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Watermelon-Rose Trifle
![Watermelon-Rose Trifle](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/05/05/magazine/05mag-eat-slideshow-slide-NHZH/05mag-eat-slideshow-slide-NHZH-articleLarge.png?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1¼ hours, plus 1 hour chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1small seedless watermelon (about 3½ pounds)
- 1tablespoon rose water
- 2tablespoons granulated sugar
- Cooking spray
- 1½cups/185 grams blanched whole or slivered almonds
- 1¼cups/155 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 5egg whites
- ⅔cup/135 grams granulated sugar
- 2cups/475 milliliters heavy cream
- ¼cup/50 grams granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon rose water
- 2cups/300 grams fresh strawberries, thickly sliced
- 2tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon rose water
- 1tablespoon pistachios, sliced
- 1tablespoon organic dried rose petals
For the Watermelon
For the Almond Dacquoise
For the Rose Cream
To Assemble
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the watermelon: Use a serrated knife to carefully remove the watermelon rind, then cut the watermelon into ½-inch-thick slices. Transfer slices to a wire rack. Sprinkle rose water and sugar on top, and let the fruit macerate for about 30 minutes. Pat dry on both sides with paper towels, and cut into 2-inch pieces.
- Step 2
Prepare the almond dacquoise: Heat the oven to 400. Line a 13-by-18-inch baking sheet with parchment paper; grease the top of the parchment paper with cooking spray. Put the almonds in a food processor, and process until finely ground. Transfer 1 cup ground almonds to a medium bowl, and stir in the confectioners’ sugar. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high until soft peaks form, about 90 seconds, then gradually add the granulated sugar and continue beating until the mixture is stiff and shiny, about 2 minutes. Fold in the almond mixture, transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet, and spread out in an even layer. Bake until light golden, about 10 to 15 minutes, then set aside to cool.
- Step 3
Prepare the rose cream: In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the cream and sugar on medium until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Add the rose water, and continue whipping just until the mixture forms stiff peaks, another 1 or 2 minutes.
- Step 4
Invert the dacquoise onto a cutting board, then peel off and discard the parchment paper. If the outer edges of the dacquoise have browned and are crisp, trim them off (to snack on!). Cut the cake into 2-inch squares. Use about half the cake pieces to cover the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Spread ⅓ of the rose cream over the cake, then scatter with half the ground almonds. Add watermelon pieces to cover (you can eat any watermelon that remains after this), then sprinkle with the remaining ground almonds. Spread half the remaining rose cream over the watermelon, and top with remaining cake pieces. Finish with all the rose cream, and place in the fridge to firm up for at least 1 hour (or up to overnight).
- Step 5
Just before serving, mix the strawberries, sugar and rose water in a medium bowl. Scatter on top of the cake, and sprinkle with pistachios and rose petals. To serve, scoop the trifle into bowls.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
It's difficult to imagine that the watermelon doesn't make this entire dish soupy if it sits for any length of time. Can anyone who tries it describe the texture? Thanks!
Comments more telling than the recipe! A 2010 Cooking article about rosewater by John Willoughby featured a recipe for Moroccan Carrot Salad including it. Acquired a bottle & used less than the called-for tablespoon--which rendered the otherwise yummy salad almost inedible. Online or on the ground, rosewater's easy enough to find--but do so at your peril, using an eyedropper! Eton Mess, BTW, = a 3-ingredient delight: whipped cream, crushed meringues, raspberries: Simplicity's the way to go.
For anyone fortunate enough to have scented roses growing organically in their yard, consider making your own rose cream: lightly wash the petals from 3-5 roses, heat but do not boil the heavy cream, immerse the petals and cool. Strain the petals out and whip the cream. Oh, and candy a few fresh petals as garnish. I suggest President Lincoln, or any very highly scented David Austin rose-- but with true Damask or European rose flavor, not tea roses or musk scented.
It would be great if some people who have actually made the recipe could comment on how it came out!
Made this today. Wow. It should be said, you really need to like the flavor of rosewater (which I do!). It's not overpowering, but will leave people who may never have tried a dish with rosewater asking "What IS that flavor??" This is a gamechanger for a summer dessert. Two enthusastic thumbs up. (Making this does require quite a lot of dishes, but with something so delicious, who cares!!)
It does stay firm because everything is chilled (and honestly it does not last long) and there is enough division between the watermelon and the cream which prevents it from going very mushy. Hope it helps.
I tried my own riff on this leaving out the almond dacquoise and most of the sugar. It was a delicious, low sugar dessert with complex flavors. I put 1 in thick watermelon slices the shape of some parfait cups in the bottom of the cups, spread a few drops of rose water on each one then topped with rose water whipped cream (scant 3 T sugar/pint). I topped with sliced strawberries, drops of rose water, salted pistachios and a tiny pinch of mint, topping with watermelon triangle. Everyone loved it.
If you can't buy rosewater directly, buy organic, dried rose petals and make a hot rose tea then let cool. That's basically rosewater. You can buy organic dried rosewater from several online retailers.
The watermelon doesn’t make it soupy. I haven’t compared this recipe to the original, which you can find online at the Gourmet Traveller website. The cake is a delight to eat and easy to make (comes out very close to what you buy at Black Star). Not convinced about it in trifle form, sorry, especially since the original recipe is easy enough to reproduce.
Make sure you use food grade rose water, not the cosmetic sort.
Can I substitute almond flour for the blanched almonds? I'm assuming that processing the blanched almonds is basically making them into almond flour.
As an Australian, I am very perplexed by this recipe. I am across cooking and restaurant trends in Sydney, and I am not at all sure that this is a general favourite. I hope people enjoy it - I will be making it with a lot less rosewater as, to my taste, I find even a little overpowers.
I get mine at a local Middle Eastern grocery. If they're out, I go Amazon...but be sure to get food grade, since most of the best sellers are for skin...search "rose water for baking" under "grocery and gourmet foods" for good options.
I made this twice in two weeks! Such a hit! I used almond flour instead of ground almonds which worked wonderfully. And I made it in an upright trifle dish which shows off the beautiful colors much more. Because I had an extra layer, I used more heavy whipping cream, about 3.5 cups in total; all other ingredient amounts were still perfect.
My local Walmart has Rosewater which is kinda funny as it usually doesn't have some of the basics I buy there on a regular basis !
Save yourselves some energy and work. Use finely ground almond flour, which is easily found in any grocery store, instead of grinding whole or slivered almonds.
I don’t like rose water. Any suggestions for a substitute?
That’s a LOT of rosewater - and I am a person who really likes rosewater. I would cut it back to a teaspoon or less at each stage for the uninitiated. Then taste and add more if you think it necessary.
For people asking about this being too watery: I assembled this per the instructions and immediately served it and the texture was absolutely perfect (though my cake was on the softer side). Popped it in the fridge and an hour later served some more and it was a teeeeensy bit watery; the next day, however, it was fairly soggy. I would not recommend trying to keep this is the fridge in advance of serving, just try to serve immediately. Re: the rose water being overpowering--not at all.
This was just OK. I pulled the dacquoise from the oven when it was light golden, per the instructions, but it was still VERY soft and gummy. It was very messy to work with and the final trifle was extremely mushy around a firm layer of watermelon. Also, the dacquoise didn't quite make 2 layers, I would think 1.5x the recipe is needed. I eased back a little on the rosewater in all elements and was glad I did, and I subbed raspberries for strawberries, which are out of season.
This was delicious. I used a rose water from an Indian store so not weirdly perfumed or too strong. Delicious. My son said it was like flavor bomb had gone off in his mouth
This was a hit! That dacquoise was excellent. Was an easy GF dessert. The rose adds a lightness to the cream and with the watermelon makes for a lovely summer dessert. Note: I assembled 3 hours before brunch guests came taking the comments about sogginess into consideration. However, that was a non-issue when we ate it again after dinner - it was still fantastic!
Yeah this is awesome. I decided to not use any rose flavor because my family doesn’t really love floral flavors and minimized some of the sugar. However, it turned out amazing. Very light and sweet. The perfect summer dessert and my new favorite :)
The people wanting to use orange flower water instead: I have not tried it in this recipe but can say, it’s EXTREMELY strong. Add it by the drop, tasting as you go. Unless you want an inedible soap brick.
I made this recipe. I made it three years ago for a birthday party and loved. Beautiful plating. Surprised to see it listed as a recipe for potlucks. I kept it in the fridge. Items to consider: 1) Do let the watermelon drain. Tricky, but prevents "soupy mess" mentioned by someone who did not make (read?) the recipe. 2) Not everyone likes the flavor of rosewater. I found it intriguing. 3) GF. Not for me, but happy coincidence. 4) Lotta work. Gathering ingreds+bake+build. Enjoy!
I made the recipe. Wonderful!! The texture is not too soupy ( I was concerned about it, too), similar to Tiramisu; but with more floating "building blocks" . It needs to be served fresh. My tweaks for improved outcome: 1. TWO Dacquoise layers (double recipe). 2. Less rose water on melons, but a bit of sugar 3. Adding 1 TBS sieved starch to whipped cream, makes it more stiff. 4. Building Trifle with that extra Dacquoise layer in middle. 5. Essential to cut dough layer before assembling
I feel that this isn’t the way to make almond dacquoise. I hadn’t made it before this recipe, but I have made pavlova and angel food cake successfully several times. I subbed the sugar with superfine sugar and sifted the almond flour and powdered sugar together before adding. But I feel like this cake needs to be cooked for longer at a lower temperature and might be better piped on the pan. I like the flavors of this dish, but the dacquoise was a disaster. I might use another recipe for that.
I was a little nervous about this recipe because I've never made a dacquoise before and the comments seemed ambivalent wrt the rose water. However, all the components came together wonderfully and the rose whipped cream was to DIE for. The watermelon and the strawberries worked really nicely too! I made it in the morning for my grandfather's birthday but we had some surprise guests in the afternoon for tea and they also praised it to high heaven. :)
We love Black Star and really enjoyed this. Tip: add 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar in during the meringue step for a more stable dacquoise. Serve soon after assembly or the cream may start to lose its form due to the weight of the layers on top of it. Some gelatin to stabilize should help with that. If you make it the night before, keep the components separate (cream in the fridge, dacquoise in the freezer), then assemble the next day. A multisize square cake tin can be helpful for assembly
Fabulous - and guests called afterwards asking for the recipe, which I had changed a bit. I used exactly the rosewater amount; found it delicious & subtle, perfect - but the daquoise is a bit too sweet. I left out the watermelon’s sugar and halved the cream’s sugar and it was borderline. Next time I’ll put less sugar in the daquoise
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