When I think of summer desserts, the fruit fool is always top of my list. Whether made with gooseberries, rhubarb or in this case raspberry, just 3 ingredients make up this classic English dessert. We weren’t given a lot of sweets growing up, but I always remember getting a Fool as a special treat. Decadent and delicious, it can be made by mashing any soft fruit with sugar and blending with whipped cream. Its name comes from the French ‘foulè’ meaning crushed. Add some broken meringues and you instantly have another English classic, Eton Mess. 

 

Raspberry Fool

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 cups raspberries, divided

1/2 cup of sugar, divided

1 cup heavy cream

 

Method:

1. Purée half the raspberries with half the sugar in a blender. Then pass the purée through a sieve to remove the seeds. Discard the seeds and keep the purée to the side.

2. In a medium bowl, beat the cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until soft peaks form.  

3. In another bowl, mix the remaining sugar with the remaining raspberries.

4. To finish the dessert you have several options. For completely mixed dessert, you can fold both the remaining raspberries with the purée into the whipped cream and watch as it turns into a soft pink color. Alternately, you can layer your dessert as pictured by starting with the purée, then adding a dollop of whipped cream and a scoop of mashed raspberries. To make patterns you can just run a spoon up the side of the glass, allowing the whipped cream to swirl with the purée.