Except, maybe, for berries in a bowl, sprinkled with sugar, with cream added to taste.
I’ve always called this a fool, a dish that has been around for centuries with lots of variations, some involving a custard-like mixture added to cooked fruit. I’ve heard it called mousse, also, but it doesn’t need eggs.
Essentially, one needs only to make a puree out of fresh fruit, whip some cream sweetened to taste, fold the puree into the cream, and chill.
Depending on your berries, you might want to heat them a little to soften them—especially hard ones like blueberries—or at least, mash them well, or puree them in a food processor, then strain them through a sieve to keep out the seeds. Blackberries really need that treatment, and raspberries benefit from it.
How you season them really depend on you. I like nutmeg with blueberries, nothing with raspberries, and a little cinnamon with blackberries. A squeeze of lemon juice helps, and sweeten it all to taste. The color of the dessert is always gorgeous, so if you have a glass dish, use that, or put the mixture into a pretty drinking glass, even a wine glass.
Roughly, a ratio of one part berry puree to one part of cream works pretty well, but don’t get too wound up about it, then beat the cream which expands it some. A little more puree or a little more cream will make hardly any difference.
Looking for….Zucchini Cookies. I’ve zuke cake recipes by the score, and I’d love a tried and true (preferably by one of you) recipe for cookies made with our favorite overgrown summer vegetable. Can anyone help?
Berry Fool
1 cup of berries, fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or less to taste
Sugar to taste
Spice to taste
1 cup of whipping cream
Simmer the berries briefly just until the juice begins to run, or soften them in the microwave. Strain them through a sieve or food mill to remove most of the seeds. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and spice and mix well. Beat the whipping cream until it forms peaks, and then gently fold the berry puree into the cream. Put in serving glasses, and chill for a couple of hours before serving.
Makes three to four servings.