Strawberry Panachee

PanNan's Note:

This recipe is from Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way. It's such a simple but elegant (and tasty) dessert, and requires no cooking. He says that panachee is a mixture of two or more ingredients with different colors, flavors, or shapes. This recipe is very flexible. You can substitute similar ingredients as noted. The berry puree can be made a few hours ahead of time, and the assembly, which only takes a few minutes, can be done just before serving.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 1/2 cups ripe strawberries, hulled (or other fresh berries)
• 1/4 cup strawberry jam (or raspberry or currant jam)
• 4 shortbread cookies (or other cookies like almond cookies)
• 2/3 cup creme fraiche, divided (or sour cream, or quark)
• 4 sprigs fresh mint (or basil)

Directions:

1. Cut off the bottom and top of each berry, ending up with about 1 1/4 cups of tops and bottoms. Slice the centers of the berries and set aside.
2. Process the tops and bottoms of the berries with the jam, in a small food processor, until pureed. Mix the sliced berry centers into the puree. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. When ready to serve, coarsely crush the cookies in a plastic zip type bag. Divide the crumbs among four glass bowls or goblets. Spoon about 1/2 of the berry mixture over the crumbs in each bowl/goblet. Stir the creme fraiche well and spoon about 1/3 cup of it (in total) on top of the berries. Then add the remaining berry mixture to each bowl/goblet. Garnish with a dollop of the remaining creme fraiche and a sprig of fresh mint.

Reviews

[Buzymomof3]

Great little dessert. Light and fresh yet you feel like you've had a dessert! Easy to throw together after a heavy meal. Thanks PanNan! Made for ZWT8 trip to France.

[Sarah in New York]

This is really good and so simple. The only change I made was I added a little sugar to the sour cream, just because I thought it would be a little bland. I guess it really didn't need it, but it was still really refreshing and yummy! Made for ZWT5 - Epicurean Queens

[my3beachbabes]

This was so simple to make and the taste was delicious! I couldn't resist going abit heavy on the shortbread crumbs though! They were tasty! ;) I wasn't sure abut the sour cream but it really added abit of zing to this! Going to be a summer favorite!!! Thanks for posting! Made for ZWT 5