I had a hankering for strawberries and pastry cream today and that to me equals either a tart or trifle of some sort. I didn't feel like making tart dough so I thought I'd go with Nilla-type cookies. Of course, I didn't have any in my pantry seeing as how I find Nilla quite tasteless these days(used to LOVE them as a child). I found a recipe online for homemade ones, we'll call them Filla cookies. They are much tastier than the supermarket variety though a little sweet, next time I'll cut down on the sugar by 1/4-1/3.
Rounding out the trifle is homemade pastry cream and whipped cream(you don't need a recipe for whipped cream, do you??). I always use Gale Gand's pastry cream recipe because I like it, it's good, and frankly most pastry cream recipes I've seen are very similar to each other so it doesn't make a huge difference IMO. Strawberries are courtesy of Harry's Berry's, home of the best strawberries I've ever tasted! If you see them at your local LA farmer's market, you MUST do yourself a favor: don't think about the price and just buy at least a basket. It drives me crazy the people who scoff and just HAVE to comment on the higher price. Yes, I'm a bit strawberry obsessed and therefore willing to pay a premium for delicious ones, but I happen to think they'd be worth it even if I didn't love strawberries as much as I do. It's a great quality product made by people who give a damn. Trust me, you'll thank yourself for it later. Back to the trifle: all that's left to do is assemble however you like and eat.
Gale Gand's pastry cream is easily found on the Food Network website and you can find the cookie recipe here: http://http//www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/10/homemade-nilla-vanilla-wafers.html
