A trifle is a dessert, which is normally made with fruit, custard, fruit juice or gelatin, whipped cream and some kind of sponge cake or ladyfingers. The ingredients are normally layered with the cake and fruit on the bottom and the cream on top. The first trifle recipes comprised a thick, sweetened cream, which contained rosewater, ginger, and sugar. This recipe appeared in the 1596 book, “The Good Housewife’s Jewel” by Thomas Dawson. The custard and milk was added, as well as the alcohol and cake, sixty years after.
The following is a very special fresh strawberry trifle recipe because the strawberries are cooked in wine, vanilla, and sugar, giving them a really sophisticated flavor. For a stronger flavor, add a little port wine to the red wine. Zinfandel would be a good red wine to use or something quite dry but fruity too. The vanilla cookies are unusual in this recipe. Trifle recipes usually contain cubes of cake or ladyfingers but the vanilla cookies work well. Leaving the trifle to chill for a few hours or overnight before serving it means the cookies absorb a lot of the juice from the marinated strawberries, giving them a soft texture and a wonderful taste.
This is a very easy fresh strawberry trifle recipe and the red wine and cookies makes it elegant enough for a dinner party dessert. If you are using quite small serving glasses, you might get ten servings. If you have bigger ones, you will get about eight.
Ingredients
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 ½ cups dry red wine
- 1 package instant vanilla pudding
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 quart halved fresh strawberries
- 1 package vanilla cookies
Instructions
- Bring the wine and ? cup of the white sugar to a boil in a pan and keep boiling the mixture for 5 minutes or until it has reduced to 1 cup.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the sliced strawberries and vanilla extract.
- Let it cool for an hour, stirring a few times. Break the cookies into small pieces.
- Whisk the instant vanilla pudding with the milk.
- Divide half the pudding between 10 serving glasses, and then top it with ¾ of the cookies.
- Add half the strawberries, then the rest of the pudding and finally the rest of the strawberries.
- Sprinkle the remaining cookie pieces over the top.
- Chill the trifle for a few hours or up to twenty four hours, so the flavors can blend.
Photo Description:
The seemingly simple combination of vanilla cookies, strawberries, and pudding make a light, refreshing dessert and this fresh strawberry trifle recipe is ideal for any summertime lunch or dinner. When you taste the strawberries, you will be able to tell that they were soaked in a sweetened red wine and vanilla marinade and this really does make them extra delicious. For a much more simple trifle recipe, you can omit the marinade and just combine the cookies, pudding, and fruit. This is a bright and colorful trifle recipe, which is sure to thrill anybody you serve it to.
