Cheat's Chocolate Trifle (thanks I believe to Delia Smith)
(Serves 1-8)
- 3-4 double chocolate chip muffins*
- 2x tablespoons cherry jam or Morello conserve*
- 1x 680g jar pitted Morello cherries*, drained and soaked in 75 ml (3 fl.oz.) dark rum* for 24 hrs.- top up jar with juice to cover cherries and mix occasionally. Can omit the rum, but why lose out - eh, PK??
- 2x100g bars luxury continental dark chocolate* (75% minimum cocoa butter - 85+ if you can)
- 250g mascarpone
- 1x500g tub fresh custard
- 1x284ml tub whipping or double cream
- Begin by slicing the muffins horizontally into 2, then spread each slice with some jam and weld the slices back together to the original muffin shape.
- Cut each one vertically into 4 pieces and lay them all over the base of a trifle dish.
- Stab them with a skewer to make holes.
- Drain the cherries.
- Spoon the rum/juice all over the muffins and allow it to soak in.
- Scatter the cherries on top.
- Reserve half a bar of chocolate for the final decoration and break the rest into squares.
- Place these in a basin, pour some hot water into a saucepan, bring it up to simmering point, remove it from the heat then immediately place the bowl over it. Because of the high quality of this chocolate it needs careful handling so just leave it to melt over the hot water, stirring from time to time. This should take 6-8 minutes. (Can microwave, stepwise, if in a hurry, but go carefully 20 sec at a time, with mixing between!)
- While that's happening, empty the mascarpone and custard into a bowl and whisk them together.
- Then whisk in the melted chocolate - all of it!
- Pour the whole lot over the soaked muffins and cherries.
- Lick fingers. Scrape bowls, spoons, whisk, walls, cat and anything else worthwhile.
- Whip cream up to the floppy stage. Chill bowl + cream first if it won't whip
- Spoon this over the trifle, spreading it out with a palette knife.
- Lastly, chop the rest of the chocolate (using a piece of foil to hold it without melting), shredding it finely. Keep one or two pieces for testing.
- Sprinkle shreds over the surface of the trifle.
- Eat test pieces.
- Cover bowl with cling film and chill until needed.
