The Italian trifle (zuppa inglese), as suggested by its name, is the Italian variant of the English trifle: a delicious dessert made with custard, chocolate and liqueur-flavored ladyfingers… we wish you a sweet new year!
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Ladyfingers, chocolate, sugar, liqueur, yes, I have everything I need to make an excellent Italian trifle. If you want to see how, come with me!
Start with the custard, so pour the milk into a saucepan… scrape out the seeds… from half a vanilla pod… then allow both to steep… and, on a medium flame, bring the milk almost to a boil.
Put the egg yolks in a large bowl, add the sugar and beat with a whisk to break them up and blend the sugar. Now add the corn starch, sifted… and blend it into the mixture.
It’s time to add the eggs to the milk, as you can see I’ve removed the vanilla pod… so we can add the mixture. Then stir on a low flame until thick.
The custard has reached the right consistency… look! Now turn off the heat and transfer to a large shallow container, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge to cool. Make sure that the film is in direct contact with the custard, to keep it from getting hard on top.
Now move on to the chocolate custard, so combine all the ingredients to make a custard as before, then add the chocolate, which has been roughly chopped with a knife, let it melt completely, stir until it thickens, then transfer to a large, shallow container, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge to cool.
Now prepare the soaking syrup for the Ladyfingers, so pour the water into a saucepan and, as soon as it comes to a boil, add the sugar… let it dissolve and, finally, add the alkermes liqueur, turn off the heat and allow to cool.
When the mixtures are cold, we can assemble the dessert, so take a glass bowl, the Ladyfingers, and break into pieces according to the size of your bowl… dip them quickly, drain the excess syrup… and form the base. Make sure to push the Ladyfingers to the sides… so that the soaked ladyfingers are visible in cross-section. Now take the chocolate custard and form a layer… add the soaked Ladyfingers… and now cover with the custard… as you can see, it’s much easier if you use a pastry bag. Finish with a small mound of chocolate custard. For decorating, cut a Ladyfinger in half, dip into the syrup and place it on top… in this way. Our Italian trifles are ready.
The original Italian trifle recipe calls for Ladyfingers, but it’s Christmas time, so you can replace with leftover panettone or pandoro, of course. From Sonia and Giallozafferano… best wishes!
Ingredients for 8 glass bowls:
For the chocolate custard
• 1 cup (250 ml) of heavy cream
• 1 cup (250 ml) of fresh milk
• ½ cup (125 g) of egg yolks
• 2/3 cup (125 g) of sugar
• ½ vanilla pod
• 2 ½ tbsp (20 g) of corn starch
• 2 ½ tbsp (20 g) of flour
• 3,5 oz (100 g) of dark chocolate For the custard
• 2 cups (500 ml) of fresh milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 5 tbsp (40 g) of corn starch
• ¾ cup (150 g) of sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
For the soaking syrup
• less than 1 cup (200 ml) of water
• ½ cup (100 g) of sugar
• just under ½ cup (100 ml) of alkermes liqueur
• 40 Ladyfingers