Picnic Parfaits
On the weekend, we had friends over for a barbeque...these are close friends and not just any dessert would do! (not that I would serve substandard fare to my semi-close friends!) I thought I would put a spin on my chocolate and butterscotch cream pie recipe and stuff it all in a jar...picnic style!
These handy little desserts are perfect for picnics, barbeques or to take leftovers in your lunch to work...simply lick all the whipped cream off the top and put the lid on...just make sure you warn potential taste testers that you lapped up the cream with your tongue...or not! Lol!
You will need 8, 250ml. jam jars, whipping cream (475ml) carton...you can also use a large container of thawed cool whip. One brick of cream cheese, softened...1 package of shortbread cookies (homemade is better but "Walker's" shortbread are pretty darn close...don't tell my Scottish mother-in-law, I said that!!)...and 2 packages of instant pudding mix and milk.
Start by tossing the shortbread into a large ziploc bag...using a rolling pin or a can, crush the biscuits into crumbs,
...spoon about 1 tbsp. of crumbs into the bottom of each jar, reserving the rest for the second layer of your parfaits...set aside.
Pour the whipping cream into a large bowl, add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla...
using the whip attachment on a KitchenAid mixer or hand beaters, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form...
...transfer the whipped cream to another bowl and set aside in the fridge.
Using the paddle attachment of your KitchenAid mixer (or use hand beaters), beat the softened cream cheese until fairly smooth.
Add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Beat until smooth and creamy.
Scrape half of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and mix until combined...reserving the rest of the whipped cream for the top of parfaits.
Meanwhile, in a medium size bowl, prepare the instant pudding...you will need another medium bowl to prepare the second package of pudding...I used chocolate and butterscotch. Empty the dry pudding mix into the bowls, add 2 cups of cold milk to each bowl and mix with a whisk until thickened...about 2 minutes. Set aside
You can spoon the layers into the jars but I found it made a bit of a mess...I set a large ziplock bag into a plastic bowl and folded the sides over (just to keep the bag open when scraping the cream cheese into it) and used a spatula to scrape the mixture into the bag. Next, gather the sides up and snip a corner off of one side of the bag...
...and pipe the cream cheese mixture into the jars on top of the crumb layer...you will use about 3 tbsps. to 1/4 cup for each layer...smoothing the cream out with the back of a spoon if necessary
Repeat the same procedure using 2 more bags for each pudding flavour...pipe about 1/4 cup of the pudding on top of the cream cheese layer (4 jars of chocolate and 4 jars of butterscotch)...again, if you aren't a clodhopper like me and can spoon the layers in much more neatly...do that and disregard my ziplock trick!
Repeat the last cookie crumb layer...
..the last cream cheese mixture layer...
...and the last pudding layer...there will be a bit of each pudding flavour leftover...you can save it for another day, or polish it all off yourself before company arrives!
Put the reserved whipped cream in yet another ziplock bag ( I really should hit up the "Glad" storage bag company for some sort of endorsement fee!)...and pipe the whipped cream on to the tops of parfaits...then garnish with chocolate shavings and caramel curls (just to show off!)
For the caramel curls, I rolled out a caramel square with a rolling pin...
...cut it into 3 strips,
and rolled it into a curl...repeat for as many as you need, eating the leftovers! Grate a piece of chocolate on a cheese grater for shavings or use a vegetable peeler for curls.
Garnish parfaits and place each jar in a linen napkin lined wooden pint box, then place boxes in an antique berry picking carrier...all of which will set the stage for a true picnic on "Walton's Mountain"...OR, you can just pull the parfaits out of the fridge and serve them that way too!
Lastly...grab a spoon and dig in!!
Picnic Parfaits
1 pkg. shortbread cookies (about 8 biscuits)
1 brick cream cheese, softened
1 carton whipping cream (475ml)
2 pkgs. instant pudding mix
granulated sugar (1/4 cup for cream cheese mixture and 1/4 cup for whipping cream)
2 tsps. vanilla extract (1tsp. for cream cheese mixture and 1 tsp. for whipping cream)
chocolate shavings and caramel curls for garnish
8, 250ml. jam jars
1. Crush cookies and put about 1 tbsp. into each jar...set aside.
2. Beat whipping cream with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract until soft peaks form...set aside.
3. Beat cream cheese with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla, until smooth...fold in half of the whipped cream until combined (reserving the other half for the tops of parfaits).
4. Prepare the puddings...mix 2 cups of cold milk in with each powdered pudding mix and whisk until thickened....set aside.
5. Pipe or spoon in first layer of cream cheese mixture on top of crumb layer ( about 1/4 cup of cream cheese mixture for each jar), followed by the pudding (about 1/4 cup for each jar)...repeat layers ending with the whipped cream piped on the top of parfaits.
6. Garnish with chocolate shavings and caramel curls.
Enjoy!!