When I was little my mama used to make a recipe she called Southern Trifle. Full of bananas, whipped cream, vanilla pudding and wafer cookies, mama’s Southern Trifle is one of those recipes that even after having not had it for years, I can still taste.
However, as of late, Collin Murray and I are watching our waistlines — it’s hard to be a skinny chef especially when most of the recipes from Baking Vintage end up on my hips. So I consulted with my mama and she made some suggestions as to how to lighten up her infamous Southern Trifle.
Skinny Southern Trifle fits into the realm of what I call a ice-box dessert because you need not turn on an oven to make it, you simply assemble the dessert and pop it into the fridge to “marinate”. As the trifle sits, the cookies soften and the bananas firm up and my-oh-my do the flavors meld together well. Honestly, this is the perfect thing to make on a warm, almost-summer day, and how fantastic is it that you don’t have to even turn on the oven?
I made this recipe in a large bowl, but if you’re feeling classy, you can easily make this dessert in individual dishes for a fetching presentation at the end of a lovely summer barbecue.
And finally, as a disclaimer, please don’t judge the contents of this recipe for I promise that the combination of Cool-Whip, instant fat-free vanilla pudding and store-bought cookies makes for a trifecta of deliciousness. It may not look fancy-pants but it is totally scrumptious and figure-friendly too…
Skinny Southern Trifle (inspired by my Mama)
Serves 6
1 package Jello fat-free instant vanilla pudding
2 cups skim milk
1-1litre tub 95% fat-free Cool Whip, thawed
1 box Nilla Wafers
6-8 bananas, sliced into ¼ inch disks
In a large bowl, combine the pudding mix with the skim milk, whisk till smooth and allow to set, approximately five minutes. Gently fold in ¾ of the tub of the Cool Whip.
In a large serving bowl, spread a small amount of the pudding mixture on the bottom, top with a layer of bananas and a layer of Nilla Wafers. Continue in this pattern, ending with the banana layer. Top with the remaining Cool Whip.
Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving. Enjoy!
This is a vintage-inspired recipe…somewhere in some cookbook from England that I don’t yet have in my possession, there is a recipe for a Strawberry Eton Mess.
The concept is quite simple: whipped cream + sugar + chopped strawberries + crumbled meringues = Eton Mess. Though my recipe gives specific amounts, I never measure when I make this dessert. I like lots and lots of meringue, so I add lots and lots. I also like lots of strawberries. If you prefer less, add less — it’s one of those recipes that begs for making it your
It is one of Collin Murray’s favorties…are you getting the picture that a lot of recipes are Collin Murray favorites – it’s a correct picture my friends; it’s his cross to bear in life, a wife that’s a pastry chef and food blogger.
In the summer, I make Eton Mess with fresh peaches, plums or apricots (another Collin Murray fav) and I have to tell you that it is a great warm weather dessert. However, it is also a great dessert to have when you don’t have a lot of time because it comes together literally in minutes and is always mouth-wateringly good. Oh. And it’s gluten-free! Oh, Oh! And it’s kind of festive, royal wedding having just taken place and all. (Yes, I watched. Yes, I cried. Yes, I like to make festive desserts on festive occasions…)
Strawberry Eton Mess (inspired by The Brits)
Serves 2, generously
1 cup heavy cream
8 to 10 strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
¼ to ½ cup meringues, (home-made or store-bought) crumbled
In a large bowl that has been refrigerated, whip heavy cream to soft peaks. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and continue whipping till you’ve achieved stiff peaks.
Wash and de-stem strawberries. Cut into small chunks and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar.
Fold strawberries into whipped cream. Carefully spoon “the mess” into parfait glasses or bowls. Sprinkle with crumbled meringue. Serve cold and enjoy.
I’m in love with Greek Yogurt. Collin Murray’s great but Greek yogurt is better…just kidding.
Greek yogurt, which is thicker and is healthier than your regular yogurt tastes brilliant and is a great multi-tasker in the kitchen. It’s just what a baker needs to balance out all the butter, cream, and ahem, buttercream.
The original recipe for these parfaits, which I should tell you are so easy that I’m embaressed, called for sour cream. I figured that there was no better way to modernize the recipe then to use one of the hippest and most of-the-moment ingredients: Greek Yogurt.
Though I used canned cherry pie filling to layer between the Greek yogurt mixture you could use any kind of pie filling, fruit compote, or lemon curd. If you wanted, to make this more of a breakfast dish, you could easily add into the layers or on top, your favorite granola.
Cherry and Greek Yogurt Parfait (adapted from America’s Favorite Recipes from Better Homes and Gardens)
(makes 4 to 6 – 8 ounce parfaits)
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup Greek yogurt
520mL can cherry pie filling
In a large bowl, whip heavy cream with sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fold in the Greek yogurt.
In a parfait glass, carefully layer the Greek yogurt mixture with the cherry pie filling: begin with the yogurt, end with the cherry pie filling. Serve chilled. Enjoy.
The more I delve into my vintage cookbook collection, the more I find that there were definitive trends throughout the different decades. In the fifties, people seemed to have liked using a pre-measured cake yeast – I still have yet to discover exactly what this measurement was. In the 1960′s, there are absolutely tons of recipes that used boxed mixes and evaporated milk in place of quick mix cakes or whipping cream; however, it is the ingredient that peppers the pages of my books from the 1970′s that delights me the most: marshmallows.
White, fluffy, full of gelatin, and sugar, how could you go wrong?
My guess is that people just weren’t so into baking with gelatin in the seventies and so they turned to marshmallows to set their parfaits, jello salads, and puddings. I’m not really so offended by the extreme use of marshmallows, I kind of adore them actually which is why I fell in love with this recipe for Coffee Mallow Parfaits. Well…that and the recipe has a name that really delighted me.
This is likely the easiest of the recipes that I’ve tested and posted on Baking Vintage thus far and honestly, it is truly delicious. Though there is extra time for cooling and setting needed in the recipe, it comes together remarkably quickly, has a classy presentation and it tastes just like a really delectable coffee-infused chocolate bar.
If you wanted to spice things up a little, you could add subtract a tablespoon of water and add a tablespoon of Bailey’s or Kahlua to the marshmallow, coffee, water mixture; similarly, you could also add crushed Skor or Heath bar pieces to the crushed cookie mixture.
Coffee Mallow Parfaits (adapated from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
Makes 4 to 6-8 ounce parfaits
24 jumbo marshmallows
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 cup of water
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
½ cup to 1 cup crushed chocolate wafers
In a medium saucepan combine marshmallows, coffee granules, and water. Allow mixture to heat up and for the marshmallow to disintegrate – the liquid will be just slightly translucent and seem quite thin but letting the mixture cool 30 to 40 minutes, will allow it to thicken and begin to set.
After whipping heavy cream into stiff peaks, gently fold the cream into the coffee and marshmallow mixture. Chill for 20 minutes.
In a 8-ounce parfait glass, spoon in the coffee marshmallow mixture so that the mixture come up about an inch. Spoon the crushed wafers on top of the coffee marshmallow mixture. Repeat this process ending with the coffee marshmallow mixture and allow to set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Garnish with whipped cream or a sprinkling of the crushed wafers. Serve chilled.
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