Christmas is trifle time, and one firm favourite is the Cherry Trifle.
To make the jelly the modern household relies on the ready to go, artificially flavoured jelly blocks available in every supermarket.
Almost as easy and quick but with a much superior taste is the following version.
Using our fruit Wild Cherry tea brings the jelly actually in contact with some real cherries.
You merely brew a fruit tea, add sugar, tinned black cherries, gelatine and ready is the best jelly ever.
This recipe is for a medium-sized bowl:
- Bring 1.25 litre (roughly a bit more than 2 pints) of water to the boil.
- Take a suitably sized pot and add 15 teaspoons of Wild Cherry fruit tea (use a big strainer or strain the liquid later).
- Pour boiling water over fruit tea.
- Open the tin of black cherries and add just the juice and keep the cherries for later.
- Add 6 tablespoons of sugar or any other sweetener. If the cherry syrup is already sweetened, you might want to reduce the amount of sugar.
- Let the mix simmer for about 10 minutes and stir occasionally. The colour will become a deep red, and the smell should remind you of black, sweet cherries and almonds.
- After the 10 minutes add the cherries and remove the fruit tea. The infusion will have reduced to about 1 litre.
- For an adult trifle, you might consider adding one measure (or two) of Kirsch liqueur (Kirsch = Cherry, Rum or Amaretto is an ok alternative). This will enhance the cherry flavour even further and elevate the jelly to the Premier League.
- Now add the gelatine or any other thickening agent according to the instructions.
- Let it settle overnight in the fridge.
You just made the best jelly (= trifle) your family has ever tasted.
This recipe works well with the Blood Orange tea too.
Just replace the cherries with oranges, clementines or mandarins and the family trophy for best trifle will be yours.
For a fruit-neutral jelly, we recommend the Hibiscus tea. It will give you an even deeper red colour and a strong, fruity tartness that goes perfectly well with the sweet custard.
If you like to experiment, then this is just the beginning for you. Other fruit teas like Fruity Ginger, Sweet Mango or Turkish Apple are equally brilliant jelly ingredients (colour will be more yellow with a sweeter taste).
Happy Jelly Making and a Merry Christmas.