Fool

Fool is a traditional dessert. It is essentially fruit puree mixed with cream and/or custard.

Ingredients
about rhubarb or gooseberries
sugar
custard
which will need sugar, milk, custard powder

Equipment

saucepan
wooden spoon
measuring spoon (for making custard)
food processor (for rhubarb - optional)
sieve (for gooseberries)
1 bowl

preparation time:
stew fruit
make into puree
make custard
keep in fridge until cool

This can be made with different types of fruit, but rhubarb or gooseberries are particularly good. The fruit must be made into a puree. If you are doing rhubarb, use the stems only, please, as the leaves are poisonous! Cut up the stems. If you have no food processor or liquidiser, then cut them into very small slices. Gooseberries need to be 'topped and tailed', that is, the stalks and ends cut off. Then stew the fruit and sugar in a little water until a mush. The cooked gooseberries will need to go through a sieve to remove the pips. Cooked rhubarb can be 'whizzed' in a food processor or liquidiser to make it smooth and not stringy.
Add the sugar to the puree. The amount of sugar will depend on how sweet or sour the fruit is, and your own taste. Stir some of the sugar in well and try it to see if the puree wants some more. Remember that there's some more sugar in the custard.
Make the . If you are using the same saucepan, then wash it before making the custard, as the fruit juice is likely to make the milk curdle. (Once the milk has been made into custard, then it doesn't curdle - I don't know why.)
Mix the fruit and the custard.

This version of fool uses just custard, and British custard from a tin, which is really just flavoured cornflour. Despite this, it is extremely popular. You can use cream instead of, or in addition to the custard, or add some cream on top. If making custard-from-a-tin is too hard, then you can buy ready-made custard.
I mix the fruit and custard well, to make a uniform fool. Some people stir in the custard (or cream) into the fruit puree quite gently, in individual serving bowls, leaving spiral swirls, which is very pretty. My style is to make fool in bulk, in one serving bowl, and dish it out as required. I always hope that there will be enough left for another meal, but somehow...
I will admit that a bowl of rhubarb or gooseberry fool does not look very interesting. A bit of cream might cheer it up. However, we tend to have hundreds-and-thousands, chocolate strands, or other decorations, and everyone adds their own choice (or to put it another way, all of them!)

Fool

Here is another avriant, using apple. Make the custard first, pour into a bowl, and put in the fridge, to let it set a bit. Then cook the peeled and cored apple, possibly with spice, such as cloves or cinnamon. Put the cooked apple on top. The principle is that just mixing the apple puree and the custard would produce too bland a result. Keeping the two layers distinct adds more interest. The custard layer underneath is in the photo, but not very visible, I'm afraid. My husband calls this a "fool kit" - do-it-yourself!