Soft-fruit Fool

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 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)

Recipe

• 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 shortbreads.
• 9 variations: see fresh fruit fool fresh fruit fool.