Strawberry Fool – A Fresh Fruit Dessert

This is the season for amazing strawberries and here is a deliciously light yet decadent dessert. A Strawberry Fool – a fresh fruit dessert. If you haven’t had a fruit fool, you are in for a treat. This is an easy and perfect dessert to end your meal, your afternoon tea, or just to have as a refreshing treat all by itself. I love to serve this in the dessert course for my afternoon teas – its light enough and balances well with your other sweets.

By definition, a fool is an English dessert. Traditionally, fruit fool is made by folding pureed stewed fruit into sweet custard. Modern fool recipes often skip the traditional custard and use whipped cream. For the purposes of this post, we will be using whipped cream instead of a custard. Either is delicious.

Strawberry Fool Ingredients

• Fresh Strawberries
• Sugar
• Whipping Cream
• Vanilla
• Strawberries and fresh mint for garnish

Creating the Strawberry Puree

For this recipe, I am using fresh strawberries but there are many variations to this recipe that I will touch on later in the post.

Take 2 cups of fresh strawberries and add the sugar, puree them in your food processor or blender. Then strain the puree through a mesh strainer or sieve to remove the seeds. Set this aside. You can also do this ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator or even freeze till you are going to use it.

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Prepare the Whipped Cream

Always chill the bowl and whip that you will be using to make your whipped cream. I stick it in the freezer for a bit till its really cold. Make sure your whipping cream is cold as well.

Add the vanilla and whip the cream until stiff peaks. Your whipped cream should be able to stand up on its on when you lift the whip upright. Remember that you will be adding the puree to the whip cream, so the stiff peak will be relaxed just from the folding and addition.

Filling your dishes

Now that you have the puree completed and the whipped cream ready, gently fold the puree into the whipped cream without deflating the whipped cream. You can completely mix through or you can leave streaks in the whipped cream. Its up to you!

Once done, place your fool into a piping bag without a tip. Or you can use a gallon size Ziploc bag as well. I please the bag in a cup to fill – helps to keep it upright and is easier to fill. If using a Ziploc bag, just snip off the end to allow you to pipe the fool into your serving dish.

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Pipe the Strawberry Fool into your selected dishes. I have used several different types of glasses. You will want to use a clear glass container so that you and your guests can enjoy the beauty of your Strawberry Fool. Here’s a selection…from vintage to modern, champagne flutes, berry bowls, juice glass and even a shooter glass!

Serving your Strawberry Fool

Once your dishes are filled, you will want to refrigerate your fool until serving. I have made these early in the day, store them in the refrigerator for teas or functions that I am serving later in the day. They will stay nice and fluffy until then. This is something that you will want to do the day of you are serving them.

Fruit Fool Variations on a Theme

Now that you have a basic recipe, step out and explore and experiment. Here are a couple ideas….Raspberries or Lemon Curd. Both delicious. The recipe changes a little bit to account for sweetness, but its pretty similar to the Strawberry Fool recipe and have been included below. You could do peaches, apricots, or blueberries – its all in your imagination. And the best privilege of the cook is that you get to taste it to make sure its delicious!

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So simple, so easy and yet very elegant and delicious. Enjoy a great Strawberry Fool – a fresh fruit dessert.