Strawberry Fool Recipe
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The fool, or a dessert of sweetened fruit folded into stiffly peaked and slightly sugared whipped cream, dates back to 16th-century England. It’s possibly the simplest dessert, and any fool should be able to make it. Many fruits and some vegetables (in the case of rhubarb) can be used, but berries work particularly well, especially strawberries. If you’re a stickler for tradition, channel the Brits and make your fool with gooseberries.
INGREDIENTS
- 12 ounces strawberries, washed, hulled, and cut into large dice (about 2 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (from 1/2 medium lemon)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the strawberries, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and the salt in a medium, nonreactive saucepan and stir until the strawberries are coated in sugar. Mash with a potato masher until about half of the strawberries are completely smashed but some medium-sized chunks remain.
- Place the pan over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until bubbles form along the edge, about 5 minutes. Skim any foam from the surface of the sauce with a spoon and discard. Add the lemon zest and juice, stir to combine, and bring to a full boil, about 2 minutes more.
- Remove from heat. Skim the foam and discard. Transfer the sauce to a heatproof container and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes. (If not using right away, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.)
- Once the sauce has cooled, whisk the cream in a large bowl until it reaches soft peaks (they should bend like soft-serve ice cream). While whisking, gradually add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Add the vanilla and continue to whisk until the cream reaches stiff peaks (standing straight up).
- Measure 1/4 cup of the strawberry sauce and set aside. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining sauce into the whipped cream until nearly incorporated, leaving a few streaks of whipped cream and sauce. Divide the fool among six 1/2-cup serving bowls or ramekins and garnish with the reserved strawberry sauce. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
This was lick the bowl good! And dead easy, though I'm often intimidated by anything to do with deserts. Possibly due to some luscious CSA strawberries - just wish I'd thought of it when we had some very tart gooseberries... I served it over lady fingers, which seemed perfect.
According to "Joy of Cooking": "...substitute 1 cup honey for 1 1/4 cups sugar and [to] reduce the liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup". Perhaps reducing the whipping cream would do the trick. 3/4 cup cream will still give an adequate volume of cream to incorporate with the strawberry mixture.
I use my espuma dispenser with no sugar, for ease. this is my favorite all time 'go to'. and for me, the lemon adds a great tartness.
hoosiercheetah: The amount of extra sugar you will need to add depends on the fruit you use. If you use naturally extremely sugary, say, strawberries or peaches, you'll have so much sugar in there already you might not need to add much more. Obviously other traditional fruits such as rhubarb or gooseberry are much more sour and require stewing first with plenty of sugar. So basically, make sure your fruits are naturally very ripe, sugary and flavoursome and you won't need the sugar anyway. I think this recipe calls for much too much sugar and much too much complicated effort as it is.
Personally I'd just crush the strawberries (or raspberries) lightly with the back of a fork/give them a very quick blitz in a blender and stir them into the whipped cream, to which I'd add maybe 1 tbsp of powdered sugar, and that's it! No need whatsoever to cook strawberries first - only rhubarb, gooseberry it.
See also Nigel Slater on fools, here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyl...
I'm pretty sure you can sub an equal part of honey, but I am not sure about reducing the measurements of other ingredients. Hopefully another chowhounder will know.
I'd love to try to make this without sugar. Can anyone offer advice on removing the sugar from the recipe? Will I need to make any other adjustments to compensate? I think I wouldn't need as much lemon juice. Any thoughts?