Using up some of what is in the Fridge - Home Made Trifle

 We have had a couple of Trifles over the Christmas period and as I still have cream and sponge fingers left I thought that I would make yet another one.  

There is one requirement in this household by OH that if I make a trifle that it has no alcohol in it.  I was always taught especially over the Christmas period to add a spot of sherry to the sponge or sponge fingers after they had been spread with Raspberry jam and then covered with a Raspberry jelly.  As I have neither Raspberry jam or Raspberry jelly at the moment I have gone to the pantry shelf to see what fruit I had and I came away with a tin of Strawberries and a tin of Pears and a Strawberry jelly.  Its amazing what I find on my pantry shelves, dig a little bit and it really does throw up some different bits and bobs all carefully squirrelled away at different times of the year.

I layered the sponge in the bottom of the dish, and then added pears and strawberries.  I had retained the juice from both tins of fruit and only used some of the juice from the strawberries mixed in with the jelly.  This was then poured over the sponge fingers and fruit and popped into the fridge to set overnight.

Today I have added the layer of custard after making sure that the jelly had set.  Then popped it back into the fridge to set again.  

Later on this afternoon and well before we had tea, I then extracted my double cream from the fridge and poured it into a bowl and then using a hand whisk whipped the cream until it had thickened up nicely. I chose to hand whisk as once the cream is near enough thickened to the right consistency it can turn very quickly and quickly turn to butter so I erred on the side of caution by using a hand whisk.  This was then layered on top of the custard and smoothed out and then sprinkles were added.  The trifle was then popped into the fridge again and was bought out for pudding after tea tonight.

I must say that it was lovely and refreshing after the heavy meal we had just had.  Very "Moorish" but sticking to portions only.

When we were kiddies we used to help with making a jelly for Sunday tea.  Sometimes it would be served just as jelly with a little cream another time a trifle or a flan sponge which mum had made which was then layered with seasonal fruit and jelly and then served with a little cream.

Trifle can be made of many different fruits.  If you have bottled some Morello cherries during summer which have been preserved in syrup with a little Kirsch added you can make a Black Forest Gateau or indeed a Black Forest Trifle. Sloes that have been sitting in Gin for making Sloe Gin also make a different kind of trifle, but probably not for littlies.

You can also layer the trifle in individual glasses and store in the fridge during the week to bring out for ready made individual puddings during the week as well.  We have at least a couple of meals more out of this very large trifle which should see us to the end of the week.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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