Box or Scratch? Pride or Substance? A Bavarian Cream Donut Trifle
June is our family’s Big Birthday month. We celebrate with one Big Party. One reason it’s my favorite celebration of the year is because the setting is outside. When they’re all outside – the boys and their girls, the grands – no one cares so much about the noise. The little ones’ energy doesn’t seem so big in outdoor spaces, and, maybe most importantly, with the cornhole and the impromptu wrestling or foot races, all these boys are more likely to linger longer. We don’t go from full plates straight to dessert. There’s fun and games and space to be exuberant in between. . . . a mama likes it when her family lingers.
One son likes Baklava. Another asked for a Shaker Lemon Pie. The little ones get a specially designed Muddy Cake. I asked one son, the one who married less than a month ago what he wanted. “Bavarian Cream Donuts from Ralphs,” he said. Since I don’t make donuts, and their birthday dessert needs to me Mom (or Muddy) made, we discussed Bavarian Cream Pies – and then a few days later, as I ruminated over what to do, I visualized a Bavarian Cream Donut Trifle.
My mind went back to the Tiramisu Trifle my aunt taught me to make years ago that used Sara Lee Pound cake. If Aunt Joyce used Sara Lee Pound cake instead of making it from scratch herself, then maybe, just maybe, I could, create a dessert to make my son smile. My mind swirled with thoughts about donuts, scratch-baking, and pride. I finally decided that I shouldn’t let pride get in the way of a good idea, so I called the donut shop. “Yes,” they said to my query. I could buy a dozen Bavarian cream-filled donuts without the cream center and the chocolate dipped exterior.
I was determined, though, to make the Bavarian cream from scratch. Research of the original Bavarian cream was disheartening. Authentic Bavarian cream is made with gelatin. One source said it should be firm and able to stand on its own outside the mold. The filling of our local donut shop’s Bavarian cream donut wasn’t like that at all. I also knew my son wouldn’t like the texture from the authentic recipe.
Still stirring through thoughts and ideas, I took a couple of the little grands to the donut shop one afternoon. Sitting on the stools around the counter, they slurped their carton milk. One ate a powdered donut and the other a sprinkle donut while I studied the Bavarian cream-filled donut.
My pride wrestled with itself again. To make the cream filling from scratch? Or from a box?
. . . in all the wondering, puzzling over pride and recipes, I remembered Nanny’s Banana Pudding. Everyone loved Nanny’s Banana Pudding. It’s my husband’s favorite – and a favorite of all the boys. One time when she came to visit, she wanted to make banana pudding for my husband. I got out a pan to make it from scratch – and she said, “No – you just need to pick up a box of Jell-O pudding.” I returned from the store with the Jell-O Stove-Top Vanilla Pudding. . . because stove-top is almost like homemade. . . right? Nanny said I didn’t need to work that hard. I learned in that moment that some short-cuts taste like Nanny’s love. I’ve made her Banana Pudding ever since. Nanny’s pudding tasted exactly like the Bavarian cream filling I was eating in the donut shop beside my grandsons. I thought this recipe just might need Nanny’s special touch.
One of the things I love about this recipe is all the threads lead back to people and places loved – my aunt, Nanny, even the donut shop where we take the grands on Friday afternoon school days.
There’s a place for from-scratch recipes – and a place for non-scratch solutions. Pride risks ruining outcomes – whether it’s a building project, a garden project, a science fair project, a birthday dessert project. Pride steps in front of the intended result, blindspotting my heart so I no longer work toward the original, intended goal. I start making decisions to please Pride’s set of criteria instead of the project pleasing the one it was designed for. It sounds like Pride wanting to hijack my heart’s intent. No, love sometimes doesn’t do it Pride’s way. It does it Loves way. . . and that’s a good thing!
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride,
but in humility consider others more important
than yourselves.”
~ Philippians 2:3
Bavarian Cream Donut Trifle Recipe
Ingredients:
One dozen Bavarian Cream Donuts without filling or chocolate covering
3 2/3Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
3 Cups Milk
1 Vanilla Bean
2 (5.1 ounce) Boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding
14 ounces chocolate chips
Directions:
Chocolate Ganache:
Place chocolate chips and 2/3 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream in a small saucepan over medium to low heat. When half the chips are melted, pull off the stove and stir until all the chips are melted and the ganache looks shiny. Let cool.
Bavarian Cream Mixture:
Empty the vanilla pudding mix into a bowl. Pour in 3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream and 3 Cups milk. Slice open and scrape the vanilla bean, adding all the scrapings to the pudding mixture. When thickened, set aside. Set aside 1/4 cup to fill the set-aside donut.
Donuts:
Set aside one donut for trifle topping, but cut the 11 other donuts into bite-sized pieces.
Putting Together the Trifle:
Layer 1:
Layer the bottom of the trifle bowl with half of the bite-sized cut-up pieces of the donuts.
Drizzle some chocolate ganache over the donuts (does not need to be comprehensive – just a drizzling).
Spoon 1/3 to 1/2 pudding on top of the ganache and donuts.
Layer 2:
Place the rest of the donut pieces over the vanilla pudding.
Spoon 1/3 to remaining half of pudding onto donut pieces (depending on size of trifle bowl)
Cover pudding layer with remaining chocolate ganache (Keep a tablespoon out for the remaining whole donut)
Fill the remaining whole donut with filling and spread the set-aside chocolate ganache over one side. Use it to top the Bavarian Cream Donut Trifle.
Refrigerate overnight or serve fresh.
We are so much alike! (Not merely the boy overload!) I have struggled with that particular pride–do I wage war over the gravy or just break down and but a jar? What will people THINK if they saw a cake mix in my house? (Horrors!)
But maybe it is the boy overload and because of them how our giftings evolved that has made us so alike! Would I be so into food if I had daughters? Definitely “food” for thought! LOL I am learning when I have no peace about what I’m doing, maybe I’m dealing in pride – and I need to change course – even if it’s a recipe change, a menu change or a bigger change. Shalom, my friend, in your week!
That is food for thought! Boy are always hungry, so it is a motivator to feed them. Ha!
I have been surprised because mine haven’t been those stereo-typical BIG eaters that eat you out of house and home.They are opinionated eaters, though – LOL!
Maryleigh, it was wonderful to hear of your ponderings, “There’s a place for from-scratch recipes and a place for non-scratch solutions. It does it loves way.” It is beautiful to hear of your “love” gifts to your children and grandchildren. Our big birthday month is April.
April must be such a fun month for celebrations -with the Easter Egg Hunt theme – so much built in goodness!
Looks and sounds delicious!
It was a fun baking journey!
Hi Maryleigh, great analogy. I am so jealous of your baking abilities and your ability to make everything look so pretty 🙂 Lol, I’m not green I promise, maybe inspired. Great post.
God bless
Tracy
I told my DIL the other day that I didn’t start cooking like this until my late 40s, 50s. Maybe I made a homemade crust once until two years ago. I had certain scratch-cake recipes that I used for birthdays, but nothing like today’s cakes. Icing? I bought icing until I did dress cookies for a shower for my niece over 10 years ago. Scones I’ve been doing since the mid-90s but those were plain with fruit on top, not inside. I think as my son’s tastes evolved – and the Martha Stewart show gave me confidence back in the day – that my cooking skills grew. If I’d had daughters, they probably wouldn’t be what they are today!
I’m so glad to see this, because I have wrestled with this and I have never seen anyone address it. I was a Home Economics Education major, and we weren’t allowed boxes or mixes in anything we made. I realized much later that some of those teachers probably did have Hamburger Helper in their pantries. 🙂 I realized that too often, doing everything “from scratch” was often a point of pride. Nowadays I do what’s easiest. 🙂 I like how this recipe had so many ties back to meaningful people and situations.
Maryleigh, this is just the sweetest post! I bet it didn’t matter at all that it wasn’t made from scratch as it was made with love which surely was the best part of all!
That looks and sounds like a wonderful dessert – and a sensible combination of homemade and shortcut. I haven’t often considered whether I am letting “pride and selfish ambition” motivate me when it comes to cooking and baking, mostly because I don’t like to cook, but I think I probably do sometimes. My desire to feed the people I love and to demonstrate my care for them does sometimes get mixed up with a sense of pride or wanting to kind of “show off” in the process. Good reminder to check my heart as I’m planning the menu or kneading the bread dough.
The trifle looks delicious!
I was really struck by this statement: “Pride risks ruining outcomes.” This is so true. It’s kind of like the adage that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Great reminder that I needed to hear this morning. Thanks!
Ahhh, Maryleigh, this post . . . It’s good to be aware of when pride is trying to hijack our hearts’ desire to bless one we love. I’ve been the one that is too concerned about making things perfect, and from scratch, when really, what my loved one wanted was something simpler. I am good at making things more work than they need to be. Thanks for the reminder that something from a box (or a shop) is okay, because it’s going to bless the one we’re making it for.
One year, my son wanted donuts. No chocolate chocolate brownies or fancy cake. Just donuts. So, I bought plenty and then arranged them pretty on the plate and stuck in candles. He loved it.
By the way, I like your “new” site. New to me anyway. 😉
Oh my gosh. I always get so hungry when I visit you LOL. Oh if I could be so talented as to make goodies as you do. Visiting from #4&5
#5 has the link to my newly launched link up Sweet Tea & Friends.
Your desserts always look amazing and I would never know if you made them completely from scratch or not. I love the lesson of pushing aside our pride. It is one I need to embrace more fully in my life.