July 29, 2015
The sour cherries have just finished in Manitoba but I managed to get a few good pickings. After pitting them, I decided to make a simple cherry sauce, similar to a cherry pie filling and serve it with whipped coconut cream. The cherry pitting might be a chore, but the rest of the dessert whips up in a flash.
If you don’t have access to fresh sour cherries, you can substitute fresh or frozen sweet cherries, just adjust the amount of sweetener used.
Cherry Parfait with Coconut Cream
- 2 cups pitted sour cherries, with juice
- 1/2 cup sweetener (raw sugar, brown rice syrup or honey)
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (or ginger snap crumbs)
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- 2 tbsp sweetener
- 1 tsp vanilla
Make the cherry sauce by heating the cherries and sweetener in a small saucepan until sweetener is dissolved. Mix water and cornstarch and add to the cherries. Heat until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat and cool.
For the crust, melt coconut oil and mix with crumbs. Press in to serving dish. The dessert can be served as individual parfaits or one large dessert in a glass pie plate or baking dish. Reserve some crumbs for the top.
Chill the coconut milk in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Open the bottom of the can and drain off the water. Open the top of the can and scoop out the coconut cream. In a small bowl, whip the coconut cream, sweetener and vanilla until creamy.
Layer the cooled cherry sauce over the crust and top with coconut cream and a sprinkling of crumbs. If using a tall skinny serving dish, make an additional layer of cherry sauce and coconut cream before dusting with crumbs.
Chill in the fridge until ready to serve. Makes 6 servings.
Ponderosa Cooks 