I'm used to making parfaits with fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola. You can vary the fruit, add different flavours to the yogurt, try different types of granola or even swap it out for something else entirely (cocoa nibs, wheat germ, graham cracker crumbs, etc.) But those are the general components that I'm familiar with. That's the formula.

This recipe takes a significantly different route.

It still layers fresh fruit with dairy and something crunchy. It just swaps out what you're actually using as your dairy and "cruncy" components.
Instead of yogurt, you beat whipping cream with marsarpone and white chocolate for your dairy component.
For the crunchy... crushed amaretti biscuits.

This all works quite well. The cheese, chocolate, raspberries, and amaretti all make for an excellent (if very rich) final dish. I'm looking forward to having the leftovers after dinner tonight! Yum!

Mascarpone-Raspberry Parfaits

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 375g mascarpone cheese
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 100g white chocolate
• 500g raspberries
• 30-35 amaretti biscuits, coarsely crushed

Directions

1. Beat the mascarpone with the cream for 10-20 seconds.
2. Gently melt the chocolate over very low heat.
3. Drizzle the chocolate into the cheese mixture while beating vigorously. Continue beating for an additional 30-60 seconds.
4. Spoon a few raspberries into the bottom of each glass. (This made 8 small parfaits of ~200mL each for me.)
5. Spoon a bit of the cheese mixture on top of the berries.
6. Sprinkle some cookie crumbs into the cheese.
7. Repeat layers until glasses are full and all of the ingredients have been used.
8. Chill until ready to serve.