Gooseberry Fool
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Top and tail the gooseberries.
Place the gooseberries in a lined saucepan with sugar and water.
Stew gently until the gooseberries are perfectly tender.
Finish and serve
Rub the mixture through a sieve and let it cool completely.
Once cold, mix in the custard.
Serve in a glass dish with sponge fingers.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the tart fruit base that gives the fool its body and flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart gooseberries and balances their acidity.
- Custard
- Adds creaminess and richness to the smooth fruit purée.
The step that matters
Cool the purée completely before adding the custard. Mixing custard into warm fruit purée can thin it or cause the custard to split, so the fool loses its smooth, thick texture. Letting the purée cool fully keeps the custard stable.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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