Do you have a favourite trifle recipe?

How Could I resist?

4kgs or  8+ pounds of strawberries for a mere $7.99?

Before the till had finished ringing, I was already mentally counting the amount of empty glass jars I had  at home  for the upcoming jam making session. I was totally unable to by- pass  such a bargain when confronted with  an extremely large tray of super fresh super sweet strawberries at such a super low price.

I believe its genetic.

I come from a long line of preservers. Grandmothers on both sides of my family were world famous in there hometowns for there glorious bottled goodies. Pickled onions, chutneys, sour jams, pickles, chow chows and fruit all received the golden treatment from the grand ladies of confiture.

What used to be the hardest step in making any preserves, was ensuring that your glass jars were  clean and sterilized. My grandmothers would have been well impressed with automatic dishwashers, which  have the ability to sterilize jars with a touch of a button.

If you remember to sterilize the jars well, with either a dishwasher or by boiling the jars in a pot of water, and you weigh the prepared fruit before adding the same amount in sugar, you on the right track to achieving jam making success!

Brown Betty Berry Jam

For arguments  sake, I have given you the quantities for 2kg strawberries which will make enough for 4-5 jars of jam, dependant on size of jars!

Ingredients

2kg fresh ripe strawberries

1kg caster sugar ~ or there abouts

1kg brown sugar ~ or there abouts

1 lemon, juiced and zested

4-5 clean, sterilized glass jars with lids

Method

• Hull the strawberries and wash under cold running water.
• Weigh the prepared strawberries and place into a large pot or preserving pan.
• Add the same amount of sugar as was  the weight of strawberries, balancing it between the caster and the brown.
• Add the juice and zest of the lemon and place the pot on  a low heat, stirring well to begin to incorporate the sugar and the berries.
• Allow to heat gently to fully dissolve the sugar, stirring occasionally.
• Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, and skim off any foam that comes to the surface with a ladle. Discard the foam.
• Allow the jam to boil until the mixture reaches setting point ~ this  should take 7-10 minutes.  You can check for setting point by placing a plate in the freezer for 15 minutes until its REALLY cold. Remove from the freezer and spoon a bit of the jam on to the plate. Wait a minute for the jam to cool slightly and then run your finger through the jam. If the jam leaves a wrinkle on the plate, its ready.
• Remove the pot from the heat and spoon straight away into hot, sterilized jars. Seal confidentially and label artistically!
• If done correctly, this jam will keep for up to a year.

The Healthy Snack

From the depths of one small metal box covered with slender calved pink fairies and wistful looking princesses, I endeavour to supply my culinarily adventurous 7  year old daughter Coco with an  appetizing array of healthy snack lunch offerings for her to take to school each day.

I have discovered that the more ambitious  we become with the daily delights, the more disappointed we end up  by whats available on our supermarket shelves.

A trip to my local supermarket, recycled canvas bag in hand, had me tripping and fumbling my way through a product list on the back of a granola bar that contained no less than 39 separate ingredients.  I thought I was buying a cereal bar not a tub of polyunsaturated  cholesterol free omega enriched low salt margarine.  Healthy snack? I think not.

As I’m not one that normally sports a scientist in my handbag when I go to the grocery store whom is able to tell me what raising agents 170  and food acid 296 are doing shacked up together in my cereal bar alongside a mountain of sugar and a truck load of fat (breathe breathe), I decided that what’s best for me and little Miss Coco is a matter of refining and simplifying the snack  process.

So in times of great inspirational need, I find myself chatting with fellow foodie friends on twitter like @dragonskitchen and @figandcherry and visiting my favourite Internet food blogs to help me collect a beautiful selection of healthy snack recipes that I can now share with you in all there wholegrain glory.

I have avoided recipes that are high in fat, sugar and anything artificial or plastic sounding, as well as trying to keep it interesting and palate exciting for who is now a mighty pleased wee scholar.

Microwave potato chips by Nooschi

Baked masala vadai- Chef In You

Baked chicken buns- Cafe Nilson

Fruited muffins- Dishing Up Delights

Bento box ideas- Soy and Pepper

Watermelon pops by The Hungry Housewife

Apples and nutella by Taste Duds

4 ingredients Granola bars- Kiss My Spatula

Peanut butter honey bars- Active Life Cooking

Nut free granola bars by Vegan Visitor

Potato chips- The Good Mood Food Blog

Healthy chocolate cake by Healthy Indulgences

Corn and black pepper crackers- NYtimes

Monkey bars by Healthy Tasty Chow

Popcorn snack mix- Latest Addictions

Oatmeal Almond Cookies- ZOMTbakes

Roasted Pepitas-The Brassica Diaries

Smoothie roll up by Veggie Wedgie

Banana choc granola bars- Bitchincamero

Roasted Chickpeas by The Sweetest Kitchen

Golden beet chips by Foodista

Multigrain energy bars- Wholegrain Gourmet

Superfood your popcorn by Veggie Wedgie

Garlic Edamame by The Cooking of Joy

Cinnamon spiced dates by Veggie Wedgie

Smoky cashew nuts by Dana Treat

Oat Fig Bars from Artsy Foodie

Granola Bars by The Sugarshop

Apple chips by Food Lovers Journal

Homemade snack bars by Food 4 Tots

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