tri·fle \'trī-fel\ noun
Etymology: Middle English trufle, trifle, from Anglo-French trufle, triffle fraud, trick, nonsense. Date: 14th century
1 : something of little value, substance, or importance
2 : to some small degree : slightly
A few years ago, with abundant fresh cranberry relish left over from Thanksgiving, I made a cranberry trifle. It was met with puckered lips, pinched faces, and kind but reserved words of praise. TO BE FAIR, I had not altered the raspberry trifle recipe much and so it was primarily cranberry preserves and lemon curd, maybe too many tart things. This year for Thanksgiving I was determined it would be met with acclaim!! Is éclat to great a wish for ones trifle? So, how did I do it?
1) I made a cardamom pound cake. I used my poundcake recipe sans lemon zest, lemon juice, etc. and just added a teaspoon of ground cardamom. In the past for ease of construction I had used a Sara Lee defrosted pound cake. No such easy, environment killing, and health poor decision for me this time. I decided all the health and environmental benefits were worth making it from scratch. Even if only for use as an ingredient for another dessert.
2) Used Epicurious recipe rich custard for the creamy layer. Lots of egg yolks? What to do with all those whites? I mean really? I made scrambled eggs out of them and have come to the conclusion that yolk is intrinsic to good scrambled eggs.
3) Made a classic fresh cranberry relish for the fruity layer.
4) Topped off with whipped cream, I used very little sugar and again added a bit of ground cardamom.
éclat indeed!! It was delicious and a thing of beauty. The Ginger-cake actually was most popular (especially with the toddlers) and the pumpkin cheesecake turned out swell.
3 comments:
Ooooo. Sounds and looks delicious. I'm a great fan of cardamom (was looking for good cardamom-and-fruit pie recipe this Thanksgiving, ultimately gave up and just put cardamom in the regular apple pie). And I'm a great lover of custard. (Life's too short to eat only egg whites.) And cranberries are great, too. I wish this had been a more formalized recipe so you could write it down for me.
did you know that cardamom is a natural breath freshener? They have started adding it to gum. DELICIOUS.
I didn't know that. If you smell lovely cardamom on my breath in future, you'll have yourself to thank.
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