St. Patrick’s Day: Mr.CBB’s Custard Coffee Cookie Trifle

Finish Off St. Patrick’s Day Meal With Custard Coffee Cookie Trifle

I made this St. Patrick’s Day Custard Coffee Cookie Trifle in a single-serve glass because I wanted English custard and thought it would be unique.

Since today is St. Paddy’s Day I thought I would green up my custard dessert to celebrate the festivities.

Tonight we are having a green beer (I just add food coloring) as our beverage of choice and on the menu, we have crock-pot Beef stew. 

I may even try my hand at making homemade soda bread which seems easy enough.

We do need something to soak up all the fine juices in the stew.

I’m not Irish but I am British and both cultures love custard, in fact, I grew up with traditional English Custard being a go-to easy dessert recipe for my mum.

Whenever she wanted custard to add to her cakes, bread pudding or having custard and fruit to end a meal this was her simple custard recipe. ( I know I was lucky, I admit it)

My mum was and still is all about keeping her recipes simple so there were as little steps possible for great results.

Unfortunately at the time of creating this recipe I did not get her custard recipe as you will read about below.

Related: My Mum’s Victoria Sponge 4-Ingredient Cake

What Is St. Patrick’s Day?

“Saint Patrick’s Day or the feast of St.Patrick is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated on March 17th to signify the arrival of Christianity in Ireland”.

Green is where it’s at with parties and parades celebrated across the land.

The day was named after Saint Patrick a well-known patron saint of Ireland.

You can learn more about St. Patrick’s Day history by clicking on the link in this post above as there really is lots of culture behind this recognized holiday.

St. Patrick’s Day In The UK

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in the UK when I lived there mainly with traditional Irish food and green beer at the pubs with my friends while dressed in silly green outfits.

There was always fun to be had especially at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in London UK, Trafalgar Square which in those days was a non-stop drink until you drop festival worthy of a big fry up the next morning.

I’m sure nothing has changed. I remember one year we played pass the shamrock and every time you had the shamrock you either had to kiss the person you gave it to or donate a dollar into the pot of gold for charity.

Custard Coffee Cookie Trifle

Today I have a custard coffee cookie trifle which I layered in large wine glasses so they are single-serve for your guests.

You can eat the custard coffee cookie trifle about one hour after you prepare them or even better the next day.

I used thick Italian ladyfinger cookies and soaked them in a premium instant coffee or you can use espresso if you desire a much bolder coffee taste.

I also had shortbread cookies in the freezer that we made and pulsed them in the food processor to a crumb.

If you don’t have homemade shortbread you can simply buy it but shortbread is not difficult at all to make.

How Do You Make Custard? 

This custard recipe is not my own as Delia Smith has captured my heart with her Traditional English Custard Recipe.

I have her entire set of cookbooks and she is one chef that can make the most difficult recipe seem so easy.

The only problem is that in Canada I can’t find double cream which is 48% milkfat.

I realized that we have some pretty high-fat cream in the UK and it’s no wonder I crave the depth of the dairy products back home which I can’t find here.

The best I could find for this recipe was whipping cream at 35% milk fat so I figured that’s what I’m going to use.

My friend Beth from Aunt B’s Kitchen says she also uses evaporated milk so I’ll give that a try, as well as single cream which I think, will work perfectly fine.

I also didn’t have a vanilla pod but certainly would have used on if I did and is easily available at the local Bulk Barn shop.

I simply used high-quality pure vanilla which is perfectly fine.

I also can’t find castor sugar in Canada so I used granulated sugar and whizzed it in the food processor to make it a bit finer in texture.

Castor sugar is comparable to icing sugar which is you can make at home as described above.

I could have also used half brown and half granulated and done the same as a substitute.

The green in the trifle comes from the egg whites that I had after I used the egg yolks in the custard recipe.

I simply whipped them into a meringue then added green food color, baked it for about 7 minutes, cooled it and boy did it ever look spectacular.

At the top I added a bit of freshly ground nutmeg and shaved some milk chocolate to finish off this trifle.

I know you will absolutely enjoy this recipe if you love coffee and custard as I do.

Custard Coffee Cokie Trifle Recipe

Serves: 2 large wine Glasses or 4 med glasses

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup milk chocolate bar shaved for garnish
• Fresh nutmeg for garnish
• 1 carton of Whipping Cream 500 ml  or 1 pint 570 ml  of Double Cream (Delia Smith)
• 2 tablespoons pure Vanilla Extract or 1 Vanilla Pod (Delia Smith)
• 6 large Egg Yolks
• 1 tablespoon Cornstarch or 1 dessertspoon cornflour (Delia Smith)
• 2 oz granulated sugar whirled in the food processor to make it super fine  or golden Castor Sugar (Delia Smith)
• 20 Lady Finger Cookies (thick ones)
• 1 cup of instant coffee black with 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 1 cup of crushed shortbread cookies

Meringue Ingredients

• 6 Egg Whites
• Green Food Color
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice for meringue
• 1 cup granulated or fine sugar for meringue

Custard Process: 

• In a bowl separate the yolks and the egg whites
• Put your cream in a small pot or saucepan along with the vanilla (if using a vanilla pod split in half , scoop out the seeds and put it all in the cream including the pod) and heat on low
• While the cream is heating in another bowl add the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch (cornflour) and whisk
• Once the cream is nice and hot remove the vanilla pod if you used one
• Take the cream off the stove top and with the whisk in one hand whisk the egg yolk mixture and slowly start adding the cream. I add a little bit at a time so the hot mixture doesn’t curdle the egg. Then I add all the rest of the egg yolk mix in constantly whisking the mixture then put it back on the stove immediately.
• Keep the custard mixture on a low heat mixing until it becomes a thick custard at the simmering point (don’t walk away) keep whisking.
• Pour the custard in a bowl and top with cling wrap so it doesn’t form a film at the top
• You can serve the custard hot or cold but Delia says if you want to serve it warm later put the bowl of custard on top of a pot of simmering water and warm it up. This would be considered a double boiler.

Meringue

• In a stainless bowl or mixer beat your egg whites and lemon juice until it forms soft peaks then add in the sugar little at a time until it is silky. 
• Add in the green food colour until you reach the desired green shade you prefer and mix
• Add the egg whites to a non-stick cake pan and bake in a 350-degree oven for 5-7 minutes until lightly browned like it would be on a lemon meringue pie. You are just looking to cook the egg whites and warm them through but don’t overcook them, just a simple browning.
• Remove from oven, stir it again until it’s nice and smooth and let cool 10 minutes

Putting It All Together

• Cut ladyfingers into 2-inch pieces and dip or pour coffee over top to completely saturate them in coffee. Handle them gently and only cover 5 cookies at a time enough for each layer as they will get soggy if you try to do them all at once. 
• In the bottom of your wine glass add some of the shortbread crumbs
• Add in a layer of the meringue
• Add in a layer of the custard
• Add 5 more ladyfingers coated in coffee and repeat ending at the top with meringue
• Add some chocolate shavings and freshly ground nutmeg
• Refrigerate until serving and enjoy

Discussion: How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Leave me your comments below or a review if you’ve tried this recipe.

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