Strawberry Fool: Fruit Purée and Whipped Cream
The fool is an English dessert documented since the sixteenth century: fruit purée folded into whipped cream, and nothing else. No egg, no gelatine and no setting — it is soft on purpose, eaten with a spoon, and never meant to hold its shape. The classic is made with gooseberries; strawberries work just as well. Unlike strawberries and cream there are no layers here: everything becomes one pink mixture.
Ingredients
- 500 g ripe strawberries
- 60 g sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 400 ml very cold double cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
Method
- 1
Wash the strawberries with the hulls on and remove them afterwards: without the hull they take on water through the hole.
- 2
Cut 400 g into pieces and mix with the caster sugar and lemon juice. Leave for 20 minutes until they release their juice.
- 3
Purée or crush this fruit. Leave a few pieces if you like finding them.
- 4
Dice the remaining 100 g and set aside for the end.
- 5
Sieve the purée if you want a smooth fool, or leave it as it is. The looser the purée, the softer the dessert — it is the only variable you control.
- 6
Whip the very cold cream with the icing sugar and the pinch of salt to soft peaks: the whisk should leave a trail but the cream still fall from the spoon. Overwhipped, the fool turns heavy instead of light.
- 7
Fold the purée into the cream and stop before it is fully combined: a classic fool is served marbled, with pink and white streaks still visible.
- 8
Divide between glasses, top with the reserved diced strawberries and chill for an hour.
- 9
Serve cold. It does not keep to the next day: the fruit goes on releasing water and by day two the fool separates.