Experimental Food: Eggnog Pear Trifle

It all started with a bowl from Ikea and an occasion for dessert: Christmas dinner with friends. I was thinking about trifle to begin with, and then found a recipe for eggnog pound cake on Pinterest. Eggnog trifle sounded heavenly, and I figured I could use eggnog to make the custard and double the fun. I was stuck for a bit thinking about what to use as the fruit layer, and then thought of pears. I asked Google, and lo and behold - someone else had thought of the same combination! So I borrowed her recipe and tweaked it.

I don't really use cake mixes, so I started with the America's Test Kitchen recipe for pound cake, substituting eggnog for 2 of the 4 eggs required. I think next time I might just go ahead and make a full substitution for added flavour.

I was really not impressed with the pastry cream recipe; it ended up quite thick and lumpy, and was generally difficult to work with. I found it too thick to strain though a sieve, so I heated and added around 2 cups of eggnog and 1/4 cup butter to thin it out, and then strained the mixture through cheesecloth to get the larger lumps out. The resulting cream had great flavour (it was a bit faint before that extra eggnog) and worked really well, but I think that some adjustments could make for an easier and less frustrating result.

I used Bosc pears for a really lovely texture and substituted spiced rum for the brandy in the poaching liquid (it seemed like a better pairing for the eggnog flavours). Because I served the trifle as one dish instead of individual servings, I chopped all of the pears, using rings only as a garnish for the top. And voila! Here is the result:
 

It ended up being a bit more work than I thought it would be, but with a few modifications, I think this will be a nice addition to my holiday recipe rotation. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Update: My mom pointed out that I didn't actually say how it turned out. Everyone at the party loved it! The pears were really lovely, and all of the components blended really well together. Experimental food success!