The Trifle Files

On this page you will find information and recipes on trifles and other ‘lightweight’ desserts. If you want to share trifle recipes with me, please leave a comment!

This recipe is a classic type of trifle from the Nordic region, called ‘Tilslørte Bondepiker’ in Norway and Tilslørede Bondepiger in Denmark (they can fight over who was first as long as they don’t hit each other over the had with the trifle, that would be wasting a lovely dessert). The original version is made with breadcrumbs and apples, but raspberries or rhubarb are also used. That’s the beauty of trifle, you use what’s left and come up with something pleasing to both eyes and mouth. I tweaked the original recipe a little. It’s worthwhile to make your own apple compote/sauce instead of using bought apple sauce, it will taste much fresher. But when pressed for time, feel free to use jars and tins and crumbled cookies to replace the breadcrumbs. You will miss out on the smells of making your own though…

How to make the Veiled Farm Girls
Peel, core and chop the apples. Cook with the 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar and water until just soft. Add a teaspoon of lemon zest for extra zing! Leave to cool completely. In a non stick skillet, combine bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Stirring constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon, heat over medium heat until the crumbs are golden brown. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff (the original recipe has no sugar in the cream but you can add 1 or 2 tablespoons if you like it sweeter) Here you can also add a drop of almond liqueur for extra flavour. Layer the apple compote, bread crumbs, and whipped cream in a nice glass bowl or individual glasses. The top layer should always be cream, hence the name ‘veiled’. Garnish with the toasted almonds.

Tip: Use organic ground cinnamon if possible, it’s so much more fragrant! For the festive season it’s also nice to use red fruit. Using redcurrant or raspberry jelly would be the quick and cheaper option this time of year, red fruit not being in season.

Fit Superberry Trifle
Superfood is all the rage. Lucky for me I also like most of this ‘good for you food’ like avocado, pecan nuts, dark chocolate, beetroot, asparagus..etcetera…it’s all wonderful. And of course the berries like blue- rasp-(antioxidants) and cranberry (bursting with vit. C and all kinds of minerals). Because of the mild weather these last months, there are still some nice raspberries to be had that didn’t travel half way across the world just to land on my plate (always trying to avoid that, if possible).

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Have a Trifle for Breakfast!
I came up with this trifle because these superberries should be complemented by something a bit more healthy than full fat mascarpone or double cream. The yogurt I used is realy mild and creamy in texture and contains 3.5 % fat. I added a little bit of crème fraiche to make it firmer, so the berries wouldn’t sink. We ate the trifles this morning and I must say it was a feast of flavors. To make it even more into a breakfast trifle you can replace the amaretti by some granola!

This is how you build the trifle
You can build it any way you want really, but this is how I did it:
First cover the bottom of 2 glasses with some crumbled amaretti biscuits. Then put some cranberry jelly on top. Mix the yogurt, crème fraiche, honey and lemon zest and put a little layer on top of the cranberry jelly. Then add a layer of raspberries, then some yogurt mixture, more raspberries and end with some amaretti crumble on top. Add some of the cranberry syrup. Leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Tip: you can easily make the cranberry jelly yourself. Cook the cranberries with some (vanilla) sugar and put trough a sieve. Put in the fridge overnight. In Holland we have our own cranberries called ‘veenbessen’. They came here with an American ship that lost a barrel of the berries that stranded on the Dutch island of Terschelling.

Want to know more about the history of the trifle? I can recommend this little book by Alan Davidson and Helen Saberi.

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Raspberry Chocolate Brownie Trifle

I’m thinking of making this Trifle for my Birthday…
Serves 6
This is what you need
6 – 8 brownies [the number depends on the shape of the trifle bowl]
500g raspberries, plus extras to garnish
4 – 5 tablespoons Drambuie or other liqueur of choice
500g Mascarpone
100g of castor sugar
3 large free-range eggs, separated,
3 – 4 drops orange flower water
50g dark chocolate coarsely grated

This is how you make the Trifle
Break each brownie in half and place in the base of a glass trifle bowl.
Top with the raspberries and slowly drizzle over the Drambuie.
Beat the Mascarpone with the sugar and egg yokes until smooth.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the Mascarpone, starting with a small amount to lighten the mixture.

Finally mix in the flower water to taste.
Spread the Mascarpone mixture over the brownies and raspberries cover with foil and refrigerate for about 8 hours or overnight.
Top with grated chocolate and garnish with extra raspberries

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Simply Delicious Trifle with Prunes and Fresh Cheese

I tasted this lovely little trifle in St. Remy de Provence. Not having asked for the recipe, I tried to recreate this dessert out of memory, which wasn’t that hard to do as it turned out. I think it’s pretty close to the original but above all it’s simply delicious.

This is how you make the Trifle
Recipe for two big or 4 small glasses.
Stew approx. 250 grams of prunes with 50 grams of sugar (depending on how sweet you like it and the sweetness of your fruit) until soft and add some grated cinnamon. Leave to cool or make in advance. Take 250 grams of fresh cheese, a dollop of mascarpone and a tablespoon of runny honey and mix to a creamy consistency. Add vanilla extract (I used ¼ teaspoon). You can also fold in a beaten egg white if you like a lighter version.
Now you build the trifle in some nice glasses: first the stewed prunes on the bottom, a layer of the cheese mixture, maybe add some pieces of biscuit or lady fingers sprinkled with raspberry syrup, like I did, and top it of with more of the mixture. Put in the fridge for an hour before serving.

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Wimbledon Tribute Trifle

After two weeks of watching some brilliant tennis at Wimbledon and my favorite Roger Federer playing ‘tennis from another planet’, I decided to make a special trifle in honor of the players and the tournament. Wimbledon has all these great traditions and this year they added to that by the new outfits designed by Ralph Lauren, stylish and retro. And Roger, showing off his specially designed jacket, gave a statement that you can win in style. But of course Wimbledon is also about the strawberries and cream. This inspired me to make a trifle, of course with these two key ingredients.

How to make the Wimbledon Trifle
First you make a large meringue by beating 4 egg whites to soft peaks and adding 220 grams of fine caster sugar (one tbps at the time). Bake in the oven at approx 140 C for 1,5 hours, leave to cool in the oven with the door ajar. Then you build the trifle by starting with a layer of cake soaked in limoncello on the bottom of a glass bowl. Add a layer of fresh strawberries. After this, a layer of lovely sweet meringue broken in to pieces. Then add a layer of whipped cream, combined with Greek yogurt (500 ml of cream and half the amount of yogurt). Again a layer of strawberries, meringue and cream. Top it of with fresh raspberries.

Enjoy this trifle that has a bit of sour at the bottom (where the losers of the tournament reside) and more sweetness as you fight your way to the top were the sweetest raspberries await you. The little pieces of meringue symbolize the victories as you progress in the game. Al the while keeping an eye on the calories, like a true sportsman, by adding some yogurt to the cream (in fact it tastes even better I think than just the cream, it gives it a nice freshness that goes perfect with the sugary meringue)

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Recipe for a very quick cherrie trifle

This is what you need

1 chocolate muffin, broken into pieces
a handful of cherries
cherry juice
½ tub mascarpone cheese
½ miniature bottle coffee liqueur
1 lemon, zest only
100ml double cream, lightly whipped

This is how you make the trifle

1. Put muffin pieces in a glass bowl, put a few cherries on top.
2. Drizzle in some cherry juice
3. Mix together the mascarpone, coffee liqueur and lemon zest in a separate bowl.
4. Add a layer of this to the bowl.
5. Put in another layer of cherries and cover this with a generous layer of double cream.
6. Decorate with a few cherries and maybe some dark chocolate curls.