Limoncello Trifle – Little bit of Italy & a little bit of England :)
I had always dreamt of visiting Italy since I was a little kid. I did not know anything about Italy at that time but the country fascinated me and the thought of going there for a vacation seemed like fun. I finally got a chance to visit Italy in Dec 2011 and it was one of the most cherished vacations ever! 6 days passed in a flash. There are so many beautiful memories I have; food, places, people, nature, architecture, scenic beauty… Needless to say, the food I ate there was the most authentic Italian cuisine that I have ever tasted. When I returned, I just had to try to recreate the Italian taste. There was a bottle of Limoncello that I had bought from my trip. Since I knew that Limoncello was a uniquely Italian Liqueur, I decided to incorporate it in a dessert. Luckily, I came across Jamie’s recipes about a trifle which had limoncello and bingo! So, here is a fusion of Italy and England for you 🙂
Limoncello Trifle
Ingredients:
- Oranges – 3
- Limoncello -75 ml
- Sponge Fingers – 100 grams
- Mascarpone – 250 grams
- Icing Sugar – 2 tablespoons + extra for dusting
- Semi-skimmed Milk – 100 ml
- Lemon – 1
- Pure Vanilla Extract/paste – 1 teaspoon
- Fresh Raspberries – 250 grams
- 1 bar of good quality dark chocolate (100% cocoa) for grating
Steps:
- Take a dish (preferably flat) and squeeze the juice of 3 oranges. Add the Limoncello and mix well.
- Mix mascarpone, milk, vanilla extract and icing sugar in a separate bowl. Grate the zest of a lemon and squeeze half of its juice. Mix well with a spatula or an electric whisk. Please do not over whisk to avoid any chance of splitting the mascarpone cheese.
- Dip the sponge fingers in the orange + limoncello mixture, a couple of seconds on each side and start layering your bowl with them.
- Once one layer is completed, cover it with the mascarpone batter. Grate some dark chocolate over this layer along with some raspberries.
- Repeat a layer of sponge fingers dipped in orange + limoncello. And cover the sponge fingers with the remaining mascarpone batter.
- Grate the remaining dark chocolate on the top along with the remaining raspberries and keep it in the fridge overnight to set.
- Just before serving, sprinkle the icing sugar and serve.
This is a perfect summer dessert which makes my heart happy and joyous 🙂 🙂
Hope you and your guests love this dessert.
Do share your experience 🙂
Tiramisù – Pick-me-up
Tiramisù is one of the first desserts that I tried my hand at. I have never had a sweet tooth, in fact there was a time when I used to hate anything sweet. But Tiramisù which literally translates to “pick-me-up“, made me fall in love with desserts so much that I decided to wear the apron and go about making it at home. To my utter surprise, it was fairly simple and I must have made it at least a dozen times. And the even bigger surprise was that everyone who tasted it seemed to love it. I use the following recipe which is a result of lot of tweaks and adjustments over time and I hope you like the result.
Tiramisu
Ingredients:
– 3 large eggs
– 250ml Marsala Wine (you can decrease or increase the amount of wine depending on your preference. You can also use any other dessert wine if you want but Marsala and Tiramisù are best friends)
– 250gms Mascarpone Cheese (you can use more if you want to make the layers richer)
– 8-9 teaspoons instant coffee granules (you can also use instant espresso granules to make it stronger/bitter)
– 3 tablespoons golden caster sugar (you can change it depending on the sweetness you would prefer)
– Sponge fingers/Savoiardi biscuits to cover the bowl at least twice. Preferred shape of the bowl is rectangular with a good depth.
– Cocoa Powder for dusting
– 4 pieces of grated 70% Dark Chocolate.
Steps:
- Boil 150ml of water and add the coffee in it. Cool it down and add 200ml of your choice of wine as mentioned above.
- Separate egg whites and yolks, making sure that the bowl in which you will whisk the egg whites is absolutely clean and the whites do not have any traces of the yolk. Any impurities in the egg whites will cause problems while whisking.
- Add the caster sugar in the yolks and beat it till the mixture is smooth and glossy.
- Add the Mascarpone cheese and remaining (50ml) wine in the yolk and beat it until its smooth.
- Beat the egg whites to form soft peaks and fold it gently into the Mascarpone cheese batter.
- Dip the sponge fingers in the coffee+wine mixture, a couple of seconds on each side and start layering your bowl with them.
- Once one layer is completed, cover it with the cheese+egg white batter. Grate some dark chocolate over this layer
- Repeat a layer of sponge fingers dipped in coffee+wine. And cover the sponger fingers with the remaining cheese+egg white batter.
- Grate the remaining dark chocolate on the top and keep it in the fridge overnight to set.
- Just before serving, sprinkle the cocoa powder.
I hope you like the flavors and enjoy making it as much as you will love eating it. I would be happy if you leave your feedback/suggestions.
Flavors & Aromas 