Cheese, for Dessert?

Top., originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

Alright so this post is nearly two weeks in the making. When we had cheese night I decided we needed something sweet for dessert, and it only seemed appropriate to have a cheese related dessert. I've watched enough food tv, especially Everyday Italian (the girl likes Mascarpone), to whip something up sans a recipe. I already had some whipping cream on hand, I also had strawberries, all I needed was some Mascarpone and something cruncy and sweet to pull my idea together.

What I came up with was a layered dessert that featured a mixture of whip cream folded into a sweet vanilla bean mascarpone, layered with sweet strawberries, and a mixture of two different kinds of cookies, chocolate and almond.

This dessert is light, extremely delicious, and because there are so many layers it has an amazing but cohesive complexity. It's like a party in your mouth!

Recipe: Layered Mascarpone Dessert

Ingredients:

1 double chocolate cookie 1 almond cookie crumbled
8 oz. of mascarpone
4 oz. cream
6 Tablespoons of Vanilla Sugar
25 strawberries sliced and sugared

For mascarpone cream:

1. Whip cream with 3 TBL of vanilla sugar. Transfer to a medium sized bowl.
2. Whip mascarpone with the remaining 3 TBL of vanilla sugar until light and fluffy (appx. 5 minutes)
3. Gently fold whip cream into mascarpone.
4. Put mixture into a piping bag.

Assemble:

1. Pipe layer of mascarpone into bottom of champagne or martini glass.
2. Top with layer of strawberry slices.
3. Pipe another layer of mascarpone
4. Top with layer of cookie crumbs
5. Repeat steps 1-5 until you get to the top of your glass with a mascarpone layer. Garnish with whatever you like, I used a sprig of mint, a strawberr slice, and a light dusting of cookie crumbs.

I love light desserts, and this one fits the bill. It's sweet, airy, crunchy, and slighty fruity. Yum! Enjoy!

m.