Rhubarb fool is a creamy dessert that is refreshing at the same time. This is due to the acidity in the rhubarb cutting through the richness of the cream giving a well balance slidy down pudding which is great to round off a good meal. We love rhubarb and it is one of those fruits, well stems really, that we only eat in season. We always force 1 of the 4 hearts we grow, in rotation each year, to get an early crop of bright pink stems. The rest we pick as it grows and once over that will be it for another year.
Serves 4
Link to measurement conversion chart
Ingredients
- 450g rhubarb chopped to 1 inch pieces
- 1 orange, zested then squeezed for the juice
- 75g soft brown sugar
- 425g can of custard or similar quantity of homemade custard
- 150ml double cream beaten until softly stiff
You will also need
- 4 good sized wine glasses
- a small saucepan
- a mixing bowl
- a seive
Method
- Put the rhubarb in a pan with the orange juice and sugar, simmer on a low heat for 15 mins until pulpy, remove from the heat
- Drain the rhubarb using the seive over a bowl, saving the syrupy juice. Put the juice back in a pan and simmer until reduced by half. Cool the rhubarb pulp.
- Mix together the custard, ¾ of the cream and rhubarb pulp then add half of the reduced syrup and stir well.
- Evenly distribute the fool amongst 4 wine glasses then decorate the top with a swirl of cream some orange zest and a drizzle of the remaining syrup.
- Refrigerate for 30 mins until ready to serve
Serving suggestions and variations
- Try using gooseberries instead or rhubarb
- Use 2 oranges and layer the syrup in the glasses with the fool
- Serve with some shortbread fingers or cigarettes russes
- Omit the cream and use extra custard if you want a less rich dessert, make the custard extra thick
- Try using stem ginger syrup instead of orange juice and sugar, chop a little stem ginger as decoration
Acknowledgements
Rhubarb is one of those foods that bring back childhood memories of my Grandma for me. She had a huge patch growing in her garden and it was always ready to pull during our summer school holidays. We would usually have it with crumble but as I grew older and had a rhubarb patch of my own I found 2 fool recipes to refer to, 1 just uses cream and introduces orange, the other adds custard. This recipe is a combination of the two and goes down well in our household. Thanks to “The dairy book of family cookery” and “Hamlyn new all colour cookbook” for the original recipes.
If you have enjoyed this recipe you might also like to try one of these from our collection:
- For a tasty and simple version of the classic try our French Onion Soup, a must with melted gruyere on a crouton
- Add a bit of sunshine to your life with our South African Bobootie, which is a cross between a cottage pie and mousaka
- Round ovff a meal with luxury and make your own Vanilla Ice Cream - yummy
Happy eating!