This quick and easy Strawberry Fool dessert recipe is a great last minute recipe when you need to whip up something yummy and time's short. It's also the perfect way to use up any left over strawberry's you might have and the more ripe they are, the better!
Strawberry Fool Dessert
This classic British dessert is a fruit packed fresh cream pudding known as a 'fool'. It's possible the name comes from the French word fouler (to crush) but it's an old recipe with an unknown origin, so it's not certain.
What is certain is that this dessert's made with Real food, no nasties and can be put together in minutes. This is a fully kid approved recipe, and kind of took over the packet mousse type puddings I used to buy for the kids, the ones you'd whisk with milk and set in the fridge).
And to be honest, while this isn't really comparable to those sort of desserts (it's just so much better), this is our version of those.
Strawberry Fool's not something we have often and being made with heavy cream, it's a treat, but when we do, it's a winner. Every time.
You could use other fruit to make this if you've got fruit that needs using up. The fresh cream sets the fruit into a firmer dessert, you just need to make sure the fruit is drained of most of it's juice after you've crushed it, or it won't set properly. In fact, you don't even need to set this and could serve it up as soon as it's made, if you like.
These are the sort of sundae dishes you can serve this dessert recipe in. But I see no good reason to stick to traditional Sundae dishes, and also like to use regular, small glasses. Being slightly obsessed with pretty glassware, I'm always on the look out for a new set. Here's some of my favorites:
What to make with the juice from crushed fruit
A nice extra of making this recipe is that you can use the juice from the crushed fruit that you don't want in the recipe. Here, we use this for smoothies the next morning at breakfast, in keeping with trying to waste as little food as we possibly can.
Try adding it to one of these smoothies for some extra sweet goodness:
- Mango and banana smoothie
- Tropical smoothie with yogurt
- The mighty Minion smoothie
- Dark chocolate and strawberry smoothie
Strawberry fool with yogurt
I have made this recipe replacing the heavy cream with Greek yogurt. If you're keen to avoid the fat in the cream you could try using yogurt. I'd recommend using a little more maple syrup than I do in this recipe, and the result will be a looser Strawberry fool, and although this way it won't set in the fridge, you do still end up with a beautiful pastel pink summery strawberry dessert.
Personally, I don't worry about the fat content too much and prefer to simply make sure i'm using Real, good quality food ingredients, while keeping my portion sizes in check. But I do appreciate some people like to do this as well as keep an eye on their overall fat intake. If this is you, try the yogurt, the results are still good!
How to make a Strawberry Fool Dessert
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Cups fresh, hulled, chopped in half Strawberrys
- 3 Extra Strawberry's for topping the dessert at the end
- 1 1/4 Cups fresh, heavy cream
- 2 tbs Maple syrup
Process
- Roughly mash your strawberry's. The idea is to leave some whole pieces of fruit in amongst some mashed strawberry - this masher is perfect for the job
- Drain the juice off your mashed and crushed strawberry's and set aside for another recipe (smoothies!). Set the fruit to one side
- Using a large bowl, whisk your heavy cream until it thickens. The trick is to stop just as the cream is turning thicker. You want a consistency where the cream falls slowly off the back of a spoon. If your cream starts to clump and lose it's smooth silky consistency, you've over whisked it!
- Add the maple syrup to the cream and fold it in
- Add the crushed fruit to the cream mixture and fold it in. I like to aim for a mixture where there are no areas of cream color left, only a beautiful pastel pink
- Spoon your mixture into sundae dishes and put in the fridge until needed, or at least an hour
Strawberry Fool Dessert Recipe (To Print)
Strawberry Fool Dessert
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Fresh Strawberry's hulled and halved
- 1 1/4 Heavy Cream
- 3 Large Fresh Strawberry's Chopped small for topping
- 2 tablespoon Maple Syrup
Instructions
- Roughly mash your strawberry's. The idea is to leave some whole pieces of fruit in amongst some mashed strawberry
- Drain the juice off your mashed and crushed strawberry's and set aside for another recipe (smoothies!). Set the fruit to one side
- Using a large bowl, whisk your heavy cream until it thickens. The trick is to stop just as the cream is turning thicker. You want a consistency where the cream falls slowly off the back of a spoon. If your cream starts to clump and lose it's smooth silky consistency, you've over whisked it!
- Add the maple syrup to the cream and fold it in
- Add the crushed fruit to the cream mixture and fold it in. I like to aim for a mixture where there are no areas of cream color left, only a beautiful pastel pink
- Spoon your mixture into sundae dishes and put in the fridge until needed, or at least an hour
And in a dose of real life reality, while making this recipe and photographing it for this post, while my back was turned for two seconds our cat, Felix, decided he'd like to see what all the fuss was about. Talk about the cat that got the cream :)
