Trifle Belle Hélène

History

I made up the original recipe for this for Alan Davidson’s 74th birthday in the booklet entitled Alan Davidson’s Tea Time Favourites. Later, I used it in other booklet for Alan’s 76th birthday, entitled The Little Boudoir Recipe Book. And, later still, according to Jane Grigson’s philosophy of using material at least twice, Alan and I used it again in the book we wrote together, Trifle. (Apparently Jane believed that all that a writer, or food writer, wrote should be used at least twice!) I give the version which we used in Trifle for that came later (in 2001). However, in the Trifle book, for some inexplicable reason I had reduced the amount of liqueur in ratio to the number of biscuits used and I have now remedied this.

IngredientsServes -

• 12 – 15 boudoir biscuits   
• 4 tbs amaretto liqueur   
• 1 can pear halves   
• 100 g bitter chocolate   
• 250 g tub of mascarpone   
• 3 tbs icing sugar, sifted   
• 100 ml double cream   
• toasted flaked almonds   
• angelica  

Method

Arrange the boudoir biscuits in a glass bowl. Sprinkle with the amaretto liquid and 4 tbs of juice from the canned pears, reserving 50 mil of the remaining juice. Slice the pear halves and arrange on top of the biscuits. Set aside.

To make the chocolate sauce, break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a pan with the reserved 50 ml of pear juice. Melt over a low heat, then bring to a boil for about a minute, stirring continuously until it thickens a little. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. When cool, pour it over the pears until they are well covered with the sauce.

Beat the mascarpone, icing sugar and cream until smooth and spread this mixture on top of the chocolate sauce. Decorate with the almonds and delicate strips of angelica.