Valentine's Day Fool
A British dessert dating back to the 1500's, fruit fool is as simple as its name suggests. Traditional fool (or foole ) is nothing more than pureed fruit folded into sweetened whipped cream. For Valentine's day I took it a notch further and added a bed of peaches and bourbon syrup under the swirly folds of cream.
February 16, 2012
by Masha
What you need:
10 oz frozen raspberries
10 oz frozen or fresh peaches, sliced
a handful fresh berries for decoration
3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
7 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp bourbon
1 pinch ground cloves
(serves 2-4)
How to do it:
1. Thaw the raspberries fully (e.g. on low low heat in a pan) and drain them well, saving the juice.
2. Pour raspberry juice into a pan, add peaches and 5 Tbsp sugar and let simmer on medium low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the liquid becomes a very thin syrup forms (don't wait for it to get too thick, or the syrup will solidify when cool). Then, add bourbon and cloves and let simmer for 5-8 minutes more.
3. Remove the peaches from heat, ladle into the serving glasses and set into the fridge or on ice to cool.
4. Force the drained raspberries through a sieve to make fruit puree. This leaves most of the seeds in the sieve and out of the dessert. Make sure that the raspberries are really well drained first. Set the puree on ice to cool.
5. Whip cream to stiff peaks, adding the remaining 2Tbsp sugar half way through. Fold the raspberry puree into the cream, leaving pronounced streaks of red and white. Scoop this lovely mixture into the serving glasses over the cooled peaches. Decorate with berries and let cool very thoroughly over ice and in the fridge (or maybe freezer for 15 minutes, but I have not tried this).
6. Taste it, and fall in love!
The art of it:
A long time ago, before I started cooking or could legally taste bourbon, I saw Nigella's show about saving untasty winter peaches by simmering them in a bourbon syrup. The idea stuck until I finally tried it this Valentine's day. In this recipe, the syrup and peaches are a perfect complement to the carefree and unsophisticated fool. After all love is nothing simple.
My Valentine agreed that the taste of this was a perfect end to a perfect day.
10 oz frozen raspberries
10 oz frozen or fresh peaches, sliced
a handful fresh berries for decoration
3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
7 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp bourbon
1 pinch ground cloves
(serves 2-4)
How to do it:
5. Whip cream to stiff peaks, adding the remaining 2Tbsp sugar half way through. Fold the raspberry puree into the cream, leaving pronounced streaks of red and white. Scoop this lovely mixture into the serving glasses over the cooled peaches. Decorate with berries and let cool very thoroughly over ice and in the fridge (or maybe freezer for 15 minutes, but I have not tried this).
6. Taste it, and fall in love!
The art of it:
A long time ago, before I started cooking or could legally taste bourbon, I saw Nigella's show about saving untasty winter peaches by simmering them in a bourbon syrup. The idea stuck until I finally tried it this Valentine's day. In this recipe, the syrup and peaches are a perfect complement to the carefree and unsophisticated fool. After all love is nothing simple.
My Valentine agreed that the taste of this was a perfect end to a perfect day.
Summary: a dessert recipe
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