#48 - Strawberry-Angel Verrine

Tomorrow is Elizabeth's bridal shower, and there's going to be a happy hour theme to it. That means there are going to be some tasty appetizers you might find at a classy bar, there's going to be a lot of beverages to be had, and most importantly, the desserts are going to be served in little glasses.

Strawberry-Angel Verrine

From the 2010 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival Cookbook and The Villa Cookbook
Nori gave us the idea to make this dessert after tasting them at the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot last fall, and so we thought we'd give it a shot for this shower. The recipe originally called for any store-bought vanilla pudding, but we decided to supe it up a skosh and use the crema pasticcera from the Villa cookbook. Hence, lots of ingredients for this one.
There are a lot of components to this dessert, and at the end, they're all gonna be layered on top of each other in a little glass. Here's some work being done on the pastry cream.
Here's the finished Angel food cake.
And to make the strawberry sauce, you puree strawberries and mix in some strawberry jam.
Once all those components are all ready to go, you chop up the cake and start layering.
We had a nice workstation set up so that we could pump these things out. We did have to make a whole bunch of them for the shower.
Oh my goodness. These things were T to the A to the S-T-E-Y. The creama pasticcera was a little more lemon-y than we had planned, but when it was combined with the strawberries and the cake, it was just delicious. Hopefully there'll be some leftovers after the festivities tomorrow.
There are a lot of steps, and a lot of mini-recipes along the way, but it's well-worth it:

Angel Food Cake

Ingredients

• 12 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup cake flour

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Put the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer, and set aside until at room temperature.
3. Beat egg whites at medium speed until frothy.
4. Add cream of tartar and whisk at medium speed until medium peaks form.
5. Sift confectioners' sugar and flour in a large bowl.
6. When egg whites are beaten, sprinkle 1/4 of the flour mixture over the top of the egg whites. Gently fold to incorporate.
7. Fold in remaining flour mixture, working in 3 batches, until combined.
8. Pour mixture into an ungreased tube pan, and smooth the top.
9. Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown and top springs back when lightly touched.
10. Turn pan upside down to cool.
11. When cake is cool, cute into 1/2-inch cubes.

Strawberry Sauce

Ingredients

• 6 large strawberries
• 2 Tbs water
• 3 Tbs strawberry jam

Preparation

1. Combine strawberries and water in a blender and puree.
2. Put puree in a medium bowl and whisk in the strawberry jam.

Crema Pasticcera

Ingredients

• 5 egg yolks
• 6 Tbs sugar
• 2 Tbs flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 cups hot milk

Preparation

1. In a large saucepan, whisk yolks, sugar, flour, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt together.
2. Whisk in hot milk and heat over medium heat stirring constantly until just coming to a boil.
3. Cook completely.

Strawberry-Angel Verrine

Ingredients

• Angel food cake, cubed
• 1 1/2 cups crema pasticcera
• Strawberry sauce
• 6 to 12 strawberries, diced

Preparation

1. Spoon 1 Tbs of strawberry sauce in the bottom of a small dessert glass.
2. Add a layer of angel food cake cubes.
3. Add 2 Tbs crema pasticcera, spreading to form an even layer.
4. Top with 1 to 2 chopped strawberries and any remaining strawberry sauce.