Christmas trifle

This is without doubt the simplest dessert recipe I know, with the exception of vanilla ice cream. The only skill demanded of you is to make the trifle look elegant and tempting in the glass dish. A second optional skill involves actually making the custard.

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To make a no-fuss, beginner-cook trifle for six Christmas revellers, you will need:

  • 1 bottle Old Brown Sherry
  • 500ml fresh cream
  • 2 packs glacé cherries, one green, one red
  • 1 large jar of apricot jam
  • 2 boxes of boudoir or finger biscuits
  • 1 litre custard

If you really want to, you can whip up a genuine crème anglaise with a real vanilla pod. But I suggest you abandon complexity and embrace the best alternative that the supermarket shelves have to offer. This is Ultra Mel custard, a product of limitless genius.

Select a large glass serving dish. Line the base with boudoir biscuits, leaving no spaces between them. If the dish is deep, use three boxes of biscuits, which will have the added benefit of creating a generous layer.

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With care – and I mean this – pour Old Brown Sherry over the biscuits. Do not use too much, as the purpose is to flavour the trifle, not use it as a pathway to an alternative form of consciousness.

Let the work in progress stand to ensure that the liquor is soaked up equally by all the boudoir biscuits. Next, spoon the smooth apricot jam over the biscuits to create an even layer. Be gentle as you do so, to avoid mashing the sherry-softened biscuits in the process. Exercising care once more, decant all the custard over the jam layer and allow it to settle.

While this settling business is going on, get moving with the cream. It needs to be whipped so that it retains a measure of firmness and density, remaining visually separate from the other layers. Appearance is a secondary, but fundamental, aspect of all good cooking. Spread the freshly-whipped cream evenly over the custard layer.

Finally, sprinkle the glacé cherries – red and green – over the top. Place the entire confection in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up the various layers.

There are, of course, some diners who don’t like liquor. This happens even in the best of families. It takes very little effort to make a separate sherry-free trifle, according to the same specifications, to meet your guests’ varied dessert-related needs.

Bon appétit!