I never had much of a relationship with trifle growing up, I suppose because our mothers are the heart of our early food experiences and my mother, being a bit of a purist, never warmed to trifle. <br />However my mother did make syllabub.  Her version had chestnut puree and rum stirred into it and was always served with crunchy amaretti.  And although she hasn’t made it for years it stays with me as one of those special stolen treats when as small children we raided the dinning room the morning after a grownup feast. <br />I like to make syllabub in a more traditional way (Elizabeth David published a wonderful history of syllabubs and trifles), with lemon juice and alcohol.  The alcohol content a little depends on what I have around and various things work well.  Recently I had a bottle of amaretto to finish off so used that and found it wonderful. <br />I think syllabub does need something crunchy with it, and my favourite coupling is crunchy bite sized meringues. However all sorts of other things are good crunch providers like brittle, any cookies, toasted nuts etc etc. <br /> My meringue method is an amalgamation of various different techniques from Sally Clarke, Chez Panisse, Darina Allen and Baker and Spice in London.

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