Mini Lemon Mousse and Berry Trifles with Puff Pastry Stars

I wanted to come up with a new red-white-and-blue dessert for our 4th of July Barbecue this year and thought it would be nice to make individual little trifles. My daughter, Bashful, helped me with these. She’s becoming quite the little sous chef.

These trifles are easy to make because there’s very little baking involved which is perfect for this hot summer weather. I did bake the graham cracker crust, though if you don’t feel like baking it, you could very easily use the crust unbaked. If you want to decorate the trifles with puff pastry stars like I did, those don’t require much more than 10 minutes of baking time either.

I made these in little shot glasses, but you could use little mason jars, small disposable clear plastic cups, or any other small, clear containers you have that would show the red, white and blue layers. If your strawberries aren’t very sweet, sprinkle them with a little powdered sugar before assembling. Also, depending on how many mini trifles you’re making, you could end up with extra graham cracker crust. I just use it to make a pie.

MINI LEMON MOUSSE AND BERRY TRIFLES

• 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
• ⅓ cup melted butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• ⅓ jar purchased lemon curd (or you could make your own)
• fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped into the size of blueberries
• fresh blueberries

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUMB CRUST

For a baked crust:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. With a fork, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar together.
3. Press the mixture into the bottom of a baking pan.
4. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until crust begins to brown at the edges.
5. Set aside to cool completely.

For a no-bake crust:

1. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar together with a fork.
2. Place about a tablespoon of mixture into bottom of each shot glass and press down with the handle of a wooden spoon.
3. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

LEMON MOUSSE

1. With an electric mixer, beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form.
2. Add 1/3 of a jar of lemon curd and continue to beat until well-combined.
3. Taste the mousse and see how you like it. If you want it more lemony, beat in more lemon curd, a tablespoon at a time, until it tastes the way you want it.

TO ASSEMBLE THE MINI TRIFLES

1. Take the baked and cooled graham cracker crust and crumble it up with a fork. If you’re doing the no-bake crust, you can skip this step.
2. Place about a tablespoon of crumbled graham cracker crust into the bottom of your shot glass and press it flat with the handle of a wooden spoon.
3. Place lemon mousse into a piping bag and pipe a layer of mousse over the crust.
4. Sprinkle some blueberries over the lemon mousse.
5. Pipe another layer of lemon mousse over the blueberries.
6. Sprinkle chopped strawberries over the lemon mousse.
7. Pipe a little dollop of lemon mousse right on top.
8. If desired, decorate each trifle with a puff pastry star (recipe follows).

PUFF PASTRY STARS

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
• ¼ cup melted butter
• pearl white sparkling sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Cut out stars from puff pastry sheet using a star cookie cutter.
3. Transfer pastry stars to a non-stick cookie sheet.
4. Brush each star with a little melted butter.
5. Sprinkle top of each star with sparkling sugar.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.
7. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

NOTE:  I also bake the little scraps of leftover puff pastry dough. After cutting out the stars, I take the little leftover scraps and lay them on another cookie sheet. Brush the scraps with melted butter and sprinkle regular sugar on them, then bake them together with the stars. Hand them out to the kids to snack on and voila! Nothing wasted at my house!

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