Soft-Fruit Fool

The soft-fruit culinary sibling of the Fresh Fruit Fool. There is no foolishness about these two desserts! Traditional English fruit fools derive their name from the French word 'fouler', meaning to crush. Fortunately, this word was modified to 'fool': after all, not too many of us would be keen to be making, serving or eating 'foul' fruits! This recipe is one I have adapted from the Australian publication by Reader's Digest of a book jam-packed with traditional Australian recipes: 'Family Recipe Scrapbook: tried and trusted recipes for today's cooks'. I bought the book in preparation for the 2005 Zaar World Tour, so I could track down familiar recipes I've eaten often or heard of but not previously eaten. What I love about the recipes in this book is that from whatever decade or century past they come, they have been updated to suit C21st tastes. This is a prepare-ahead recipe, and the preparation and cooking times below do not include macerating and cooling times. BTW, 500g Australian = 455g Canadian = 1 pound American.

• Ready In: 50 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 500  g strawberries or 500  g raspberries or 500  g blackberries or 500  g  peaches or 500  g apricots, skinned, stoned and sliced or 500  g cherries, pitted
• 1⁄2 cup caster sugar, less if the fruit is very sweet
• 1  tablespoon lemon juice
• 2  tablespoons water
• 2⁄3 cup  pouring  cream
• 1  egg
• 1  egg yolk
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄4 cups  thickened  cream
• 2  tablespoons pistachio nuts, chopped, to decorate (optional)
•  fresh  fresh edible flowers (optional) or   sugared  fresh edible flower, to decorate (optional)

Directions

1. Place the prepared fruit in a bowl and, depending on its sweetness, sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Leave to macerate for 30 minutes.
2. Purée the macerated soft fruit in a food processor or electric blender. If using strawberry, raspberry or blackberry purée, pass through a fine nylon sieve into a bowl to remove theseeds before custard and whipped cream. Chill the purée for at least 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, to make the custard, bring the pouring cream almost to the boil; lightly whisk the egg and egg yolk in a bowl with the remaining sugar, then stir in the hot cream and vanilla extract; place the bowl over a saucepan of gently boiling water and stir the mixture until it thickens enough to hold a slight trail and thinly coat the back of a spoon lifted out of the custard mixture. TAKE CARE NOT TO OVERHEAT the custard mixture or it may curdle.
4. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and cover the surface closely with plastic wrap, right on the surface, to prevent a skin from forming. Allow the custard to cool then chill in the refrigerator.
5. Whisk the cream in a large bowl until it holds soft peaks.
6. Combine the custard with the fruit purée and fold it gently into the whipped cream.
7. Spoon the fool into tall glass parfait glasses and chill for 2 hours.
8. To serve, sprinkle with pistachio nuts or decorate with flowers, and serve with my Shortbreads Recipe #139166.
9. Variations: See Fresh Fruit Fool Recipe #139164.