Sunday, 1 July 2012

Day 52: Quick blueberry trifles


A Sunday is always a good excuse for a dessert. Plus, I actually have the time (just about) to make one so, for today’s offering, I made Quick blueberry trifles.

Now, trifle is something I always associate with Christmas and Dear Sister No.2 (who is ten times a better cook than me) is famous in the family circle for her trifle. However, the recipe for Rachel’s trifle is a lot more straightforward and minus any alcohol which suits me down to the ground.

How is this for a fabulous shortcut? Instead of using sponge cake, use Rich Tea biscuits! Such a great idea and I always have Rich Tea biscuits in the cupboards. I’m sure most houses do. McVitie’s Rich Tea biscuits are one of the types of biscuit that I have eaten since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My granny always kept three tins of biscuits on top of her kitchen shelves – one for Rich Tea, one for Fig Rolls (yuck!) and one for Chocolate Digestives (yum!). I think she got the biscuit tins in Hong Kong many, many years ago and, for me and my cousins, we always used to love seeing those tins coming down off the top of the press. We were almost like a circus trapeze act trying to sneak them down until such times as we were tall enough to reach them ourselves. I also always remember drinking Rich Tea biscuits with lime cordial. Oh, those were the days.

Anyway, back to the trifle and the first thing I had to do was put blueberries in a saucepan with caster sugar, lemon juice and water. Once they came up to the boil, I simmered them for 4 minutes while I got on with the next two parts of the recipe. I whisked an egg white until it formed stiff peaks. In another bowl, I whisked an egg yolk, mascarpone and caster sugar and then folded the egg white into that bowl. Once the blueberries were done, I let them cool before straining them through a sieve. Into the blueberry mixture went eight Rich Tea biscuits which I had broken up into tiny pieces. I mixed it all around and then divided the mixture between four bowls. I put the mascarpone mix on top followed by some of the blueberries and repeated. Finally, each one was finished off with some double cream.  




The verdict…

Dear Husband isn’t usually fussed on trifle but loved this recipe – 9 marks out of 10. Apparently, he deducted one point because he thought the trifle could have been doing with more of the mascarpone mix and cream but, other than that, all was good. As for me, being someone who is a bit iffy about eggs, I had the trifle minus the mascarpone mix; instead, I heaped in freshly whipped double cream and lots of the blueberries – delicious.

I really liked this recipe and will make it again – definitely if I’m entertaining a large number seeing as they can be prepared in advance and chilled. It really was an easy recipe and anyone could make it. Thankfully, having to whisk egg whites didn’t put me off considering the disaster I made the time I tried to bake meringues. All in all, a pretty good weekend all round – start of the summer holidays, very good verdicts on the recipes and, I can’t help it, but Donegal beating Tyrone in the Ulster Semi-Final was the icing on the cake. Donegal abu! Now, bring on Down…

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