Recipe For Strawberry Fool

Why You'll Love This Recipe:

You will love this recipe for stawberry fool because:

• This recipe is to make the perfect quick no-cook and no-bake dessert when you want something easy.
• It’s a pretty-looking dessert that would look great on any summer dessert table, especially on occasions like Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or when you want to impress.
• It is a budget-friendly dessert that can be prepared up to three days in advance.
• It can be made as one large dessert for family sharing or served in individual glasses for fancy dinners.

Ingredients In This Recipe

The printable recipe further down the page has the complete list of ingredients, including quantities and step-by-step instructions.

• Fresh strawberries
• White granulated sugar
• Whipping cream or heavy cream

Equipment

• Measuring cups
• Kitchen scales
• Small sharp knife
• Cutting board
• Food processor or blender (you can make the recipe without these - see our recipe notes below for how).
• Electric hand mixer or balloon whisk
• Medium to large size mixing bowl
• Spatula or wooden spoon
• 4 – 6 small ramekins or glasses that are at least ¾ to 1 cup capacity.

Step By Step Instructions

Make The Puree

Step 1 – Wash and dry the strawberries with a clean tea towel.
Remove the stems and leaves from the strawberries and slice the strawberries in half.

Step 2 – Place the strawberries and sugar into a blender or food processor.

Step 3 - Puree the strawberries and sugar until smooth.

Step 4 – Remove ¾ cup of strawberry puree and put it aside - the rest of the strawberry puree will go into the cream in step 6.

Make The Strawberry Cream Mixture

Step 5 – Place the cream into a large mixing bowl, and use an electric hand mixer or balloon whisk to beat the cream until stiff peaks form.

Step 6 – Add the remaining strawberry puree (not the reserved ¾ cup of puree) to the whipped cream. Use a spatula and gently mix the two together.

Assembling The Strawberry Fool

Step 7 – Use a spoon and evenly divide the reserved strawberry puree between 4 ramekins or glasses.

Step 8 – Evenly divide the strawberry cream between the serving glasses.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Serve chilled. Garnish with crème Chantilly and fresh strawberry halves if desired.

Recipe Tips

Don’t have a blender? 

If you don’t have a blender, you can use a sharp knife to chop strawberries into small pieces instead of the puree.

And use icing sugar (powdered sugar) and whip that in with the cream rather than the strawberries.

You will have more of a textured strawberry and whipped cream dessert rather than smooth, but it will still be very nice.

What Are Soft, Medium, And Frim Peaks

To make peaks beat the cream until you see it start to thicken, stop beating, and lift the beaters out of the cream. 

Soft peak cream

If a peak forms and flops over immediately, it is a soft peak. 

If a recipe calls for a soft peak, you can stop beating, but if it asks for a medium or firm peak, continue to beat the cream for a little longer to get the correct consistency.

Soft peak cream is the best consistency for folding into other mixtures such as blancmange or making fruits in cream.

Medium peak cream

If the peak stands well, but the tip of the peak curls over it is a medium peak.

If you beat medium peak cream a little longer, it will become frim peaks.

Medium peak cream is best for sandwiching cakes together, or for serving with things like our eggless scones.

Firm peak cream

If the peak stands well and does not curl over onto itself, it has become a firm peak, and you should stop beating the cream.

If you continue to beat the cream after the firm peak stage, it will split and won't be nice to use.

Firm peak cream is best for piping or making desserts like our Dulce de leche mousse or this strawberry fool recipe.

Serving Size

How many serves you get from the recipe will depend on the size of the glasses you use. For your reference, this recipe for strawberry fool makes just over 4 ½ cups.

On this occasion, I used four glasses, each with a one-cup capacity, filled right to the top. There was some extra leftover to fill another half a glass.

The one full cup serving size is quite generous and maybe too much if serving after a heavy meal.

The next time I will be dividing the mixture into six, which I think is a better serving size.

You can use smaller serving glasses like half a cup or three quarter cup sizes and get more serves from it.

If making more servings, I suggest reserving a little more strawberry puree for the bottom of the glasses before mixing the puree with the cream.

Variations

There are several different ways to make a strawberry fool dessert. You can layer or fold in pureed or diced fruit that is either fresh or stewed in with the cream.

Option 1 – Make a compote - by cooking strawberries with sugar and lemon juice and allow it to cool completely before adding to the cream.

Option 2 - You could macerate (soften the strawberries without cooking).   

By mixing them with sugar and 2 – 3 tablespoons of fresh orange juice or lemon juice or Grand Marnier (for the adults).

Cover and allow to stand for about 30 minutes or longer for the juices to release. Then layer or mix in with the cream.

Option 3 – Puree the strawberries with sugar, then fold them in with whipped cream. (This is the method used for this recipe for strawberry fool).

Strawberry fool with custard

Make it the traditional British way with a thick custard and fruits like fresh strawberry puree, stewed gooseberry puree, or stewed rhubarb puree.

Storage

Refrigeration – Keep stored in the fridge until ready to serve.

Freezing – Not suitable to freeze.

Meal Prepping

This recipe can be made up to 3 days in advance.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Sweet Recipes

You might also like to try some of our other recipes made with strawberries like this strawberry pistachio overnight oats, or this strawberry shortcake overnight oats, or this strawberry almond milk or these recipes:

• Fresh strawberry muffins
• Strawberry compote
• Strawberry peach smoothie
• Strawberry cake with apple sauce
• Strawberry mint panacotta
• Strawberry pie