Edd Kimber's alpine strawberry fool recipe
A simple yet delicious traditional English dessert with a mixture of fruit and granola for a beautiful summery treat that can be made using foraged alpine strawberries. Use store-bought if you can't find wild strawberries.
Tip: When folding in the compote, use a very light hand to ensure a pretty rippling effect
Tip: Be sure to stop whipping the cream as soon it holds soft peaks as, if you are refrigerating, it will keep the mixture silky smooth
Ingredients
For the custard- 250 ml whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- 100 g caster sugar
- 15 g cornflour
- 400 g alpine strawberries
- 85 g caster sugar
- 300 ml double cream
- 12 crystallised rose petals (optional)
- 70 g strawberry granola
Details
- Cuisine: English
- Recipe Type: Dessert
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 10 mins
- Cooking Time: 25 mins
- Serves: 6
Step-by-step
- For the custard, place the milk and vanilla bean paste into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Whilst coming to temperature, place the egg and yolks into a large bowl along with the caster sugar and the cornflour, whisking together until smooth.
- Pour the hot milk onto the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour this custard back into the pan and over medium heat, stir constantly until the custard has thickened (it should have the texture of custard made with powder, thicker than a creme anglaise but still pourable).
- Pour back into the bowl and press a sheet of cling film onto the surface of the custard and refrigerate until cold.
- For the strawberry compote, place the strawberries and sugar into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until the fruit has released lots of juice. Continue to cook until the juice has reduced to a syrup and the strawberries have just started to break down. Pour into a small bowl and refrigerate until chilled.
- To assemble the fools, divide half of the compote between six glasses and top with the custard. Sprinkle the strawberry granola onto the custard and then set the glasses aside for the moment.
- In a large bowl whisk the cream until it holds soft peaks, add most of the remaining compote (reserving a little to decorate the desserts) and gently fold together, leaving it partially swirled in. Spoon the cream mixture into the glasses.
- To finish the fool, spoon the remaining compote on top of the cream and sprinkle a little extra strawberry granola. If you want to make the decoration of the dessert extra special, add one or two crystallised rose petals to each glass.
- To make these, paint rose petals with a thin layer of egg white and dip into sugar, making sure everything is covered. Set the petals onto a parchment lined baking tray and allow to dry out for at least two hours, but preferably overnight.
Recipe devised by Edd Kimber after being inspired by the Jordans Wildlife Garden at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show.
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