OK... so I see all these recipes all the time and so many are just over done... complicated... beautiful but daunting for the beginner and often just plain old time consuming. Me? I like to make complicated things sometimes... but I'm a firm believer that simpler is better!
When I found what was to eventually evolve into this recipe... it was too sweet and too complicated for a quick family week-night dessert.
SO I changed it. Made it less sweet and less complicated. And guess what? It's awesome!
So here is all you do...
(and i'm including variations so you can make it no matter what you have on hand!)
Crust
2 small packs of Italian butter cookies (or you can use 1-2 packs of graham crackers but REALLY try to find some of those Italian cookies!)
1 stick of butter = 113 grams
Melt butter and crush cookies into crumbs.
**to make crumbs... put cookies into a gallon size ziplock bag, squeeze all air out and seal. With a rolling pin roll and "crush" the cookies into crumbs.
In a standard baking/lasagna dish mix the crumbs and butter until all crumb is "buttered" and then
pat the crumb mix tightly and evenly across the bottom of the dish.
Put dish in the refrigerator while you mix the cream.
Cream
450 grams/1 lb of Mascarpone (or cream cheese if you must! mascarpone is lighter tho!)
150 grams/2/3 cup heavy cream
100 grams/3/4 cup powdered sugar
500 gr/1 lb of strawberries
Mix about a pound of Mascarpone cheese with heavy cream and powdered sugar.
Mash up about 8-10 strawberries (or really as much as you want!) then mix them in with the cream turning the cream a beautiful pale pink with little chunks of strawberry!
Spread this cream across the crumb crust.
Put back in the refrigerator.
Whip up remaining whipped cream (or as much as you want!-but I will say I like it best with a thicker strawberry cream and thin layer of whipped cream!)
Then spread across the strawberry cream.
Top with slices of strawberry in a decorative pattern.
Keep refrigerated.
Amazing with an espresso! It's the cream the coffee needs!
Be careful not to eat it all in one sitting!
OPTIONS
spread a layer of sliced strawberries between the crust and cream layer. I didn't do it this time because I didn't have enough strawberries! and it was still amazing!
substitute any other fruit- peaches, bananas, or any other berries! but if you use raspberries I would toss them with some honey before using as they can be a little tart and the honey brings out their sweetness without getting "too sweet"!
Enjoy!
Baci,
Dorina
IF YOU HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR... WOULD YOU PLEASE GO TO WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/DORINASKITCHEN AND HIT THE RED SUBSCRIBE BUTTON FOR ME? GRAZIE MILLE!!!