The Ginormous English Berry Trifle Recipe (remix)

I’m no alcoholic ( I swear!) but I do love me some Frangelico once in a while and when it came to making an English Trifle, I found any reason to somehow infuse it into the towering creamy beast. So it was your typical Melbourne cold ass winter when Agnes and Kat decided to throw a Christmas in July shindig after successive months (and still going) of other themed feasty gatherings us food bloggers put on. Yes, the get together was like 6 months ago, but considering I didn’t do a write up then, I thought I’d post it up during the this festive season and due to popular demand, I’m making it again for our blogger Christmas BBQ. How festive of me right? RIGHT? Anyone? I’m begging!

Foxy Frangelico and  Lil Mandarin are named some of after some of my favourite Female Rappers being Foxy Brown and Lil Kim. I photographed the triflin’ dish on the street where it was wearin red and blue and was up to no good outside my home-girl Agnes’ joint in the westside – plotting to give us all a sugar high.

Back to reality, when it came to choosing what to make for Christmas in July, I wanted to do something sweet so I put my hand up for English Trifle. On that fateful Sunday morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn and started constructing the Triflesourusrex.  Luckily, I did much of the prep work the day before like making the delicious custard that I kept sneaking spoonfuls of as well as the jelly.

I thought that it would be a breeze to construct the next day but I didn’t foresee that playing with the dog would result in custard and raspberry catastrophe! Spillage! But that’s ok, I could do with one less layer of custard and I had some sweet as bro mandarin oranges laying around so I used them instead.

A Ginourmous English Berry Trifle Recipe (remix feat. Foxy Frangelico + Lil Mandarin)

Zee Ingredients

Custard

3 egg yolks

1 250ml of thickened cream ( NOT Light!)

1 cup of full cream milk

1 tablespoon of Frangelico

1 tablespoon of cornflour to thicken

5 tablespoons of caster sugar

Jelly

1 Raspberry jelly mix

1 Strawberry jelly mix

Fruit

2 punnets of raspberries

1 punnet of blueberries

3 muscat mandarins/sweet mandarin oranges

Alcohol

3 shot glasses of Frangelico

The Rest

20 good quality sponge-finger biscuits. I bought mine from the local Italian Deli.

2 X 250ml of thickened cream ( again NOT Light!)

3 tablespoons of caster sugar

4 tablespoons of dollop raspberry jam (not your gelatine conserve).

Zee Prep

1. First thing I did was make the custard because it was the most tiring because dayem, your arms get a workout.

2. Before we start heating things up, add the egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of Frangelico, caster sugar and cornflour to a bowl (not plastic) and mix well until combined.  Set aside.

3. Over medium heat, drop in the cream and milk into the saucepan continually stirring for at least 4 minutes – don’t let it boil.  Turn off heat for approx 5 minutes/ until warm and pour it into the bowl with the remaining ingredients then stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.

4. Over a simmering heat, pour the contents in the saucepan and stir like you’ve never stirred before until you a smooth, thick, lumpless and beautifully smelling custard. This can take up to 20 minutes.

5. Now onto the jelly. Despite other jelly brands, I always seem to get Aeroplane jelly. It must be that damn ad that’s stuck with me since I was a kid. I got both raspberry and strawberry flavours. I don’t think I need to go into the details of making this from the packet. Do your thing with the boiling water, mix well, put in separate bowls and refrigerate overnight.

Creamy the cat guarding the fort.

Zee Procedure

TIP: Place the bowl intended for the whipped cream in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. This will help speed things up.

1. Let’s start with the trifle dish. Try and get one with a  flat bottom. I bought mine from IKEA for less that $20. Line the bottom of the bowl with 1/2 sized pieces of sponge-finger biscuits enough to form 1 layer and drizzle with 1 shot glass of Frangelico.

2. Cut the raspberry jelly into cubes and lay them on top of the sponge-finger biscuits but avoiding the edges.

3. Form a barricade around the perimeter using 1/2 sized pieces of sponge-finger biscuits as pictured above. This will contain the flow of jam and custard and make the dish.

4. Wash the raspberries, carefully pat dry and douse with caster sugar and 1 shot glass of Frangelico. Add of these on top of the jelly along with 4 tablespoons of dollop raspberry jam.

5. Pour over the custard, add another layer of 1/2 sized pieces of sponge-finger biscuits to soak up the custard, drizzle over the last shot glass of Frangelico then add the rest of the raspberries (leaving a few pieces for the final layer) specially along the perimeter and the strawberry jelly

6. Now for the tedious part. Peel the mandarins, separate all the wedges and remove the white threads until they’re all pretty! My patience was tested here. LOL Line them up horizontally along the edges to form a nice fence.

7. Pour the thickened cream into the chilled bowl you put in the freezer earlier along with 3 tablespoons of caster sugar and whip with an electric mixer until it forms then carefully fold over the mandarins to form the top layer. It should be heavy and thick enough to contain the ingredients.

8. Now for the final layer. Wash the blueberries and these one by one gently pressing down to lock em in Eddy. Add more colour by adding the remaining raspberries.

You’ve been served!

Updated picture of the one I made for the next Blogger Picnic last week. Only difference is I used peaches rather than mandarins.

Adding mandarin oranges not only brightened the trifle up, but it also gave it a welcomed citrus burst that was refreshing. Flavour flav! Judging by everyone’s expression, it was a winner plus, who could resist a sinful combination of cream, alcohol,  berries and custard? Triflin’ indeed.

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Keep eating,

Adrian