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Can you feel the spring vibes drifting in the air? I think we can all use a big dose of the hope spring often brings. It is my favorite season as it brings me back to my garden, flowering scenes to my eyes and warmer days. I write this while it is actively snowing out so we’re a tad early here in New England. There’s a chance, a hopeful chance, that we will be hosting more dear ones this year for Easter and in honor of that I wanted to create a special, festive and lovely treat. Lemon Curd Easter Parfaits are the perfect springtime dessert, easy to make and so lovely!

This is one of those desserts you can make the components of ahead of time which makes serving them relatively quick and easy. The graham cracker crumble and the lemon curd can be made ahead of time. Really the only time-sensitive piece is the vanilla ice cream which needs to be either mixed by hand or blended with hand mixers to soften. You want to be able to “dollop” it. I had initially thought I’d use whipped cream but I bought half and half by mistake (we don’t do much dairy in our home so I was out of practice with that section of the aisle) and it wouldn’t fluff up. I grabbed ice cream as a last minute thought (Trader Joe’s Vanilla ice cream we do ALWAYS have on hand) and it ended up being the PERFECT happy accident. It was SO much better.

Graham Cracker Crumble

10 Graham Crackers

2 Tbsp Melted Butter

1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar

Lemon Curd

6 Egg Yolks

1/2 C Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

Zest of One Lemon

3/4 C Granulated Sugar

1 Stick Salted Butter, cut into pieces

1/8 tsp Salt

Vanilla Ice Cream

(Make sure to buy a good quality rich vanilla, we love Trader Joes Vanilla Bean Ice Cream)

Caramel Crumbles

(I bought these at our regular grocery store but they were in the specialty section. They added a yummy component that I think if I couldn’t find the jar of crumbles, I’d smash hard caramels and use that to top the dessert)

Pastel Candy Coated Chocolate Eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

Start by making your graham cracker crumble. I smashed mine by hand with a rolling pin but if making a bit more, add your graham crackers to a food processor and pulse to a course crumb. Add granulated sugar and melted butter pulsing to combine. Set aside in an air tight container.

Lemon Curd

I hate the word “curd.” Grosses me out. But what else do you call this stuff?! The Lemon curd is also easy to make in advance and will last for a bit in the refrigerator (upwards of a week is fine). Lemon curd can feel intimidating but go slow and steady and it’s easy to make from scratch. You can cheat on this step and buy the store bought versions. I know Trader Joes sells it. Squeeze your lemons and zest one lemon. In a small saucepan combine the eggs, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Over low heat you’re going to whisk the mixture constantly and not let the curd boil. Add the butter and continue to whisk until thickened. Do the spoon test. If it coats the back of a spoon and doesn’t run off, it’s perfect. Take it off the heat and transfer to a bowl. It thickens up more as it cools. You’ll want to place a piece parchment paper directly onto the surface (plastic wrap works too, we just don’t have that) so a skin doesn’t form as it cools.

SOFTENING THE ICE CREAM

I didn’t bother softening my ice cream in advance but wished I had. Take your ice cream out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator for an hour prior to blending. An alternative to this if you’re in a pinch is to scoop out several scoops into a bowl and stick it in the microwave for 15 seconds. You don’t want the ice cream to melt but you do want it to be soft enough to blend with a mixer. And it will also soften up as you mix. It should be like frozen yogurt consistency so you can dollop it into your cups.

CREATING THE PARFAITS

This is the fun part! Start with a pretty short-stemmed fluted glass! I got mine at Target but can’t find them online right now. These ones from The White Company are adorable too! Put a full scoop of the graham cracker crumble at the bottom of each glass. Layer with a scoop of lemon curd. Add another large scoop of graham cracker crumble and top with a large dollop of the softened vanilla ice cream. Sprinkle the caramel crumble on the top and add your chocolate Easter egg candies. I used a grouping of three on each which makes it look like a sweet Easter nest.

How sweet are these lemon curd Easter Parfaits!? The both the little and big girls loved them. Be generous with the graham cracker crumble that was the only thing we had wished we had more of as the crunch is a nice offset to the softer components. Ruth Eileen Photography captured these sweet moments. She is in Florida now if you need an excellent photographer down that way. Make sure you check out all the Easter desserts on this spring blog hop.