Cooking Video: Fresh Fruit Parfait with Homemade

In the video above, chef Walter Dunphy prepares a fruit, yogurt, and granola parfait.

Looking for an alternative to rich butter cookies and dense fruitcakes? Walter Dunphy, BU’s executive chef, creates an elegant parfait of fruit, yogurt, and homemade granola to broaden your holiday dessert repertoire.

Dunphy starts with an easy recipe for granola that combines pantry staples — oatmeal, whole wheat flour, honey — with seasonal flavors of maple, vanilla, and cinnamon. The result can be eaten alone or used to top a parfait. He layers strawberries, blueberries, and plain nonfat yogurt for his version, but the ingredients can be customized. Serve in six parfait glasses (or sturdy wine glasses with wide bowls) for an attractive, healthful holiday treat.

A homemade version of the Sargent Choice parfaits sold at Dining Services locations around campus, this recipe doubles as a great study snack. (Blueberries are rich in antioxidants, which have been found to help stave off short-term memory loss and — perhaps more important during finals — neutralize skin-cell damage that gives you that tired, all-nighter look.) Just don’t try sneaking it into Mugar.

Ingredients

5 ounces rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sunflower seed kernels
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 ounces pancake syrup
1/2 ounce honey
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil blend
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
1/2 ounce raisins
1/2 ounce sun-dried cranberries
3 cups plain nonfat yogurt
2 1/4 cups strawberries, quartered
3/4 cup blueberries

Directions

To make the granola
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine rolled oats, whole wheat flour, sunflower seed kernels, and cinnamon in a bowl and stir to blend. In a separate bowl, combine the syrup, honey, olive oil blend, and water and whisk together. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well, using a rubber spatula. Spread the granola mixture evenly on a baking sheet and place it in the oven for an hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to bake evenly.

Remove granola from the oven and cool to room temperature. Toss it in a bowl with the raisins and sun-dried cranberries to combine.

Nutrition facts per serving:

280 calories
8 grams (g) total fat (1 g saturated fat)
46 g carbohydrates (5 g fiber)
10 g protein
80 milligrams (mg) sodium
(Percent of daily vitamins)
Vitamin A 10%
Vitamin C 50%
Calcium 20%
Iron 10%

Originally featured in BU Today. Video by Alan Wong. Text by Katie Koch.