Crème de Menthe Trifle

Here’s a stop-them-in-their tracks recipe I found originally in Canadian House and Home magazine. It was then called Icebox Grasshopper Cake. That sounded a little bit lowbrow and willfully old fashioned. I’m going to call it a Crème de Menthe Trifle. Sorry for the bad picture - it’s my well-thumbed clipping.

This dessert should be made at least 4 hours prior, or even the day before – to allow the cookies to soften into cakey goodness.

Here are the ingredients:

500 mL (1 pint) carton whipping cream

500 g (16 oz) tub mascarpone cheese (or ricotta)

¾ cup sifted icing sugar

1 tsp peppermint extract

½ tsp green food colouring

1/3 cup each Crème de Menthe and Crème de Cacao liqueurs (or 2/3 cup chocolate milk)

4 dozen digestive biscuits. Oops! I just realized Digestives might not be in the American market. I've included the wiki link so you can figure out suitable alternatives.

¾ cup thick chocolate sundae syrup

1 square grated semi-sweet chocolate.

And here's what you do with the ingredients:

1. In a deep bowl, whip cream until fluffy. Reserve and refrigerate 1½ cups for the topping

2. In a large bowl, beat together the mascarpone, icing sugar, peppermint extract and food colouring. Stir in half of the remaining whipped cream, then gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream. NOT the reserved topping in the fridge.

3. In a shallow bowl combine the liqueurs (if using). Then immerse digestive biscuits one at a time into the liqueur mixture or chocolate milk; arrange biscuits in a single layer to cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish or trifle bowl, breaking the cookies to fit.

4. Brush the first layer of biscuits generously with the 1/3 of the chocolate topping. Layer with one third of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat with the remaining cookies, chocolate topping and mascarpone mixture to make more layers.

5. Spread the reserved whipped cream on top; Sprinkle with grated chocolate. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Makes about 15 servings.

I’ve made this recipe 3 times and it’s always well-received. It’s messy to make and you might be left with extra biscuits. I’ve only ever made it with the chocolate milk.

The silliest mistake I made was topping it with chocolate sprinkles which melted into a maroon-coloured mess that I had to hide under lashings of real grated chocolate.

I think it looks best in a glass bowl and the number of layers is really up to you. Whatever fits. I would imagine you could make a similar dish with strawberries or caramel. Maybe Cassis. or lemon curd. Hmmm.

It’s really rich and filling so one generous serving spoonful would suffice.

I hope you try it one day. It’s really good.