There is a little patch of wild strawberries in the front yard, and they’re all in blossom. No berries yet, but they made me eager to have a strawberry dessert tonight, so we ran into town and picked up ingredients. Oh, and stuff for dinner too, but I was pretty much focused on the after part.
This is a sort of trifle-inspired rich parfait made with whipped cream and mascarpone, and served with a cookie on the side instead of as part of the dessert – I couldn’t find any sponge cookies, so I found an excuse to use our favourite butter wafers (Josh even has them linked on the front page of halfnixon.com). I looked up different recipes for fruit tarts or trifles on my three favourite food blogs, and found a quick and simple recipe for a Strawberry Coulis from Clothilde that I modified to use honey and a little Chambord – with a touch of lemon juice to balance out the honey.
Strawberry Parfait
Makes six servings. It’s very delicately sweetened, so if you want a little extra punch, you might sweeten the coulis and the mascarpone with sugar to taste instead of honey.
Strawberry Coulis
1 pint of strawberries – reserve 9 strawberries for garnish
2 tbsp. honey
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp. water
dash of Chambord
Dice strawberries and add to saucepan with all ingredients. Simmer over low heat for twenty or thirty minutes – until the strawberries have released their juice and the mixture has reduced somewhat. Puree the mixture and chill.
Honey Mascarpone Layer
1/2 c. mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
Mix ingredients together by hand or briefly puree. Set aside and chill.
Raspberry Whipped Cream
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream (you can substitute a lighter whipping cream for this, the dessert is pretty rich and won’t miss it)
1 tsp Chambord
1 tbsp. Strawberry Coulis
Whip ingredients using food processor with whipping attachment, or hand mixer, until cream holds its shape. Follow the same instructions separately with the ingredients below. Chill both flavours.
Honey Whipped Cream
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. honey (maybe a little more to taste)
Halve the nine reserved strawberries and line the bottoms of six parfait cups with three strawberry halves each. Drop a spoonful of mascarpone in the center of each parfait cup, then a layer of strawberry coulis, then a layer of raspberry whipped cream, more coulis, and top with sweetened whipped cream and a sprig of mint.
I really think this would be even better with a few of the butter crisps crumbled and used in between layers – yummy buttery crunch.