When life gives you lemons make lemonade, when life gives you leftover eggnog and Christmas pudding make trifle. This decadent concoction of Christmas leftovers was inspired by my mother when I mentioned that we had a lot of leftover Christmas pudding. Not much was eaten on Christmas Day because everyone was too full to eat much, and it is incredibly rich. I couldn’t find a recipe I liked so I made my own.
Christmas pudding is the traditional dessert for many English families. Our family has a recipe that is generations old and this is the first year I have been entrusted with it. We made the Christmas pudding over Thanksgiving when my parents were visiting. It steamed for 8 hours then, and another 4 before we served it at Christmas. The end result is almost black and heavy with alcohol and spices.
Trifle is another English tradition, a dessert with layers of cake, fruit, custard and cream. This is an improvisation on the theme with Christmas pudding substituting for the booze soaked cake. The glass trifle bowl really shows off the layers which were from bottom to top:
Crumbled leftover Christmas pudding mixed with candied orange and rum.
Crumbled amaretti biscuits (from Carfagna’s Market)
Custard made with eggnog, milk, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla and a little cornstarch.
Another layer of crumbled amaretti biscuits.
Whipped Snowville heavy cream with a touch of sugar and rum.
Toasted slivered almonds.
I am glad no one did a calorie analysis on it, I can’t imagine, especially as I made enough to feed 15 people – needless to say, it’s not something to be consumed on a regular basis. The custard layer really complimented the Christmas pudding, moderating the strong boozy flavor, the biscuit crumbs and toasted almonds added some texture and the hint of rum in the cream tied the dessert together.
Another use of leftover eggnog is to make a bread and butter pudding.
