This recipe includes some very strange flavour combinations. I mean, I've heard of both black pepper and balsamic vinegar being used in desserts before, but not both together and not in such large quantities! I was a bit nervous about the results, but I wanted to give it a try anyway and, I must say, I was quite pleased with the results! It was an unusual flavour profile, but not an unpleasant one.

Strawberry Parfaits with Black Pepper and Balsamic Vinegar

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. black peppercorns, coarsely ground
• 500g fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Chambord¹
• 250mL vanilla ice cream²
• whipped cream

Directions

1. Combine the strawberries and black pepper and set aside.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small pot, cover, and heat over medium-high heat until the sugar melts.
3. Uncover and cook, swirling -- BUT NOT STIRRING -- occasionally, until the sugar darkens into a light caramel (5-10 mintes).
4. Add the strawberries and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until any chunks of sugar/caramel that formed when the strawberries were added melt and dissolve back into the juice (2-4 minutes).
5. Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar and Chambord.
6. Cover and chill for at least an hour.
7. Once ready to serve, place some strawberries in the bottoms of three small jars and then layer some ice cream and more strawberries over them.
8. Top with whipped cream and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for kirsch, but a) I didn't have any and b) neither TF nor I like it anyway. We did, however, have a selection of other liquors. I decided that Chambord would be a nice match with the strawberries and used it in place of the kirsch. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 500mL of ice cream, but I only used about half of that amount. Of course, the original recipe also claims to serve six and I only actually made three parfaits! So, maybe the original amount would have been fine if I'd split it six ways. That said, there definitely wouldn't have been nearly enough strawberries to do that. I had a scant pound (450g) of strawberries and I already found that a bit skimpy (hence bumping it up to 500g here). There's no way that 450g would have been enough to make six parfaits. I was honestly debating whether to bump the strawberies up to 600 or 700g. That said, I think 500g is sufficient -- if not exaclty generous -- for three parfaits. ^Back

I finally got around to making the last parfait recipe in the Breakfast Bible. It's pretty simple, but I don't often keep nectarines on hand, so this is the first time I've actually had the ingredeints available.

I liked the citrus notes with the nectarines in this parfait. Unfortunately I think my nectarines were a little underripe, so it came out a bit bland and tart overall. Adding a bit of maple syrup helped, but having properly ripened fruit would obviously have been better. But I was worried that if I waited I'd never get around to it. So I fiugred I'd give it a go with the slightly firm nectarines and just adjust as needed to compensate. Not ideal maybe, but it got the job done.

Honey-Lime Nectarine Parfaits

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 nectarines, halved and sliced
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• zest of 2 limes
• 3 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. granola
• maple syrup or extra honey, to taste (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the nectarines, honey, and limes and mix well. Set aside.
2. Get out four jars or glasses and put 6 Tbsp. of yogurt in the bottom of each.
3. Add ~1/8 of the nectarines to each jar.
4. Repeat the layers with another 6 Tbsp. of the yogurt and 1/8 of the nectarines in each jar.
5. Top each portion with 1 Tbsp. of granola.
6. Drizzle with maple syrup/honey (if using) and serve.

This is another parfait recipe from The Breakfast Bible. Or, at least, it's based on one of the recipes in there; I ended up modifying it a fair bit. The original called for pinepple and papaya as the main fruits. I'm not crazy about papaya, so I swapped it out for mango. I also added a bit of shredded coconut because that seemed like it would go well. And a touch of honey because my pinapple was a bit on the tart side. I also just bumped up the overall proportion of fruit a bit. I had about twice as much fruit as the recipe called for, but I didn't end up using it all. I think I ended up using ~50% more fruit than specified in the original recipe, so I've written up my version to reflect this.

I've given ranges for some of the ingredients. Use more or less honey and lime depending on how sweet or tart your fruit is (and how sweet you'd like the finished parfait to be).

Pineapple-Mango Parfaits

Adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• ~2 c. chopped pineapple (fresh, not tinned)
• ~2 c. chopped mango
• 1/4 c. dried currants
• 2-3 Tbsp. lime juice
• 1-2 Tbsp. honey
• 3 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. unsweetened dried coconut¹
• 8 tsp. wheat germ

Directions

1. Combine the pineapple, mango, currants, 2 Tbsp. lime juice, and 1 Tbsp. honey and stir to mix.
2. Taste fruit mixture and add more lime juice and/or honey to taste.
3. Place 6 Tbsp. of the yogurt in the bottom of each of four glasses or jars.
4. Add ~1/2 c. of the fruit mixture to each jar.
5. Top each with 6 more Tbsp. of yogurt, followed by another 1/2 c. of fruit.
6. Add 1 Tbsp. of coconut to each parfait.
7. Top each with 2 tsp. of wheat germ.

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¹ I think fresh grated or shaved coconut would be even better here, but I didn't have any, so I just used dried. Toasted coconut might also be nice. ^Back

These were supposed to be parfaits composed of layers of sautéed apples and pears, topped with chopped walnuts and crystalized ginger. The pear-walnut-ginger combo sounded great!

I ran out of walnuts last week and I haven't had a chance to restock yet, but I figured it would be fine to substitute some chopped pecans for the walnuts. Pear-pecan isn't the classic combo that pear-walnut is, but it's still nice. Unfortunately, when I went to start peeling my pears this morning, I found they'd gone off and were unsalvageable. So, for this iteration, I ended up having to make it entirely with apples, rather than the pear-apple mix that the recipe called for. It was still good, but I think it'd be even nicer with pears.

Apple-Pear-Walnut Parfaits

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 apples, peeled and diced
• 2 pears, peeled and diced
• 1 tsp. cinnamon sugar
• 3 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 6 Tbsp. walnuts, chopped
• 3 Tbsp. crystalized ginger, minced

Directions

1. Heat the butter over medium heat and cook until it browns (~2 minutes).
2. Add the apples, pears, and cinnamon sugar and cook until slightly softened (~4 minutes).
3. Spoon ~6 Tbsp. of yogurt into each jar, top with ~4 Tbsp. of the apple-pear mixture, then add another 6 Tbsp. of yogurt and 4 Tbsp. of fruit. If there's any extra fruit left over, divide it among the jars.
4. Top each parfait with ~2 Tbsp. of the nut mixutre.

I wanted something fairly light for breakfast this morning. I was initially thinking of doing another batch of oatmeal, but I wanted to try something new and I didn't have the right ingredients on hand to do any of the other oatmeal recipes that I had handy. In the end I decided to keep flipping through the Breakfast Bible and see what else caught my eye.

This parfait was the first recipe I came across that I actually had all the ingredients for. And we even still have some raspberries ripening, so I figured this would be a nice opportunity to enjoy them before the season ends.

This is a pleasingly straight-forward recipe with layers of fresh raspberry sauce, Greek yogurt, blueberries, and granola. I just used the last little bit of some store-bought granola I had in the cupboard, but you could make it even more customized and special by using some homemade granola.

And, while I did have lots of fresh raspberries, I didn't have any fresh blueberries handy, so I just thawed out some frozen ones to top my parfait with.

There is some flex in this recipe too. The suggestion is to use raspberries to make the sauce and then add fresh blueberries on top of the yogurt, but the autor notes that strawberries are an acceptable alternative for the sauce layer with blackberries making up the upper layer. You still get to enjoy two different kinds of fruit and a nice colour contrast that way.

Raspberry-Blueberry Parfaits

From The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. raspberries
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 c. blueberries
• 1 c. granola

Directions

1. Mash the raspberries with the honey and vanilla to make a chunky sauce.
2. Divide the sauce between four containers. (There should be ~3 Tbsp. of sauce per container.)
3. Add 1/2 c. of yogurt to each container.
4. Layer ~1/4 c. of blueberries on top of the yogurt in each container.
5. Top with 1/4 c. of granola on each parfait.

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Variations

Strawberry-Blackberry Parfaits

Ingredients

• 1 c. strawberries
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 c. blackberries
• 1 c. granola