Vanilla Almond Pudding

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk until smooth, then whisk in the egg yolks.
2. Place over medium heat and continue to whisk until thickened. It’s important to keep whisking to prevent any lumps. This will take about 8 minutes and it will go from liquid to thick very quickly, so keep a close eye on it once it starts to steam.
3. Once thickened, remove from heat transfer to a large bowl. Once it’s stopped steaming, cover the surface of the pudding with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.

Strawberry and Blueberry Filling

1. In the meantime, prepare the other fillings. Add the quartered strawberries to a medium saucepan (I clean out the one used for the pudding) and stir with the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Place over medium heat and continue to stir until it starts to somewhat bubble and turn thickened and jammy. Remove from heat and scoop into a wide and shallow dish and place in the freezer.
2. Repeat this same process with the blueberries (no need to clean the pot) and store both in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. Now that everything is chilling, wait about 30 minutes until moving on to the next step, or until everything has completely cooled. 
3. After those 30 minutes, add the mascarpone, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond extract to a large bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until you reach firm peaks, careful not to over whip. The consistency should be silky smooth but still able to hold shape. Scoop half of the whipped cream into the cooled pudding and use a whisk to fold and mix until smooth and combined.
4. In an 8×8 pan, spread 1/2 of the pudding into the bottom of the pan. Top with an even layer of 16 cookies and then spread the cooled strawberry filling on top, covering about 80% of the cookies. Spread the remaining pudding on top, followed by another layer of cookies and then the blueberry filling. Spread the other half of the whipped cream on top and decorate the surface with extra berries and cookies. 
5. Chill uncovered overnight and tomorrow, dig in! Consume within 2 days.