Pineapple Trifle

I haven’t made Jello in a long time. I guess, partly because my kids are all grown up and so no one at home is nagging me for it anymore and also because I prefer to make dishes from scratch now and avoid most packaged and pre-prepared foods. My son teases me and says stuff like “Mom, you’re a food-snob now” or “you wouldn’t deign to eat stuff like Jello.” Anyway, recently I found an unusual brand of a pineapple flavored gelatin at the local Middle Eastern Store and I bought it because it reminded me of a pineapple dessert my mother used to make when I was a kid. She used to combine some whipped cream with pieces of canned pineapple and also little bits of pineapple jelly and back then my sister and I thought this was the best dessert. The packet of pineapple gelatin brought back such memories that I had to buy it. Instead of replicating my mom’s dessert, I made a slightly more sophisticated version of it by adding some pound cake soaked in a rum and Limoncello mixture. It was actually a beautiful looking trifle and it tasted really good too. It was a kind of a tropical trifle – perfect for a summer party!

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Ingredients:

1. Half a peeled and cut fresh pineapple
2. One packet of Pineapple Gelatin/Jello
3. ¼ cup of sugar
4. 3 tablespoons of Limoncello
5. 3 tablespoons of a dark rum
6. One pint of heavy whipping cream
7. One small sized pound cake (I used a Sara Lee frozen pound cake)
8. A handful of Blueberries
9. A sprig of fresh mint for garnishing

Directions:

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1. Follow the direction on the gelatin packet and set the pineapple Jello in the refrigerator.
2. When the Jello is set, start assembling the trifle by whipping ¼ a cup of sugar and the whipping cream in an electric mixer (you can also use a hand held electric cake mixer or a manual mixer).

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3. When the cream is whipped, set it aside and then slice the pound cake in 1/2 -1 inch thick slices.
4. In a small bowl mix the Limoncello and rum to make a mixed drizzling liquid.
5. Lay down 4-5 slices of the pound cake down on the bottom of a trifle dish.
6. Using a spoon drizzle about half of the drizzling liquid over the cake slices.

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7. Chop the pineapple pieces into bite sized pieces.

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8. Add a layer of fresh pineapple pieces over the layer of pound cake in the trifle dish.
9. Over the fresh pineapple add a layer of the whipped cream and smooth it out with a spatula (the whipped cream layer should be about an inch or so thick.
10. Over the first layer of whipped cream add a layer of pound cake and drizzle it with more of the Limoncello rum mixture.

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11. Over the second layer of cake, add a layer of Jello pieces (scooped out with a spoon).

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12. And another layer of whipped cream (again smoothed out with a spatula). Be careful to let the distinct layers of the trifle show through the transparent trifle dish in an aesthetic way (clean layers look beautiful and elegant).

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13. On top of the second whipped cream layer add more fresh pineapple bits and also the fresh blueberries in whichever pattern you prefer.

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14. Cover the trifle dish with some Clingwrap and set it in the refrigerator for about an hour or two to let the trifle set.
15. Take out the trifle from the refrigerator and garnish it with a sprig of mint and then serve it while it is still cold.

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comments

  1. Permalink Submitted by Shilpa Patel on Tue, 21/05/2013 - 04:08

    Hey Shabnam – don’t you find that if you use raw pineapple with dairy and don’t eat the dessert up immediately, it gets a little bitter or off-tasting? My mother and I made an ice-cream with raw pineapple once (using an old-fashioned ice cream churn – this was a LONG time ago…) and it was fine for the first couple of hours and then got progressively bitter and eventually had to be discarded. I remember reading somewhere that it is better to use canned pineapple for such dishes. Or perhaps that was clever propaganda by Dole?!

    • Permalink Submitted by Shabnam on Tue, 21/05/2013 - 17:45

      Hi Shilpa, I haven’t noticed any after taste from the combination of pineapple and dairy – but then again, my kids are home from college (and Aman’s best friend is here as well) and everything gets eaten really quickly these days so I haven’t had to keep anything in the refrigerator for long. But now that you have pointed it out, I’ll try to observe if this phenomenon occurs!

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