With a busy schedule at the moment, sometimes when I’m invited to dinner and of course being a chef, I feel ought to take something along with me.  However, transporting food often discounts the very creative ideas and lack of time can also be an issue.

So I decided to make  an Italian Chocolate Trifle, a recipe I first put together for my newspaper column years ago but good chocolate desserts never go out of fashion.
I was really pleased with result. It had to be very chocolatey but not too sweet. I also experimented with different types of meringue, even poaching some in vanilla milk similar to a dish called floating island. In the end I decided to keep it simple and easy to transport.

Ingredients serves 6-8 (you will need a glass bowl about 22cm diameter)
6 large egg yolks
250 grams amaretti biscuits
225 grams Quality Dark Chocolate (70%)
Juice of one large orange
75 grams hazelnuts ground
60 grams castor sugar
250 ml Double cream
550 ml milk
2 Tablespoon custard powder or corn flour
2 Tablespoons Brandy
1 Tablespoon Amaretto (Almond Liquor)
4 small meringue or shells or stars

1. Reserve 4 amarretti biscuits for the top of the trifle then soak the remaining biscuits in the Brandy, Amarretto and orange juice.
2.  Make a few chocolate curls to decorate with then melt the remaining chocolate.
3. Whisk the egg yolks with 60 g of caster sugar for 3-4 minutes.
4. In a medium size bowl mix the corn flour or custard powder with 50 ml of milk into a smooth paste.
5. In a non-stick saucepan bring to the boil the remaining milk, then pour onto the corn flour paste whisking briskly.
6. Whisk in the egg yolk mix then return to the heat in a non-stick saucepan and cook on a medium heat until thickened stirring constantly.
7. Place saucepan in a sink filled with 1-2 inches of cold water and continue to stir for 1-2 minutes and leave to cool.
8. In a cold clean bowl whisk up the double cream to a soft peak stage and reserve (it is important to the finished texture not to over whip the cream.
9. Once your egg custard is luke warm then fold  the melted chocolate quickly.

Assemble
In a decorative glass bowl spoon half of the cream then top with half of the soaked biscuits. Pour 1/2 of the chocolate custard. Sprinkle half the hazelnuts then repeat the layers, finishing with the custard.

If you are transporting your trifle then take the Amarreti biscuits, four small meringue stars, chocolate curls and cocoa powder and assemble when you get there. Finish with a dusting of  cocoa powder and sprinkle the centre with the chocolate curls.

Here is a photo of the bowl I used.

For American Readers
Corn flour is Corn Starch
Double Cream is Heavy Cream