Strawberry Parfaits

The first time I made a dessert like this was for Saint Patrick’s day and the recipe called for Bailey’s Irish Cream, lots of actual cream and tons of sugar.  I dumped all the ingredients into the blender, which was an old fashioned, straight out of the 1980’s model, and gave it a whirl.

About 5 seconds into the blending, I realized that I needed to scrape down the sides.  Since I was totally crunched for time and completely stressed out about having people over for dinner, I decided I didn’t need to turn off the blender in order to do this.  I grabbed my handy spatula and carefully scraped till the ingredients were all well blended.

As I poured them into my dollar store champagne flutes to show off to my husband, I realized there were some green flecks dotting the pink pudding.

Was this a St. Patrick’s Day miracle?  Now that the snakes were all off the Emerald Isle, perhaps he had time to help would-be cooks whip up impressive desserts?  Was this divine intervention?

Upon further investigation though, we realized that it wasn’t so much divine as it was bits and pieces of the green spatula I had opted to use for the scraping.  Pretty and festive as it was, I decided not to poison everyone and had to dump the batch and start all over.

This version is a lot healthier, and also minus the bits and pieces of green plastic.

Ingredients:

• 1 large package of strawberries, washed and hulled
  

  The yellow “ice cube” is 1 Tablespoon of aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas)

• 6 Tablespoons monkfruit
• 4  teaspoons of arrowroot powder
• 1 Tablespoon cold water
• 1/2 cup aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas)
• 1 dozen extra strawberries for puree (or equivalent in raspberries- about double)

Directions:

1. Slice the strawberries and put them into a saucepan over medium heat with the monkfruit .  The monk fruit actually adds to the liquid content of the berries, so if you adjust that, you will need to adjust the amount of arrowroot.
2. Bring to a simmer and cook until berries are softened and breaking down and monk fruit is liquid.
3. Meanwhile, mix the arrowroot and water together to make a slurry, then add it to the berries and cook till mixture is thick (took me about a minute or two).  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. While the mixture is cooling, put the aquafaba into a stand mixer and whip on high till it resembles whipped egg whites.                                                                            
5. This can take about 10 – 15 minutes.  You can use a hand mixer, but it is definitely a bit of a challenge to hold the mixer that long.
6. Put the cooled strawberry mixture into a high speed blender and process till smooth.  Put into a bowl and add 1/2 cup of the whipped aquafaba. (The 1/2 cup of aquafaba liquid will yield a lot more than the 1/2 cup that you need, so you might want to double this recipe or make another recipe at the same time with the remaining aquafaba).
7. Gently fold in the aquafaba with  a spatula or large mixing spoon till both are combined. Do NOT beat or mix too vigorously.  The aquafaba will deflate a bit but shouldn’t become watery.
8. Cover mixture and refrigerate a few hours or overnight to let it firm up.
9. To make the parfait, puree the additional berries until smooth.  Spoon (or pipe) the strawberry mousse into the bottom of a parfait glass (I used appetizer glasses that are basically like tall shot glasses and filled 6 of them), then add a layer of the berry puree.  Top that with another layer of the mousse, then another layer of puree. End with a layer of mousse.  Top with whipped coconut cream and/or fresh berries.

Enjoy!