Strawberry Lemon Puddings

I love strawberries. The delicious little bursts of summer are wonderful. We only eat them fresh when they are in season, as the usually tasteless versions that they sell at the store the rest of the year are disappointing. Luckily, I keep the freezer full of frozen berries, so when the desire to have a reminder of summer comes, we are able. When you encounter a recipe like this one - a twist on a strawberry shortcake from Tyler Florence. I would have bought berries to make this recipe, I wanted to try it so badly.

Reading the recipe was all it took to want to make these little beauties. Layers of a lemon curd cream, strawberries, pound cake... yum! The tart lemon curd cream with the sweet strawberries and velvety pound cake mix together wonderfully.

I had to make some adjustments for what I had on hand. No Meyer lemons here, just lemon juice. My ramekins aren't straight sided and my pound cake was too rectangular to cut into rounds, but the layers worked out just fine. I didn't have any leftover crumbs as a result, so those weren't on top either. I think they turned out pretty to look at anyway and they were certainly tasty. They were large generous portions too. Almost too big for me. This is a great recipe for a make ahead dessert you can keep in the fridge and pull out to serve when ready.

STRAWBERRY LEMON PUDDINGS

Yield: 4 servings

Time: 35 minutes

Pudding:

1 pound cake, store bought

1/2 cup lemon curd, store bought (or homemade)

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 cup powdered sugar

Strawberries:

2 cups of strawberries, hulled and sliced

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 Meyer lemon, juice only

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Set a small saucepan over medium heat and add strawberries, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

3. Set over medium heat to macerate for 4-5 minutes then remove form heat to cool.

4. In a large mixing bowl, whip heavy cream until you reach soft peaks. Fold in powdered sugar and lemon curd - a little at a time until they come together.

5. Set aside in the refrigerator while you prepare the cake.

6. Using an inverted ramekin, carefully slice the pound cake into 1/4-inch thick, round slices. They should fit snugly inside of the ramekin itself. With the remaining scraps of pound cake, break up into coarse crumbs and toast on a sheet tray in the oven for 5 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.

7. Now layer the puddings. Start with a layer of the lemon cream on the bottom, followed by cake, strawberries, lemon cream and cake again. Drizzle this layer of cake with syrup from the strawberries then top with a nice swirl of lemon cream and some toasted pound cake crumbs. Enjoy!