Trifle

 

The history of the Trifle goes way back to when it first appeared in cookery books in the sixteenth century during Queen Elizabeth I's reign. The earliest use of the name trifle was in a recipe for a thick cream flavored with sugar, ginger, and rosewater, in Thomas Dawson's 1585 book of English cookery The Good Huswifes Jewell. This flavored thick cream was cooked 'gently like a custard and was grand enough to be presented in a silver bowl. These earlier trifles, it is claimed, 'derived from the flavored almond milk of medieval times'. Early trifles were, according to food historian Annie Gray, 'more like fools (puréed fruit mixed with sweetened cream)'. Trifle evolved from these fools, and originally the two names were used interchangeably. The Trifle was created to ensure that all fruits were used and not wasted.

By the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new names were used to describe this delicate dessert by not only The Dean's Cream from Cambridge and England made this dessert with sponge cakes, spread with jam, macaroons and ratafias soaked in sherry, and covered with syllabub. Then we found a variation of names such as King's Pudding, Easter Pudding, Victoria Pudding or Colchester Pudding.

By 1855 Eliza Acton described The Duke's Custard, a mixture of sugared, brandied Morella cherries, covered in custard, edged with Naples biscuits (sponge fingers) or macaroons, which was then finished with solid whipped cream-colored pink with cochineal and 'highly flavored' with brandy.

The late 19th century was, according to the food historian Annie Gray, "a sort of heyday" for trifles, and by the early 1900s there were, in print, says Gray, "a bewildering number of recipes". There were thirteen in The Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery: A Complete Dictionary of All About the Art of Cookery and Table Service (8 volumes, 1891), from Theodore Francis Garrett, alone. That book is unusual, suggests Gray, because it includes two savory versions, one with veal and one with lobster. The Scots have a similar dish to the trifle, called “tipsy laird”, made with Drambuie or whisky.

In Italy, a dessert like and probably based on trifle is known as Zuppa inglese, literally "English soup". Tiramisù is prepared similarly to trifle, but it does not include fruits, and the original recipe calls for the savoiardi (ladyfingers) to be dipped in coffee rather than spirits.

Below is my favorite version of the English Trifle with modern fruits such as raspberry

Ingredients

4 scones of slightly stale

75ml sweet sherry

500g raspberries or strawberries fresh or frozen and thawed

100g caster sugar

½ lemon juiced

12g gelatine or 1 gelatine leaf, soaked in cold water and drained

1-2 drops of rosewater. (optional)

400g vanilla custard homemade and cooled or ready-made

100g white chocolate plus extra shavings to serve

200g clotted cream

2 tbsp freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries to serve (optional)

Instructions

Split the scones and put in the base of a trifle dish or individual glasses, breaking them up as needed. Splash over the sherry.

Put 250g of the raspberries in a small pan with the sugar and lemon juice. Simmer for 8-10 mins or until the raspberries break down to form a purée. Strain for a smoother texture, if you like. Remove from the heat, cool for a few minutes then stir in the gelatine and the rosewater, if using – add sparingly and taste as you go as it can get overpowering. Stir until the gelatine has melted, then pour over the scones. Scatter over 150g of the remaining raspberries. Chill for 20-30 mins or until set.

Heat the custard and the white chocolate in a small pan over low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate has just melted, being careful it doesn’t catch and darken. Leave to cool until room temperature.

Spoon the white chocolate custard over the set raspberry layer, and leave to chill for 1 hr until firmed up slightly. Use two teaspoons to make quenelles of the clotted cream, and add to the top of the trifle. Scatter with the remaining fruit, fresh or freeze-dried, if using, and the white chocolate to serve.

 

Elizabeth Kilbride is a Writer and Editor with forty years of experience in writing with 12 of those years in the online content sphere. Author of 5 books and a Graduate with an Associate of Arts from Phoenix University in Business Management, then a degree. Mass Communication and Cyber Analysis from Phoenix University, then on to Walden University for her master’s in criminology with emphasis on Cybercrime and Identity Theft and is currently studying for her Ph.D. degree in Criminology. Her work portfolio includes coverage of politics, current affairs, elections, history, and true crime. Elizabeth is also a gourmet cook, life coach, and avid artist in her spare time, proficient in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, Gouche, and pastels. As a political operative having worked on over 300 campaigns during her career, Elizabeth has turned many life events into books and movie scripts while using history to weave interesting storylines. She also runs 6 blogs that range from art to life coaching, to food, to writing, and opinion or history pieces each week.