clementines

A trifle is a historic British dessert, usually consisting of biscuits or savoiardi cookies, a piece of fruit, often a sweet liquor, sherry or port wine, and cream. The origin of this dessert dates back to the 16th century, but something like the trifle we know today has been found in cookbooks since the 18th century. Nowadays, when there are great possibilities in the kitchen and a wide variety of different components available, desserts similar to trifles are put together in all sorts of variations, the only limit is your imagination.
I made Christmas trifles for dessert on Christmas Eve 2024.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Level: Easy
Quantity: Serves four to six

Ingredients:
A box of meringue cookies (about 30 small meringues)
10-12 savoiardi cookies soaked briefly in a mixture of lemon juice and limoncello
0.5 lemon juice
3-4 tbsp limoncello liqueur
500 ml whipped cream, flavored only with vanilla sugar and whipped to a semi-strong foam
1 tsp vanilla sugar
A couple of handfuls of wild cranberries
A couple of handfuls of cultivated blueberries
About 300 g of ice cream of your choice, I used vanilla ice cream
About 8-10 tbsp lingonberry jam
3-4 mandarins cut crosswise into slices
Lemon balm leaves for decoration

Preparation:

1. Whip 35% cream with vanilla sugar until foamy. Be careful not to let the whipped cream get into the butter.
2. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a bowl, add limoncello, and add a little water.
3. Place 5-6 mandarin slices in the bottom of a glass bowl, and top them with a few tablespoons of whipped cream.
4. Randomly sprinkle blueberries and cranberries on top of the whipped cream, soak the savoiardi biscuits in the limoncello and lemon juice mixture for a moment, break them in half and randomly place them on top of the dessert. Add lingonberry jam here and there. Add some ice cream too.
5. Add more mandarin blossoms, berries, whipped cream, soaked biscuits, jam, ice cream, etc. until the bowl is full. Do not press these layers together, let the dessert sink on its own.
6. Decorate the dessert with mandarin slices, berries, and lemon balm leaves.
   Serve immediately before the ice cream starts to melt.
   Ready!!