Strawberry Dream Dessert
Submitted by April
Strawberry Dream Dessert layers an oat-brown sugar crust with a fluffy strawberry mousse of fresh berries, whipped cream, and egg whites. A cool, cloud-light icebox dessert for summer.
YIELD
15 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
20 minREADY
120 minThis is the kind of dessert that shows up at a summer Methodist potluck and disappears before the iced tea runs out. The base is essentially an oatmeal streusel, baked until crisp and pressed firm. The filling is a strawberry mousse in disguise, built by folding whipped cream and stiffened egg whites into a strawberry-gelatin syrup until the whole thing stands up like pink chiffon.
The crushed-and-whipped step is the engine. You beat the cooled strawberry gelatin with egg whites on high until it thickens and mounds on a spoon, which aerates the mixture before the whipped cream even goes in. That double aeration is what keeps the filling cloud-light instead of dense and jiggly like a standard jello dessert.
The red food coloring is technically optional. Fresh strawberries give color, but heat and gelatin mute it. A few drops pull the finished dessert into true strawberry-pink, which matters more at a buffet than on a weeknight.
Pro Tips
- Use fresh, fully ripe strawberries in peak season. Watery or under-ripe berries make a bland filling.
- Bloom the gelatin fully in cold water before heating. Unbloomed gelatin leaves rubbery threads in the finished dessert.
- Pasteurized egg whites from a carton work if raw eggs worry you. Look for ones labeled safe for whipping.
- Chill several hours or overnight for the cleanest slices. Rushing the chill gives you wobbly squares.
Variations
- Swap strawberries for raspberries or a mix of summer berries, adjusting sugar to taste.
- Add a layer of sliced bananas over the base before spreading the filling for a fruit-salad twist.
- Substitute the oat crust for a graham cracker base if oats aren’t your thing.
Ingredients
Directions
For base, combine oats, sugar and butter, mixing until crumbly.
Place in a shallow baking pan.
Heat in preheated moderate oven (350℉/180℃) about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Set aside ½ cup of crumb mixture for topping.
Firmly press remaining mixture into an ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Chill.
For filling, crush ½ pint of the strawberries.
Slice remaining strawberries; set aside.
Soften gelatine in cold water.
Combine softened gelatine, crushed strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and food coloring in saucepan.
Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until gelatine and sugar are dissolved.
Cool to room temperature.
Place crushed strawberry mixture and egg whites in large mixing bowl.
Beat at high speed on electric mixer until mixture is thick and mounds when dropped from a spoon.
Fold in whipped cream and sliced strawberries.
Spread evenly over crumb base.
Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
Chill several hours or until set.
Cut in pieces; garnish with strawberry halves.
Comments
