Apple trifle recipe

This toffee apple crumble trifle is the ideal dessert for winter. Top with cream, whipped into soft peaks, calvados, and icing sugar before serving.

This recipe takes a classic apple crumble recipe (opens in new tab) and gives it a luxurious twist into a mouthwatering apple trifle.  Smokey and warming, it's the best thing to have after a filling roast dinner to get you in the seasonal spirit. The incredible toffee flavour comes from the muscovado sugar, vanilla paste, and cinnamon, combined together perfectly throughout the baking process.

Ingredients

For the crumble:

• 40g butter
• 25g light muscovado sugar
• 75g plain flour
• Pinch cinnamon

For the trifle:

• 200g maderia cake
• 3tbsp calvados
• 4tbsp apple juice
• 50g butter
• 6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thickly
• 5tbsp light muscovado sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tsp vanilla paste
• 500g pot vanilla custard
• 2tsp cornflour mixed with 3tbsp milk
• 300ml double cream
• 1-2tbsp calvados
• 2tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/gas 4. Whisk together butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Whisk in the flour and cinnamon, press the mixture together loosely, then scatter chunks onto a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Cool.
2. Put the cake in the base of a large trifle dish, drizzle with calvados and apple juice and leave to soak. Melt butter in a large frying pan, add apple slices and cook over a high heat until golden, add sugar, cinnamon and vanilla paste and stir to dissolve. Leave to cool, then spoon over the cake.
3. In a saucepan, heat custard and cornflour mixture until thickened and bubbling, stirring. Cool for 10 mins before pouring over the apples. Chill for at least 2 hours.
4. Whip cream to soft peaks, add calvados and icing sugar and whip briefly to combine, spoon over the custard and chill until ready to serve. Scatter over the crumble pieces before serving.

Top tips for making toffee apple crumble trifle:

If your crumble is feeling a little too dry and crumbly (even more than it should be), add some melted butter. By adding a tablespoon at a time, it helps to bring out the brown crispiness of the topping.

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