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Mary Berry’s Tipsy Trifle

Homemade Swiss roll and soaks up the sherry and adds a special decorative touch to this party-time mega-trifle.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 334 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 10
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas 4). Line a 20cm (8in) square tin. Whisk the 4 eggs and 100g caster sugar until pale and thick, about 5 minutes. Gently fold in the self-raising flour.

  2. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden and springy. Cool on a wire rack, then spread the strawberry jam over the sponge and cut it into bite-sized pieces.

  3. Drain the pear well and cut into chunks. Break the ratafia biscuits into a bowl, pour over some of the sherry and let soak. Pour the rest of the sherry over the drained pear and let it soak.

  4. Make the custard: whisk the 3 eggs, 50g caster sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract together in a bowl. Heat the whole milk and single cream in a pan until steaming, but not boiling.

  5. Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking constantly, then return everything to the pan. Stir over a low heat until thickened and the custard reaches 160°F (71°C). Cool, stirring occasionally.

  6. Toast the flaked almonds in a dry frying pan over medium heat, shaking often, until golden. Set aside to cool.

  7. Whip the whipping cream until it holds soft peaks. Halve the cherries if you like, for decorating.

  8. Layer half the sponge pieces in a glass trifle bowl, top with the soaked ratafia and sherry, then half the pear and half the custard. Repeat the layers.

  9. Spread the whipped cream over the top, scatter with toasted almonds and decorate with cherries. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pear + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Sherry + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Pear + sherrytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Strawberry jam + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the strawberry jam

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, biscuit, pear, sherry, vanilla):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Apricotbetter flavor fit
  3. Plumbetter flavor fit
  4. Strawberry jamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, biscuit, pear, sherry, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).