No-Fuss summer desserts
In partnership with our friends from Maple Hill
All our favorite summer desserts have one important thing in common: they can be made without turning on the oven. No matter how much we love the idea of summer fruit baked in pies and shoemaking, preheating the oven to 375 ° F when it approaches three-digit weather outside interrupts work. We’ll leave those baked treats for fall and winter.
The best summer desserts are cold and refreshing, whether frozen, chilled or mixed with ice and frozen fruit. And reckless – do you want to do something with seventeen steps when you’re already sweating?
Trifle formula
One treat to which we return again and again is a trifle. The traditional English delicacy often served on Christmas may not sound like the epitome of summer lightness, but the case is strong: the little thing is basically just cream, cake, fruit and whipped cream, nicely layered and left to cool so all flavors and textures are merge – somehow becoming more than the sum of its parts in the process. It’s a simple formula that’s easy to play with.
Cream
Making homemade cream (or cream paste) can be a task involved. Instant pudding works well and is convenient, but is sweet in pain. Our move is to rely on our old friend chia seeds. Chia pudding is as simple as instant pudding, and we managed to make it feel more dessert using high quality milk. That’s why we love New organic milk Maple Hill Zero Sugar. It is whole milk, so chia pudding gives a rich and decadent texture to a traditional cream. And it’s ultrafiltered to remove all the sugar so you can control the sweetness of your trifle (sometimes we add a little maple syrup or coconut sugar, but usually fruits and cakes give enough sweetness).
To make the pudding a little tastier, we enrich the milk with frozen fruit before combining it with chia seeds. Just freeze the frozen fruit and milk in a strong blender and it adds an intense flavor and color without diluting the pudding. So much frozen fruit is available. We like to combine our frozen and fresh fruits – so if we’re going to layer fresh strawberries, we’ll use freeze-dried strawberries for milk. But you can certainly mix that up.
Cream
We love the classic whipped cream made from scratch, and we usually add a little vanilla. You can sweeten it, and if you are not cooking for children, you can also add a drop of aromatic liqueur – cassia, framboaz, Calvados or brandy.
Stake
This is definitely one of those moments that can be bought at the store. Pound biscuits, biscuit, angel cake – they all work. You can certainly make your own, but we said we didn’t turn on the oven. In addition, the cake is eventually soaked in pudding, cream and fruit, so it should not be too valuable in terms of its integrity. Another idea: Use cookies. Ginger and vanilla and chocolate wafer buttons absorb moisture in the little things and become tender and sticky; just let it harden a little longer in the fridge.
Fruits
You can go any way here. They work all kinds of berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries), pitted cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, bananas, even supremed oranges. For simplicity, we use the fruit as it is, but you could macerate it by adding a little maple syrup or coconut sugar, and you could use that as an opportunity to introduce some extra flavors. Almond extract, lemon zest, cardamom, vanilla or even a touch of rose water could add an extra dimension.
How to put together your little thing
It is flexible, adaptable and very forgiving.
Prepare
four elements
trifles
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1Chia pudding should be put in the fridge a bit, so start here: To make fortified milk, combine about ½ cup of frozen fruit with about 1½ cup of milk (we love organic Maple Hill Zero Sugar milk) in a blender and blitz until smooth. Combine the fruit milk with about ¼ cup of chia seeds and whisk well to combine. Taste, and if you want a little sweeter, add a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup or coconut sugar. Let stand in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes, until thickened.
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2Cut fresh fruit. If you want to cover a mile and macerate it with some of the above delicious elements, now is the time.
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3Cut the cake into pieces – larger if you do one large trifle in a glass jar, smaller if you make individual portions (Mason jars of 8 ounces are nice for this). At this point, you can also apply a layer of jam on the cake for extra flavor – we like fruit jam that is not overly sweet. If you use cookies, take them out and prepare to start layering.
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4Make whipped cream. Just add heavy whipped cream to our permanent mixer and beat on high heat until soft peaks appear, then reduce the mixer speed to low and lightly beat in a drop of vanilla.
Put the little thing together
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1Add a layer of cake or cookie to the bottom of the pan (jam down, if using).
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2Add a layer of chia pudding.
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3Add a layer of fruit.
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4Add a layer of whipped cream.
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5Repeat the process until you fill the bowl, finishing with a layer of whipped cream. Then pour over a few pieces of fruit for decoration. Adding something crunchy – like toasted coconut, sliced almonds or cocoa buns – to the top is another nice addition, though again completely optional.
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6Leave the trifle to cool in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours before serving.
Another cool treat
A worthwhile summer project: go through every dessert on our list.
summer sips
For the front porch, rear deck, by the pool …
Creamy pleasures
Ever so gently crossing the line between rich and bright.
Banana Bliss
If you don’t have some kind of frozen banana candy, is it summer too?
For chocolate
The lover in your life
Mandatory chocolate moment.
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