A festive favourite, but who says trifles should only be served on Christmas Day? We’ll be eating these retro sweet treats throughout the holiday season. 

Whether you’re after a midweek treat or a dinner party wonder, these little pots of trifle will go down very well indeed. The zingy blackberry jelly and salty pistachio mix make for a modern take on this classic dessert.

Top Tip: If you can’t get hold of pistachio paste just whizz 100g of peeled pistachios up in the food processor.

Serves: 6

Time: 1hour plus setting time

What You’ll Need:

• 165ml of dry white wine
• 165g of blackberry purée
• 1 punnet of blackberries
• 200ml of water
• 300g of caster sugar
• 3 gelatine leaves, soaked and excess water squeezed out

Pistachio sponge

• 175g of unsalted butter, softened
• 175g of caster sugar
• 175g of self-raising flour
• 5g of baking powder
• 2 tsp of pistachio paste
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 free-range eggs

To plate

• 150ml of double cream, whipped to soft peaks

What To Do:

1. Bring the white wine and water up to the boil and add the sugar. Once all the sugar has dissolved, take off the heat and add the gelatine.
2. As soon as the gelatine has dissolved, add the blackberry purée and pass through a fine sieve.
3. Pour into your glass dishes. Cut the blackberries in half lengthways and share them equally between the five glass dishes. Carefully place the jelly in the fridge to set.
4. Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Line a 30cm rectangle baking tray (with at least 2cm sides) with greaseproof paper. On a high speed, cream the butter and sugar in electric mixer until white.
5. Split the vanilla pod open and scrape out the seeds. Slow the machine down to its lowest speed and add the pistachio, self-raising flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla seeds .
6. As soon as the ingredients are incorporated, turn the machine off and check the texture. If the mix is really stiff, add a little milk to loosen it up; it wants to hold its own weight.
7. Pour the mix into the lined tray and place in the oven for 25 minutes or until it’s cooked. Check this with a cocktail stick; it should come out dry. Leave to cool.
8. Once cooled, remove from the tray and cut into cubes, around 2.5cm in size. Store in an airtight container until needed.
9. Take the jelly out of the fridge, and using a piping bag, pipe the whipped cream on top of the jelly in little peaks from the outside to the centre of the jelly.
10. Repeat this on all of the jellies and then, on top of the cream, arrange 4-5 cubes of well-spaced pistachio sponge. Loosely close the lid and serve.

Recipe by Simon Hulstone for greatbritishchefs.com

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