Christmas Cherry and Custard Trifle

Short and sweet this week just like my Christmas offering to you. A little late but isn’t that par for the course on the Christmas home straight?

There’s been lots of discussion of Christmas foods and traditions this last week. My youngest son and his Finnish girl are visiting and amongst Christmas decorating and baking, questions have been flying thick and fast in both directions.

Me asking her what a Christmas meal looks and tastes like in Finland. What do they bake? What’s for dinner on Christmas eve when they celebrate? Do you leave a treat for Santa? Do you offer homemade Christmas food gifts? I’ve been very curious, she’s been very patient.

In turn she’s asked similar. Curious though delighted at our penchant for seafood on the Christmas table we have found commonalities. Finns enjoy ham at Christmas like many of us and various potato dishes. They also enjoy rich cakes and pastries though a little different to ours. She’s making us plum (prune) pastries and gingerbread for a version of cheesecake familiar to her Christmas and we might try rice pudding, or porridge as she calls it. It’s sounding very sweet isn’t it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas food traditions and how they anchor us and create anticipation. This was perfectly articulated on the Something to Eat and Something to Read podcast in their Christmas episode where they discussed the comfort of gentle treasure Christmas traditions. It got me to pondering what ours are? Ham was the big one in my family growing up and my Nana’s annual dessert fest where she’d make everyone’s favourite, Christmassy or not, determined to have something for everyone on the heaving festive table.

I’m going to survey the family this weekend and see what they identify as their Christmas foods that they look forward to. For me it’s all the rich dried fruit bakes particularly mince pies and chocolate fruit cake, though I still love the ham, especially on hot buttered white toast. I suspect Boy One will nominate the seemingly never-ending cookie jar filled with shortbread. Boy Two may name Christmas day breakfast as his thing with hot croissants, jam or ham all served around the tree to the soundtrack of tearing gift paper ooo’s and ahhh’s. Hubby loves the prawns and Boy One’s girl, I think and hope, loves it all. It’s always wonderful to have them all together around the table with a cornucopia of everyone’s festive favourites.

So to this year. In recent years we’ve settled into a little tradition of faves for Christmas Eve lunch, a meal that suits our family taking some of the pressure off Christmas Day and allowing us to relax and enjoy each other. We’ll enjoy a bottle of bubbles with prawns and gravlax to start. Then we’ll sit down to a fillet of beef (my favourite) and glazed ham alongside duck fat roast potatoes a Finnish vegetable casserole and some greens. Hopefully we’ll have left some room for dessert so we can enjoy our Finnish delights and my take on some xmas flavours captured in a slightly different guise this year. Luscious vanilla and saffron custard, layered with sponge finger biscuits xmas flavoured cherries all topped with a cloud of Chantilly cream and some crunchy roasted almond. All the Christmas flavours brought together in a light but indulgent dessert that can blessedly be prepared in advance and pulled out of the fridge whenever you and your guests are ready.

All but a final flourish of the nuts can be prepared ahead of the big day so you can enjoy your family.

Makes six small individual serves dependent on your vessel size.

Ingredients:

400g pitted cherries (roughly 500 gm of fresh cherries will yield this)

2 Tb sugar

½ cinnamon stick

1 Tb brandy

1 Tb water

1 orange rind finely grated and juiced

300 ml thickened cream

250 full cream milk

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise seeds scraped

Pinch of saffron threads

¼ scant tsp salt flakes

4 egg yolks

40 gm cornflour

80 gm soft butter

500 ml thickened cream extra

2 tsps vanilla paste

1 tb caster sugar

1 Tb Cointreau or other orange flavoured liqueur or sherry (optional)

12-14 savoiardi/sponge fingers

Method:

In a small saucepan over low heat combine the sugar, cinnamon stick, orange rind, brandy and water. Bring to the boil and simmer over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and syrup is slightly thickened. Tip in prepared cherries, pop the lid on and simmer over a very low heat for ten minutes, you may need to move your saucepan to the smallest burner to achieve this. Remove and allow to cool. This step can be completed a couple of days ahead, once cooled, transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate.

In a medium saucepan combine cream, milk, saffron, vanilla bean and salt. Over medium heat warm up until it reaches boiling point with small bubbles breaking all across the surface, remove from the heat and set aside briefly. In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment beat egg yolks until increased in volume, foamy and smooth. Add cornflour and continue mixing until a smooth paste. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides to complete this step and even remove the whisk attachment and whisk by hand using it. This last step gives you control in completing that last few moments of whisking.

Now to bring the two together. Add a ladle of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolk paste and hand whisk until combined, repeat this step once more then add remaining hot milk to the ‘custard’ continuing to whisk to combine the two well. Return the mixture to the saucepan passing through a fine sieve and heat over a medium heat until thick and smooth. I like to give it one more hand whisk to smooth out any lumps that may have formed. Pop the thick custard into a suitably sized bowl, cover surface of the custard with cling wrap and refrigerate. This can also be done a day ahead if this helps the rushing.

When you’re ready to construct your trifles remove cherries from fridge, drain and reserve liquid, set aside. In another small bowl combine the fresh orange juice and orange liqueur. Whip the additional cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Remove custard from fridge and add 1/3 cup of the whipped cream and whisk the two together until smooth and fluffy with a hand whisk. This step lightens the custard and makes it a little easier to work with. In the sized bowls photographed (250ml capacity) drop a dessert spoonful of the custard in the base, this forms a foundation to help hold the sponge fingers in place. Dip each piece of sponge finger briefly into the juice/liqueur and place each piece in a layer on top of this first custard layer whole or broken up, whatever suits your chosen vessel. In the one pictured I’ve cut them in half. Place another scoop of custard on top, a little more generous this time, and swish around with the back of your spoon filling in gaps and covering the sponge fingers leaving an indentation in the middle. Spoon in a few of the drained cherries, I’ve used five in each here. Top with a layer of the whipped cream. Pop the completed desserts in the fridge to set for at least six hours or overnight.

As a little extra touch I like to reduce the reserved liquid from the cherries. In a small saucepan, bring it to the boil and simmer vigorously over a medium heat until thickened to a syrup consistency and reduced in volume.

When ready to serve top with roasted flaked or slivered almond, a fresh cherry and small drizzle of the syrup.

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I’m going to sign off for the year here friends. Thank you for reading my work this year, trying my recipes and all your beautiful messages, I can’t tell how much I appreciate you joining me each week.

I hope you all enjoy a happy and peaceful few weeks for the Christmas and New Year season, full of love and joy. Should this be a difficult time of year for you go gently and know I’ll be thinking of you and wishing for peace for you.

I’ll be taking a few weeks off from here now and will be back hopefully in mid-late January.

Much love,

S xx