Berries and Cream

By Yossy Arefi

Updated June 13, 2025

Berries and Cream
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Yossy Arefi.
Total Time
15 minutes, plus 30 minutes’ macerating
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes, plus 30 minutes’ macerating
Rating
5(471)
Comments
Read comments

Made with just a few ingredients presented beautifully, berries and cream is the perfect cap to a summer meal. If you keep vanilla bean paste on hand, this would be an excellent way to use it: Substitute an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for the extract. If you’re feeling up to it, you can whip the cream by hand, but you can also use an electric mixer. The berries and cream can be assembled up to four hours in advance, covered and stored in the refrigerator. But for the best appearance, wait until just before serving to add the final layer of berries on top.

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:4 generous servings 
  • 4cups fresh mixed berries (any combination of whole raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and sliced strawberries)
  • 4tablespoons/50 grams granulated sugar, plus more as needed
  • 4teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1cup/240 milliliters heavy cream
  • 1cup/240 grams full-fat yogurt
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

387 calories; 24 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 39 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 32 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 46 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Add the berries to a medium bowl. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla over top. Stir gently to combine. Let the berries macerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours, until juicy. Taste and add a bit more sugar, if desired.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the heavy cream, yogurt and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until soft peaks form, 7 to 8 minutes. (Taking a break is OK!) You may assemble the berries and cream and serve immediately (see Step 3), or cover and store up to 4 hours in the refrigerator. If storing berries and cream separately, cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours.

  3. Step 3

    To assemble, spoon a large dollop of yogurt cream into each of 4 (12-ounce) clear serving glasses. Top each with about ¾ cup of berries (with their syrup, as desired) then spoon the remaining cream evenly over the top of the berries. Top each glass with the remaining berries and serve immediately.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
471 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

JT NY

Berries and cream, berries and cream, I'm a little lad who loves berries and cream.

Janet H.

I made this this morning with the yogurt thatI had on hand, which was a heavy-textured, full-fat greek yogurt. Super good as a breakfast and a dessert. My husband gilded the lily by adding granola, because I guess full-fat yogurt and heavy cream wasn't enough calories ;-). So to the reader who asked about using full fat greek yogurt, thumbs up.

CJ in NY

May Greek yogurt be used in this recipe? May I substitute honey or maple syrup for the granulated sugar? Thank you! I also plan to add some fresh mint.

Liên

My 12 year old picked this recipe to make for dessert. Absolutely delicious! We loved that it wasn’t too sweet. We put the kitchen aid mixing bowl and whisk in the fridge for 10 minutes prior (great tip from another commenter). We only needed to whisk on medium high for about five minutes—I have many health conditions that wouldn’t appreciate hand whisking, and I believe it would have left us with an inferior result, anyway. Recipe purists: scroll past! I used vanilla bean paste instead of extract, as I generally do. We used strawberries and blueberries—perfection. If blackberries were available, I think that’s the only other fruit I would add. I’ll be trying this as the filling for my strawberry “shortcake”, which I make drop biscuits for (Grand’s *frozen* work in a pinch). I would also consider using very ripe peaches and crumbling some of those amazing handmade Trader Joe’s cinnamon graham crackers. I’ll be sure to make these for 4th of July or the next karaoke, but halving the portion to 4oz to fit in the clear dessert cups. A very big part of me wanted something crunchy to balance this out but I resisted. I used Trader Joe’s whole milk plain “European style” yogurt (not Greek but that would be good, too). Great weeknight recipe with kids!

TTR

If you wanted to make this as more of a dessert then I suggest to add MNMs to make it more sweet!🍫

Swapna

Awesome and super-simple summery dessert, that has been my crowd-pleasing finale to most of my recent dinner parties this season! I do reduce the sugar a little, and I use full-fat (5%) Fage Greek yogurt.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Credits

By Yossy Arefi

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.