Mango Cream Cheese Parfait with Blackberry Syrup

Summers in Florida are not what they are cracked up to be. It's mostly so humid and scorching outside that the heat absorbs any energy you might have left. Even baking can make your house 10 degrees hotter than you'd like. I needed a cool dessert that required minimal oven use. So, I just kind of whipped this up one afternoon. It was dee-licious and required very little effort. This is enough to make 4 ramekins/cups. I really had no idea what to call it, so I went with this...

Mango Cream Cheese Parfait with Blackberry Syrup

Ingredients:

• 4 oz cream cheese softened
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 ripe mango, cubed
• 2 cup crushed almonds

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F to toast crushed almonds. Toast for 10 minutes or until crisp.
2.  Using mixer, beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Beat 1/4th cup of cream until smooth with mixture, scraping sides. Continue to add 1 3/4 cup  cream until consistency of a whipped cream.
4. Fold in mango.
5. Place a layer of almonds in bottom of cup or ramekin.
6. Top with cream cheese mixture and add another layer of almonds to each.
7. With remaining heavy cream, whip in electric mixer to make unsweetened whipped cream.
8. Top parfaits with whipped cream and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

For Blackberry Syrup:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries ( I mushed mine up first because I don't mind seeds!)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients into saucepan. Stir over medium heat till sugar dissolves and begins to boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes until thick and syrupy.
3. Let cool 15 minutes (if you're not a fan of the seeds, push through a strainer to remove them)
4. Top the chilled parfaits with your syrup. Enjoy!

I enjoyed the lighter texture with the fruit mixture and crunch of the almonds. Hope you like it as much as I did.