Blueberry Crisp Parfaits with Lemon Custard

I love desserts like this for many reasons; they are comforting, beautiful and everything can be assembled well in advance for ease of serving. You can make the streusel whenever you want and freeze it until you are ready to use it. The lemon custard should be made the day before you are planning to serve the desserts and the blueberry mixture right before assembling them-- it spreads out better if it slightly warm. This is a marriage of two different Fine Cooking recipes.

For the Streusel:
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
6 T unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup slivered almonds or walnuts
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 t kosher salt

Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor until crumbly. Spread the streusel on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 325º for about 20 minutes, stirring it every 5 minutes (until golden- don't overbake). Set aside to cool

For the Lemon Custard:
3 egg yolks
3 T sugar
1 cup heavy cream (although I'm going to try this with whole milk next time)
1/2 t vanilla or vanilla paste
zest from one lemon

In a small bowl, whisk yolks and sugar. Heat the cream in a heavy saucepan to a simmer and slowly whisk into the yolks. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens slightly (this took about 4 minutes or so). The mixture will be very liquidy. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate until completely cold; it will thicken up a bit.

For the Blueberry Filling:
4 cups (1 1/4 lb) fresh blueberries
6 T sugar
4 t cornstarch
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 T butter
1 t lemon juice

Put the blueberries in a saucepan and add all the ingredients except the butter. Bring to a boil, using a wooden spoon to kind of smush up the berries a bit; lower the heat and cook over low heat until the filling is thickened and deeply translucent.

The amount of ingredients you use in the layering is up to you; it will depend upon the size of dessert glass you are using. In my photo, I used about 2 T of streusel on the bottom layer, a couple tablespoons each of custard and blueberry mixture followed by one more layer of streusel and blueberries but not another of custard. I topped it with a squirt of aerosol whip cream. You can layer it any way you want with more or less of anything. It's very delicious!