Trifle Mania
The Hartford Courant this week is exhorting the joys of trifles, a sadly overlooked dessert here in the United States.
Mike Yarnot, the Corner Pug’s chef, agrees. Although he attended two culinary schools, Yarnot was not taught how to make a trifle, although he did do so during an apprenticeship and quickly became a convert.
“What’s not to love? Custard, cream, fruit?” he asks.
A trifle is a pretty simple thing - just layers of ingredients - but the layers come together in an impressive appearance, and it looks far more complicated to the naked eye.
Anyway, in my interest, I decided to see what variations are out there. Googling “trifle recipe” produced 447,000 hits. There were a number of interesting ones such as Strawberry and Lemon Curd Trifle, Neopolitan Trifle, and Tiramisu Eggnog Trifle. The one that made it to my personal to-make list though was the Pumpkin Pie Trifle. I love pumpkin pie, and have been known to eat a whole one myself in a sitting.
In any case, though I have never had this traditional English dessert, the ease of it and the impressive outcome is certainly worth giving a try. Perhaps we Americans are really missing the boat on this one.
Now if you are in the market for trifle bowls, there are some cute mini ones at Linens-n-Things and a very nice angular one at Crate and Barrel.
