Trifle with a winterberry sorbet

Who doesn’t love a good trifle, its my favourite dessert of all time.  The textures in my version are to die for.  I make a the trifle every Christmas, it acts as a huge centre piece in my nanas old crystal bowl but it looks equally as good as individual portions at a dinner party in wine glasses.

If you think the sorbet is too much of a pain in the arse to make, and lets face it sometimes it is, just buy some or top the trifle with the berries.

Ingredients

makes 1 large or around 6 small

For the sponge:

1 shop bought Madeira cake

Seeded blackberry jam

50mls minature of sherry

For the custard:

3 egg yolks

40g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod

150mls of double cream

150mls whole milk

30g cornflour

For the cream:

300mls whipping cream

50g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod

For the nuts:

100g Granulated sugar

Mixed nuts inclusing hazelnuts and whole almonds

For the sorbet:

Ingredients

100 g caster sugar

200 ml water

2 tsp glucose syrup

500g berries, (fresh or frozen)

squeeze of lemon juice

Method

For the sorbet:

Put the sugar, 100ml of the water and the glucose in a saucepan. Dissolve the sugar over medium heat without stirring. Bring to the boil and simmer briskly for 5-7 minutes until the bubbles thicken and become syrupy. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and leave to cool.
Put the blackberries in another pan. Squeeze some lemon juice over them and simmer over low heat for a minute or two until soft.
Put the blackberries in a blender and purée until smooth.
Push the purée through a fine sieve to remove all the seeds.
 Add the cooled syrup and remaining water to the purée and whisk together.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker. Process for about 20 minutes according to the manufacturer's instructions, then freeze.

For the custard:

Whisk the egg yolks, corn flour and sugar until light and mousse like.

In a saucepan warm the cream and milk with the split scraped vanilla pod.

Pour the warm mix over the egg mixture whisking constantly.  If you don’t whisk all the time the eggs will scramble.

Add everything back to the pan and warm very gently, stirring constantly over a medium heat.

The custard will thicken quite rapidly because the eggs are cooking.

Once its reached your desired thickness (and it really is upto you how you like it) turn the heat off, pass the custard through a sieve into a bowl and cover with clingfilm (this stops a skin forming)

Chill until you need it.  You can make the custard upto a day in advance.

For the nuts:

In a saucepan heat the sugar over a medium to high heat until its melted, do not stir the sugar, this is a vital stage of making caramel.

Once all the sugar is melted you can begin to swirl the pan and turning the heat down to low continue to swirl the pan until the caramel reaches a deep amber colour, you don’t want it to burn so be ready to take the pan off the heat at a seconds notice.

Once the colour is achieved pour the caramel out onto a stainless steel surface, or the back of a baking sheet thats been lightly greased.

Immediately add the nuts so they stick in the caramel.

Leave the mix to cool completely.

When its cool it should easily peel and break off the surface.

Snap shards and keep to one side until your ready to use them, that is if you can stop eating all of them! Very addictive..

Now you have all the components ready its a 5 minute job to assemble..

In the bottom of your trifle dish add a nice thick slice of the Madeira cake which has been spread with the jam.

Drizzle the sherry over the cake.

Add the custard and smooth out.

Lightly whip the cream until billowey and unctuous.  Add a little sugar as it thickens fort sweetness.

Add the cream on top of the custard upto the top of the dish and smooth out completely flat, i think it looks better like this for presentation.

Add a quinellle of the sorbet and top with the shards of brittle.

Eat enjoy and never serve a small portion!