No-Bake Berry Dessert
“You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.” – by Julia Child
No matter how hard I try, creating an eggless dessert is a task I absolutely abhor. I don’t believe in soft decadent cakes sans the lovely egg.
That was one of my moments this time when we had some relatives come over, with two adorable tiny tots. Main courses were relatively easy with my sister in law taking care of a gorgeous biryani I ate through the night (guilty as always). Dessert was my department – and all I wanted to make was a sinful chocolate cake that required 3 eggs. But when your guests have a dietary requirement it took every bit of courage I had in me to not order in.
Eggless? Minimum effort? Fresh ingredients? Something that at least “looks” fancier than just a plate of fresh strawberries and cream?
Here I share with you my easiest cheat dessert – no bake berry dessert. This looks and tastes a bit like cheesecake, but it isn’t as firm and needs to be set in a bake dish type vessel. Fresh berries (or frozen), cream, icing sugar, vanilla pod, chocolate chips, scrumptious digestive biscuits…. And barely any effort? Easy peasy! I added some fresh figs in one of the dishes for the adults, and left the smaller bake dish with berries.
This recipe sounds like it takes a long time, but I make all the components in one go, and assemble over time without much hassle. This does require some patience and a ton of will power to not dip your fingers in.
- 600ml fresh cream
- ¾ cup icing sugar
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- 1 vanilla pod
- ½ cup frozen blueberries
- 3 fresh figs, chopped
- 2 packets fresh strawberries, sliced
- 3 packets of Britannia digestive biscuits
- ½ cup cubed butter (cold)
- Crush the biscuits in a bowl and then rub the butter into the biscuit crumbs to create a rough texture. Then pat it well into the bottom of your bake dish to create a crust as per your liking of thickness. Place the dishes in the freezer for half an hour.
- While your crust is being solidified, gently fold the cream with the chocolate chips, icing sugar, vanilla seeds and half of the blueberries. Ensure not whisk too hard. Place the cream bowl in the fridge, until the crust has hardened enough.
- Once your crusts have relatively set, place the fresh figs and some blueberries. The other dish has only blueberries (this is the kid friendly one). Pour the cream mixture over the crusts and gently even out with a rubber spatula. Place in the freezer for another half hour to an hour.
- Once the cream has set properly, place the sliced strawberries on top, and chill in the refrigerator until time to serve.
