Berries and Cream (the simplest summer dessert)

I’m still on vacation, and recovering from both vacation and our pa’ina on Saturday.  Our apartment is so messy with suitcases, boxes of condiments and seasonings, laundry and bags of dishes all over the place to be unpacked and put away.  Eric and I started the cleaning today, but our apartment is about 87 degrees (with an air conditioner) which is still 10 degrees cooler than outside so we can’t complain too much.  Poor Eric was pouring sweat trying to wash dishes with hot water.  So finally we decided we’d made a good dent and would go to his parents’ house (which is about 75 degrees) to do some laundry and pick berries.  His mom has raspberry and blueberry bushes at the side of the house.

There was some whipped cream left in a pastry bag in their fridge, so I decided that rather than just eating berries, I’d get a little fancy.  You don’t have to pipe it from a pastry bag, it can look really pretty just layered by spooning the whipped cream.  Also, fresh berries are amazing in this, but frozen could also work well.  It’s a perfect dessert for summer because it requires no cooking (which means heating up the house!) and takes less than five minutes to make.  When you’re worn out by the heat, the last thing you want to do is lots of physical labor, even for dessert.  This is a great way to treat yourself, but still fancy enough to serve at a party.  Loving it!

Berries and Cream

Ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries

Instructions

Mix cream, sugar and vanilla in a bowl.  Whip until thick with hand beater or immersion blender.  Spoon into a pastry bag with a fancy tip and pipe a layer into 4 small glass bowls.  Top with a few blueberries and raspberries.  Continue laying cream and berries in the bowls until full.

Approximate cost/serving: Depending on where you get your berries, about 15 cents a serving if your berries were free like ours, or 40 cents a serving if you buy them frozen or at a farmer’s market.

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: There is dairy but no meat, totally gluten free