Raspberry Meringue Parfaits

Here’s a little eye candy for your Monday morning!

On the 4th of July, Adam and I had dinner at one of our favorite little local spots, Bar Bocce. Bar Bocce is this fun little restaurant/cafe in Sausalito that serves the most amazing wood-fired pizzas (and yes, it’s called Bar Bocce because there’s a bocce ball court right outside, which I don’t attempt to go near). Anyway, they have on their menu this dessert called something like “berry bliss” or “bar bocce bliss” and it’s a parfait with meringue, vanilla ice cream and housemade raspberry sauce.

Amazing.

Sometimes this chocoholic just needs a sweet, fruity dessert, you know what I mean? And I kinda have a thing for meringue. I think I’ve talked about that on here before. Meringue reminds me of my mom, who is actually coming to visit for a WEEK tomorrow!!!!!!! Can you tell I’m a bit excited?

So, for these parfaits, I made an easy homemade raspberry sauce (don’t you just love raspberry sauce?! I do) and combined it with some crunchy meringues and vanilla ice cream. The end result tasted almost like a strawberry milkshake, with crunchy cookie bits scattered within.

I can’t wait to see my mom.

I have a few things planned for when she’s here, like kayaking near the house boats in Richardson Bay, “hiking” Mt. Tam (and by hiking, I mean driving to the top of the mountain and walking around to see the view before driving down and getting a glass of wine), visiting the ferry building farmer’s market and going wine tasting. My mom is literally my best friend and we only see each other a couple times a year, so when we get together I try to go all out.

I wasn’t going to announce this yet, but my mom is also traveling around with me on my book tour this fall! I will be announcing those dates and locations very, very soon.

But back to this dessert for a minute. Sure, the meringues are a little time-consuming (I won’t judge you if you use store bought) but after you have both the raspberry sauce and the meringues made, you can literally throw together this dessert in a minute. And it’s soooo good.

So good, in fact, that right after taking these lovely photos this happened:

Raspberry Meringue Parfaits

serves 2

Print this Recipe!

Ingredients:

for raspberry sauce—

12 oz fresh raspberry, washed

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 drops red food coloring (optional)

for meringues—

3 egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

vanilla ice cream for serving

additional raspberries for serving

Directions:

First, make the meringues. You can even do this a week ahead of time and keep them in the freezer! Meringues freeze wonderfully. To make the meringues, preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with either a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper. Set aside.

Beat the egg whites until you can’t see the bottom of the bowl anymore. Then, with the mixer running, slowly add the sugar and cream of tartar. Continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form (about 8 minutes).

Drop spoonfuls of meringue onto your prepared baking sheet (doesn’t have to be perfect, you are going to crumble up them later in the parfaits. Bake for 2 hours at 200 degrees then turn off the oven and let the meringues sit there for another hour OR overnight.

Now that you have your meringues, start your raspberry sauce! Combine the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepot. Whisk together the cornstarch and cold water together in a measuring cup and then add that to the raspberry mixture. Bring to a simmer and then let simmer on low for about 20 minutes, until raspberries are all broken down. Take off the heat and add the vanilla extract and food coloring (optional).

Carefully transfer the raspberry sauce to a blender and process until smooth. Run through a sift after to get rid of any remaining seeds. Let cool.

To assemble parfaits, drizzle some raspberry sauce at the bottom of your glass. Then, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream followed by a meringue. Repeat until glass is filled and top with more raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries.

Time:

total time: 4.5 hours

active time: 30 minutes