Custard Raspberry Fool Recipe

Today's recipe is a classic Scottish dessert, using that most Scottish of fruit, the raspberry.

Fools, as blends of fruit and whipped cream date back to the 1590s, though this is a more modern version made with an egg custard base.

Why a Scottish recipe? Because I'm currently working on a book of  traditional Scottish recipes that will include Burns Night and Hogmanay dishes as well. Look out for the book in the next couple of weeks.

Custard Raspberry Fool Recipe

Ingredients:

For the Egg Custard:

1 egg

300ml (1 1/4 cups) milk

1 dessert spoon sugar

For the Fruit:

750ml (3 cups) raspberries

60ml (1/4 cup) water

sugar, to taste

Method:

Combine the raspberries and water in a pan. Cover and stew gently for about 15 minutes, or until the fruit have broken down. Take off the heat and pass through a fine-meshed sieve, pressing down with the back of a spoon to extract as much fruit pulp as possible. Sweeten to taste with sugar.

In the meantime prepare the custard. Beat the egg in a heat-proof bowl then whisk in the milk. Place the bowl in a pan of barely-simmering water and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens. Sweeten to taste with sugar.

Combine 600ml of the redcurrant pulp with 300ml of the custard and set aside to cool. Spoon into dessert glasses and allow to cool completely. Chill for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator before serving.

For more Scottish recipes (over 350) see the Celtnet Scottish recipes pages.

For all the British recipes on this blog see the recipes from the British Isles page.