A trifling dessert to end 2011: Chocolate & Pear Trifle

This Christmas week has sped by, hasn’t it? All my plans to quickly blog my Christmas Dinner (with sketches etc) went whoosh out the window as we had fun with our house guests. Which is what you’re supposed to have when hosting so I don’t really feel too bad and, anyway, you all probably have had little time to read blogs in between eating / drinking / socialising and watching the Christmas tv. As it should be.

This little trifle was one of the hits of our Christmas Dinner. When hubby and I finished it off (the day after my visitors flew back to Dublin) it was so delicious I decided it was one to share. Needless to say it’s an easy-to-make trifle. I cooked and made most of my dishes and sauces from scratch for Christmas Dinner but when it came to dessert* I was ready to cheat a little and cleverly assemble. However, the pears for this trifle I had already poached and preserved about 2 months ago but I reckon you could poach them a day or so in advance and assemble the whole trifle day before serving so that’s the method I give below. It does benefit from a day of maceration. The resultant trifle is very moreish, very moreish indeed. And it can be eaten anytime, an-y-time. This trifle is NOT just for Christmas!

Chocolate & Pear Trifle

Serves 6

1 store bought chocolate loaf cake (I bought a plain in-store baked chocolate chip loaf cake – it was chocolatey but dry, which suited the recipe!)
orange & ginger jam or an apricot jam would work well
500g tub of best quality vanilla custard
3 poached pears (see method below)
knob of fresh ginger (about 2.5 cms)
2 crushed cardamons
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
brandy & rum (4-5 tablespoons of each AT LEAST. I like trifles to be proper boozy affairs)
toasted flaked almonds
crystallised orange peel (optional)
whipped cream

Method
First you need to poach the pears. Choose firm pears such as Conference for this. Peel, quarter and remove the core of the pears. Place the pear quarters in a saucepan along with enough water to almost cover them. Add the peeled sliced knob of fresh ginger, 2 crushed cardamons, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer until the pears are no longer resistant when pierced with a knife (remember to turn the pear over to poach all the pear). Allow the pears to cool in the liquid. You can prepare this stage in advance.

Cut the chocolate cake into halves horizontally and spread jam on the halves and join back as sandwich. Then slice thickly and cut each slice into half. Place a snug fitting layer of chocolate cake at the bottom of an attractive serving bowl (ideally you have a glass bowl but that’s just a pretty detail, you can serve it in whatever bowl you have).

Remove the pear from the poaching liquor and slice up. Scatter half the sliced pears on top of a layer of cake.

Sprinkle with the brandy and/or rum (I used both but you could of course use any favourite liqueror).

Repeat layers. If the cake is very dry you could also add a tablespoon or so of the sweet poaching liquid to keep down the alcohol content – if you so wish. Personally, I would add more alcohol.

Cover the layers with the vanilla custard. Place in fridge overnight.

Before serving, top the trifle with the whipped cream, sprinkle with toasted almond and decorate with crystallised orange peel (see method below).

Yessiree, this will make you many friends.

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Crystallised Orange Peel

These are not difficult to make but are time consuming. But if you make a large batch just store them in airtight container and you’ll find all sorts of uses for them (or simply nibble on them with a cup of coffee).

Peel some thick skinned oranges (or lemons or mix) into thick long strips. Now cut these into finer strips about 3 mms wide as long as possible.

Weigh the peel and note the weight.

You now need to blanch out any bitterness from the peel. Start by placing the peel in a saucepan. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Repeat this once or twice depending on whether you like a hint of bitter in your crysatllised peel (I do). Each time barely cover the peel with fresh water. Drain.

Now, using the weight of the peel you took earlier to calculate the proportions, place a mix of water and sugar in the saucepan (for every 100g of peel add 100g of sugar and 80 mls of water). Bring to the boil and add the peel. Now continue to boil until the peel becomes slightly translucent, about 20 minutes but depends on the thickness of peel.

Remove the peel gently with a slotted spoon (reserve the sweet liquid and store in fridge to use as a base in drinks, over fresh fruit salad etc) and while still wet roll the peel on a plate sprinkled with castor sugar. Remove the sugar-coated peel to a wire rack and leave to dry before storing.

These little lovelies make a great gift and if you forgo the rolling in sugar stage you can dip the strips of peel (when dry) into chocolate. You know how good that sounds!

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*No room at my inn for Christmas Pudding, I do have two here ready to eat but there was not enough stomach space Christmas Day!

Tagged as: chocolate, Christmas, dessert, Trifle