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Traditional Trifle

 

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Traditional Trifle

Trifle as my mother and grandmother used to make.

Category: Christmas, Dessert
Style: Australian, Christmas, English
Keyword: Custard, Gluten Free Option, Swiss Roll
Quantity: 8
Author: sbaskitchen
Ingredients
FOR THE SWISS ROLL
  • 2 eggs
  • cream
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 cup self raising flour
  • pinch salt
  • caster sugar to sprinkle
  • 1/2 cup Plum and Raspberry Jam
FOR THE CUSTARD
  • 300 ml pure cream
  • 300 ml full cream milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 3 tsp cornflour
  • 1/4 cup caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM
  • 200 ml whipping cream
  • 1 1/2 tbsp icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
TO FINISH
  • 1 can/jar of peach slices in juice
  • 2 tbsp juice/syrup from peaches
  • 2 tsp sweet sherry
  • 2 Kiwi fruit, peeled halved and sliced
  • 1 packet of Raspberry Jelly, prepared as per instructions, and set
Instructions
FOR SWISS ROLL (Make in advance, preferably one or two days prior)

  1. Preheat oven to 180˚C (fan).

  2. LIne a Swiss roll tin with baking paper, and then grease the paper well with butter or spray with canola spray.

  3. Break eggs into a cup, fill with cream and pour into a medium mixing bowl.

  4. Add sugar and beat with a fork or hand whisk until creamy.

  5. Add flour and salt, and stir to combine.

  6. Pour Cream Cake mixture into prepared Swiss roll tin, and bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden.

  7. Meanwhile lay a clean tea towel on the bench and sprinkle with caster sugar.
  8. When cake is done, turn it out onto the prepared tea towel, and using the short end, roll into a scroll (the tea towel will be rolled up inside the cake).

  9. Allow to sit for five minutes, unroll and quickly and carefully spread with the jam. Roll up again, without the tea towel, and place on a cake rack to cool. (Don't worry if the cake cracks.)

FOR THE CUSTARD
  1. Using a whisk, beat the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a medium bowl
  2. Combine milk, cream and vanilla bean paste in a medium saucepan; bring to just under a simmer (when the bubbles start to form on the top). Remove from heat; gradually whisk milk mixture into egg mixture.
  3. Return the mixture to the pan, stir over a low heat, without boiling, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon.
  4. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the custard, to prevent a skin forming, and set aside to cool slightly.
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM
  1. Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla bean paste to soft peaks.
TO FINISH

  1. Select a clear glass bowl, so that once you have layered the trifle, all the layers, and the swirls of the roll, are visible.

  2. Cut the Swiss roll into 1.5 cm thick slices and arrange in the base of the trifle bowl (I used approximately ⅔ of the roll, bringing it about ⅓ of the way up the side of the bowl).

  3. Mix the sherry and peach juice/syrup together in a glass, and drizzle over the cake.

  4. Pour the custard over the cake, and give a little shake to allow the layers to settle.
  5. Place in the refrigerator to chill.

  6. Drain the peaches.

  7. Chop the jelly.

  8. Spread the cream over the top of the custard.

  9. Arrange the peach and Kiwi fruit slices, alternatively, around the edge of the bowl.

  10. Arrange the chopped jelly in the centre of the fruit.
  11. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
  • If serving as a buffet of desserts, there will be more than enough for at least 12 - 15!
  • This trifle is finished as my mother always did, with fruit and jelly on top.  Nana only did crushed jelly, a little in the centre and a little around the edge of the bowl.
  • To make gluten free, simply substitute in gluten free flour for the traditional flour, and check that all other ingredients that you are using are gluten free.
  • Baking times may vary, as ovens do!
  • I don't give prep times, or say how long it takes to make a dish any more, as we all work differently and I find them to be misleading!
  • I like to use the peaches in juice rather than syrup, they are generally clingstone peaches, but if you preserve your own, they will work beautifully as well.
  • I set my jelly in a glass lidded jar, it takes up less room in the fridge, and if you are taking the trifle to a celebration and it needs to be stored, I make  up to, and including, the custard layer.  Then finish it off with the cream, fruit and jelly on the day.

 

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If you have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see on
this page – just pop a note in the comments box below.
With many thanks and kindness,
Julie.

My Little Kitchen Desk

/ sbaskitchen / 1 Comment

A few years ago, for my birthday, I asked Gary to find me a little desk, I initially wanted to have it on the front porch, where I liked to sit on warm mornings.  He went in search of, and found, a cute, old, school desk, it was a little tall and painted mission brown, but I still loved it.  He immediately cut a wee portion off the legs to make it the correct height, it was put in place, still brown, but it fitted and really didn’t look out of place, but I never really used it.

My little brown desk on the front porch…

A few months ago I decided that I wanted to move it into the kitchen, a place where I could make notes as I worked on recipes, or other kitchen jobs.  We found some paint in the shed, and Gary got to work sanding it back and giving it a paint of antique white.   It looks fabulous!  It has a little bottle that sits snugly in the ink well hole, where I can place a single flower from the garden.  It makes me smile.

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7 x 10 & no longer working!

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My sister just turned 7 x 10, she did not really want to celebrate, but I asked if we could come for a visit anyway.  We were so excited to be with her for her birthday!

I planned the trip, and we traveled two and a half hours to our son’s home, where our other sister, Sonnie, joined us.  She, Gary, and I then traveled another four and a half hours to Jan’s home.  The itinerary took us around Melbourne, not through,  and across so many different, beautiful landscapes.  It was so much nicer than battling city traffic – always a good thing as far as I’m concerned, and didn’t take much longer than if we had battled the city traffic.

Sonnie and I had prepared a special menu for Jan’s birthday meal – we based it around a comment that she had made about how much she had enjoyed the meals during her travels through Sri Lanka and the Middle East.  We made lots of little dishes that could be re-heated (if necessary) upon our arrival, and served in the middle of the table for all to share.  As is our way, there was always much more than we could eat!

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Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits

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Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits

Based on a commercial brand of biscuits, using my mum's recipe for butternut snaps. These biscuits are cooked smaller than normal and then joined together with either milk or dark chocolate, the choice is yours.

Category: Afternoon Tea, Lunch Box, Snacks
Style: Australian
Keyword: Biscuits, Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits, Butternut Snaps, Christmas Cookies, Gluten Free Option, Kingston Biscuits, Kingston Cookies
Quantity: 60 biscuits
Author: sbaskitchen
Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp butter softened (see notes)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 cup coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups self raising flour see notes for Gluten Free Option
  • 1 packet of chocolate melts
Instructions

  1. Place the butter and sugar into the mixing bowl, and using a wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the egg and beat to combine, then add the golden syrup and vanilla essence.

  3. Finally add the coconut and flour and mix until well combined.
  4. Preheat oven to 160˚C (fan).
  5. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

  6. Using a small coffee spoon, take spoonfuls of dough and place on the lined baking tray, ensuring that you allow space between each for spreading.

  7. Bake for 17 minutes, or until golden.
  8. Remove from the oven and turn every second biscuit upside down, revealing the flat base of the biscuit.
  9. Place a chocolate melt onto the flat base of each turned biscuit and top with one that has not been turned.

  10. Place on a cooling rack and allow the heat from the biscuits to melt the chocolate and then set. (I like to check the biscuits after a couple of minutes, to make sure that none of the top biscuits have moved as the chocolate melts.)

  11. When cold store in an airtight jar.
Notes
  • 1 metric tbsp = 4 tsp = 20 ml
  • The temperature shown is for a fan forced oven, if using a non-fan forced oven you will need to increase the temperature by 10-15˚C
  • This recipe translates easily for those on a gluten free diet.
    For gluten free biscuits, replace the self raising flour with 1 1/2 cups gluten free flour blend and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • I use both dark chocolate and milk chocolate melts, generally doing half with dark and half with milk. I believe that white chocolate would make the biscuits overly sweet, but in your kitchen you might like to try white chocolate..

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If you have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see on
this page – just pop a note in the comments box below.
With many thanks and kindness,
Julie.

 

 

 

Violets and Memories

/ sbaskitchen / 4 Comments

I was wandering around the garden in the first week of August, something I rarely find time for any more, which saddens me, as I love my garden and I love being outdoors.

As I rounded the corner, past the spring bulb bed, trying to ignore the weeds, my attention was immediately drawn to a dark space where there was a carpet of flowering violets, and a few snowflakes in bloom as well.  Memories of my late mum, our family home, and my childhood came flooding back, and the snowflakes brought memories of my Gran.  Let me share a little of my memories with you.

Snow Flake in the Garden
Violets in the garden
Violet in the garden
Snow Flake in the Garden

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