Apricot Almond Trifles

The Sous Chef and I were invited to a party this weekend.  T-2 hours and of course I decided that I wanted to make a dessert.  I remembered a recipe I had made before from Everyday Italian by Giada DeLaurentiis.  I wasn't going to make the exact same recipe, but I wanted to use similar ingredients.  So I ran to the grocery store and picked up a few items: pound cake, whipping cream, apricot preserves, almond extract, and sliced almonds.  In just a few minutes, I had some delicious, individually-sized desserts to hand out.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.  Just as I was securing my teeny tiny trifles in the back seat, the heavens opened up and let loose a veritable flood of rain.  There would be no traveling to Virginia for us that night.  We stayed local and ended up handing off the desserts to a couple of friends who braved the storms to come meet us (though I think that the promise of apricot almond trifles was pretty convincing, regardless of the weather).  I felt like a sad Santa Claus; disappointed that my original plan didn't work out, but pleased that at least someone could enjoy the treats I had made.

Apricot Almond Trifles
(Total time: 15 minutes. Makes 12 individually-sized trifles. Inspired by Giada DeLaurentiis' "Toasted Pound Cake with Mascarpone and Amaretto" from her book Everyday Italian)

• 1 pound cake, sliced length-wise into slices a little less than 1/2-inch thick
• 1 cup apricot preserves
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 sliced almonds
• Almond extract

1. In a small bowl, combine the apricot preserves with 1 tsp almond extract.  Taste and add more extract if needed - the almond taste should come through, but not so much as to overwhelm the apricot flavor.  Set aside.
2. Using a hand mixer (or a wire whisk if you're hard core), whip the cream until firm peaks form (a.k.a. right before it turns into butter).  Add two large spoonfuls of apricot preserves mixture to the whipped cream.  Fold in carefully until just combined.  Taste and add more preserves if necessary.  Set aside.
3. Take a small biscuit cutter (approximately 1 3/4-inch diameter) and cut small rounds out of the sliced pound cake.
4. Layer the trifles like so: pound cake, preserves, pound cake, whipped cream mixture, sliced almonds.  *Note: I served these in small five-ounce clear plastic cups, since they were going to travel, but they also stand up nicely on their own if you're serving them at home, especially if they have some time to firm up in the refrigerator.
5. Enjoy!

I love the small size of these - the perfect amount to get two nice spoonfuls.  Enough for a taste, but not so much as to ruin your calorie count for the day!

Eat well.