Chapter Six: We have reached dessert at Renaer’s!

AKA: Triumph over Trifle

Raspberry Almond Trifle to be exact…

Certain occasions just beg, shamelessly and vociferously, for a spectacular dessert. And, while there are multiple components involved in creating the layered delight that is a trifle, they can be prepared well ahead. Or not prepared at all: use whichever combination of home-made versus store-bought cake, custard, meringue, fruit coulis, and whipped cream you feel will allow you to have an an enjoyable experience constructing this and then sharing it with friends and family. Because this creation, with all its boozy, almond-fragrant, fruity strata, is all about celebration. 

I am channeling Gerta Salibuck here, so am going forth on a bit of an ambitious journey and preparing all the components for the trifle myself. In case not everyone wishes to follow me on cake and custard-filled adventure, below is the master list of ingredients required. And how to layer them. Following that is a recipe for each individual component if you wish to make the same version of this confection that I did.

The master recipe that I followed is for the English Trifle from http://www.amandascookin.com. I substituted almond pound cake for the white or yellow cake called for in the original. And added raspberry-swirl meringues for additional texture. And because I love meringues. Then, because almond and raspberry are one of my favorite pairings, I left out the strawberries all together. Simply increasing the amount of fresh raspberries in the recipe by the same amount.

I would probably have been happy to continue tweaking. If not for my rigid, Paladin-like self-control, I would have recklessly continued, taking out the cake component all together and leaving only meringue, whipped cream, and fruit. I guess I am just an Eton Mess kind of girl. But the custard is too good to lose. And custard needs a stronger support than cloud-like cream, the melting kiss of meringue, and juicy fruit. Plus it is not a trifle without some kind of cakey strata. So I left the recipe alone at that point…

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

950ml/4 cups custard

 25 x 33cm/9 x 13 inch rectangle of cake, or two loaf cakes (450g/1lb each) – ideally use almond pound cake but this may also be plain vanilla sponge – baked, cooled, and sliced into 5cm/2inch squares

120ml/1/2 cup cream sherry

250ml/1 cup seedless red raspberry jam or preserves

375g/3 cups fresh raspberries

15ml/1tbsp cream sherry

15g/1tbsp sugar

8 large or 12-16 small meringue cookies

375ml/1.5 cup heavy whipping cream

45g/3 tbsp icing sugar

1-2 drops of almond extract

Toasted flaked almonds for topping (optional)

Any other decorative elements to top the trifle with (even more optional)

Method:

1. Arrange your cake squares on a baking sheet and brush them with cream sherry. Then slather them with the raspberry jam. You can also do the sherry brushing and jam anointing before you slice up the cake. Just depends whether you prefer the messiness of slicing a jammy cake or the work of topping each cake square individually. Choices!
2. Combine the fresh raspberries with the 15ml/1tbsp cream sherry and sugar. Mix gently and leave in the fridge to macerate until ready to use.
3. Crumble 2/3 of your meringue into small pieces over a small bowl. Reserve several whole meringues for decoration.
4. Gently whisk through your custard until it is loosened (it will need this mixing if you made it earlier and it has been stored it in the fridge).
5. Combine the heavy whipping cream with the powdered sugar and almond extract and whisk until stiff peaks form. I recommend that you do this with a hand-held or stand mixer.
6. In a large clear bowl (you want to display all those layers), start by placing 1/3 of the cake squares, jam side up. Layer 1/3 of the macerated fruit on top of the cake, then follow this with 1/3 of the custard, 1/3 of the meringue crumbles, and then 1/3 of the whipped cream. Repeat this layering twice more, ending with a splendid mountain of swirled whipped cream. Decorate with remaining meringue cookies, sprinkle with toasted almond flakes, and top with additional fresh raspberries if desired.
7. Chill until ready to serve. It is best after at least 2 hours: give all of the flavors time to get to know each other.

Hmm, so I am not sure what happened here. Somewhere between the flaked almonds and the bright pink sugar sprinkles I lost my way. And veered off the path to elegance by…a fair bit. Oh well. As is probably obvious from my purple prose when chronicling our game sessions, I am not particularly fond of self-restraint 🙂

And my character is not known for her subtlety either. I suppose the, um, lush, appearance of this dessert is the pudding equivalent of Elodie, at the end of our most recent encounter, choosing to use Divine Smite on a gnoll that was already pin-cushioned with arrows, crawling blindly along the ground, and making death saves. Because it had been a very difficult fight, gnolls are awful, and Elodie was feeling a trifle fragile. Hehehe. Get it? So yes, smite that trifle and make it as over-the-top as you feel is right in the moment!

Custard:

This is the custard recipe from the English Trifle master recipe that I based my dessert on (www.amandascookin.com).

Ingredients:

950ml/4 cups whole milk

8 large egg yolks

100g/1/2 cup sugar

60g/4 tbsp cornstarch

7.5ml/1.5 tsp vanilla extract

120g/1/2 cup/1 stick butter, cut into small pieces

Method:

1. Heat milk in a large pot over low-medium heat until it just starts to steam.
2. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until creamily smooth.
3. Continuing to whisk, gradually pour the hot milk, a few drops at a time at first to temper the egg yolks, into the egg, sugar, and cornstarch mixture in your bowl. Whisk until all the milk has been mixed in.
4. Return the contents of the bowl into the saucepan and turn the heat to medium. Continue whisking constantly while the mixture comes to a boil. Allow it to bubble gently for 1-2 minutes, still stirring and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan to make sure nothing is burning or sticking. The custard will not hold its consistency if you do not allow the cornstarch to actually cook.
5. Remove the cooked custard from the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and then whisk in the butter pieces. Pass through a sieve into a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, allowing the top of the wrap to drape directly onto the top of the custard so that a skin does not form. Place the bowl of custard in the fridge to chill until ready to be used.

Almond Pound Cake

I followed a recipe submitted to food.com by Jenny Sanders, doubling it so that I could use a 9×13 inch/22×30 cm pan and substituting milk for the water in her recipe. It is lovely and moist with a powerful almond flavor.

Doubling the recipe turned out to be unnecessary. I was happy with the ratios of all of the other components of the trifle to each other but I only had room to use half of the cake (i.e. the amount made in the original food.com recipe) in my bowl. Still, having half of a tasty almond pound cake in the house is not a bad thing. And it freezes well so that, if trifle construction needs to happen again in the future, you are one step ahead and already have your cake component.

Ingredients:

400g/2 cups granulated sugar

355mg/1.5 cup/3 sticks butter, room temperature

6 large eggs, room temperature

10ml/2 tsp almond extract

90ml/6 tbsp whole milk

240g/2 cups all purpose flour

225g/ 2 cups almond flour

15g/3 tsp baking powder

2.5g/1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F.
2. Butter and flour a 22x30cm/9×13 inch baking pan.
3. Cream butter and sugar together (stand mixer is recommended) until softly fluffy and a creamy color.
4. Beat in the whole eggs, one at a time.
5. Beat in almond extract and milk.
6. Stir together flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently just until combined.
8. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven until fully set with the edges starting to spring away from the pan (approximately 50 minutes).
9. Allow to cool completely before slicing to use in the trifle.

Raspberry Swirl Meringues

This recipe is from coolfooddude.com and makes 8 large, or 16 small, meringue cookies. Beautifully swirled with crimson. In my rendition, I use a mix of berries because that is what I had the freezer. It results in a darker, more plum-colored coulis. But the tang of the berries is still a lovely contrast to the sweet snowy meringue. This is also really delicious when salted caramel sauce, instead of berry coulis, is swirled into the meringues before baking. Less fruity bite and more buttery, sugary overload.

Ingredients:

1 recipe raspberry/mixed berry coulis

115g/1 cup confectioner’s sugar

2.5g/1/2 tsp kosher salt

240g/1cup/8 large egg whites at room temperature

200g/1 cup sugar

Method:

1. Make the berry coulis and chill in the fridge (recipe below).
2. Preheat your oven to 175F/80C and center a rack in the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Sift the confectioner’s sugar and salt together into a small bowl and reserve.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl. This is easiest in a stand mixer but you can also use a handheld mixer with the whisk attachment. The egg white should start to foam and then begin to look like soft clouds.
5. At this stage, start adding the sugar. Add only 2-3 large spoonfuls at a time, continuing to whisk and making sure that each sugar addition is fully incorporated into the whites before adding the next sugar batch.
6. When all of the sugar has been successfully mixed in, the meringue should be stiff and very glossy, resembling shaving cream. Add the confectioner’s sugar and salt mixture and whisk in briefly.
7. Depending on the size of meringue you wish to fancifully swirl onto your baking sheet, use either a large soup spoon, 1/2 cup measuring cup, or spatula to scoop portions of meringue and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
8. Get the coulis out of the fridge and gently blob a small spoonful into the top of each meringue mound. I press the top of the meringue in with the spoon, creating a divot, at the same time as I gently pour the berry mix into the depression that I just formed, and then continue the motion to swirl the coulis through the top of the meringue in a satisfyingly gory fashion. I mean, artistically pleasing fashion. The original recipe has you depositing the berry goodness with a spoon first, then using a chopstick or spoon handle to do the swirling. I have found streamlining this down to just spoon-work is easier for me. It’s a victimless crime. Unless you count the sad smears of meringue that you drag back into the coulis bowl with you every time that you re-dip your spoon between meringues. I can live with this.
9. Place your berry-decorated meringue blobs in the oven and bake for 4 hours. They should be dry to the touch. Turn off the oven, open the door just a crack (may need to prop it open with a wooden spoon handle), and leave the meringues to dry slowly and gently in this kind environment for at least 8 hours or overnight. 

Notes: Obviously these make a lovely dessert all by themselves, or with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream and some fresh berries on the side. Eat them this way if you have left-overs. Or if you simply do not have the heart to crumble the meringues into a trifle after all the scooping and swirling work that has gone into creating them. They will keep well for several days if stored in an air-tight container at room temperature (humidity is not their friend and they will turn flaccid and leak distressingly if placed in the fridge).

Raspberrry/mixed berry coulis

Ingredients:

95g/3/4 cup fresh or frozen berries

22g/1 1/2 tbsp sugar

5ml/1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients for the coulis in the blender and blitz together until a sauce forms. Add a splash or two of water if needed to help this process along.
2. Strain into a bowl and chill in the fridge until ready to use.