Jo’s Boozy Trifle Recipe!

I use a swiss roll at the bottom of my trifle, cut into slices. Or you can buy sponge fingers that I used to love eating as they were as a child, known as Lady Fingers or champagne biscuits. Or use amoretti biscuits if you prefer. Go with what you can get. But I like a raspberry swiss roll at the bottom of mine.

Then, a sprinkling of booze. I use sherry because I’ve always got it in for my mother, who on days she’s not having a drink, will just have a sherry!! What she means is she’s not having wine! In her mind, sherry is in a different category!

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Next fruit. It could be tinned, but I use frozen bags of summer berries.

Then the debate, to jelly or not to jelly. Entirely up to you. You could warm some jam and pour it over the berries, but if you like jelly, embrace it and go for it. Make up the jelly, pour it over the sponge and fruit and let it set.

Then it’s time for the custard. If you’re making it, I’m going with a BBC Good Food recipe here, put 200ml of cream and 700 ml of whole milk into a pan and heat it to just below boiling point. Then, in a separate bowl, whisk four egg yolks, three tablespoons of cornflour, 100 grams of caster sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Then gradually pour the cream and milk mixture into the bowl, whisking. Wipe out the saucepan, pour the mixture back into it and gently heat until it thickens.

Or, buy a tin, a carton or one of the posh tubs from the fresh counter in the supermarket and pour that over the set fruit and jelly. And yes, the chef is allowed to lick out the cold custard from the pan or carton!

When everything is cool, whisk up double cream and create little snowy peaks from it on the top.

Then decorate, hundreds and thousands, silver stars, chocolate buttons. Trifle is one of things you can do with what you want! Do what takes your fancy.

Make a chocolate one with Irish liquer, or swap sherry for cassis, or make a peach one with tinned peaches and that bottle of peach liqueur your aunt gave you for last Christmas and you have no idea what to do with!

Most of all, make it fun! And always leave a drop of cold custard in the bottom of the pot for the chef. It’s her Christmas treat!