Raspberry Fool and some fun pictures!!

Welcome back to Tasty treats! I have great news to share with you all today! Finally, I mean FINALLY, I am employed!! I am going to start my job next week. Totally excited and nervous at the same time, but since I have been volunteering at the same place for the last three months, I am familiar with my work and colleagues. I got the work visa and papers a couple of days ago and is currently busy with getting everything in order before I start my work. But I will definitely maintain this blog, and will continue to share with you all wonderful recipes and stories that I come across.


Now, about this recipe - We went to a "raspberry and apple picking excursion" last weekend. We all love raspberries here, but I seldom buy them from the grocers because they are really expensive! So when we went to the orchard, I made sure to pick raspberries to my hearts fill so that I can make use of it in a couple of good simple recipes. We had so much fun at the orchard and since lil LM is almost 4 yrs now, she had tons of fun, especially looking under the leaves for bright red ripe raspberries! We had a couple of casualties, yes, when we came back home, both of us had bee-stings on our arms, serves us right for sticking our hands onto their faces!! But nevertheless, LM had great fun riding on the cow-ride, picking the raspberries and eating apples picked straight from the tree, which made us parents reeeeeally happy!

A fruit fool is a dessert made by mixing fruit puree, whipped cream, sugar and flavorings like rose water or extracts (wiki). This is one of the simplest recipes ever and gives you great flavoring options along with a great choice of the primary fruit. It hardly takes 15 minutes to prepare but is such an amazing and light dessert. If using fresh fruit that is not very sweet, make sure to add sugar to the whipping cream so that the dessert has a balance of sweetness and tartness. I actually halved the recipe and used fresh raspberries instead of frozen raspberries in syrup. So I added a bit of sugar to the whipping cream before beating. I had posted a recipe for Mango-Lime Fool earlier.

I loved the raspberry fool, it was light and airy, could have been a bit more sweet. It was a bit tart because I didnt use raspberries in syrup. It was a pleasure taking pictures of this blushed dessert, it simply was beautiful on a white background!! JM would have given it 5 stars if it were a bit more sweet. LM enjoyed her share, after all the waiting while the photo-shoot was going on! I garnished mine with grated chocolate, fresh raspberries and mint leaves.

Be sure to check out our pictures at the end of this post!! Feel free to let me know if you enjoyed my post.

Recipe (Makes 4 servings) :

Frozen quick-thaw raspberries in light syrup - 1 (10 oz) package, thawed
Heavy or whipping cream - 1 cup
Almond extract - 1/8 tsp
Raspberries and mint leaves - for garnish

Method:

Press and scrape thawed raspberries with their syrup firmly against a medium-mesh sieve, over a large bowl, with the back of a spoon, to separate seeds from pulp.

Discard the seeds.

In a small bowl, beat heavy or whipping cream and almond extract until stiff peaks form, on medium speed.

With a rubber spatula or wire whisk, fold the whipped cream mixture into the raspberry puree.

Garnish with raspberries and mint leaves, chill and enjoy!!

Source: The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts.

Tips:

1. I halved the recipe and used fresh raspberries.
2. Since the raspberry juice was a bit tart, I added 1 tbsp of sugar while whipping the cream. Next time, I would probably add 4 tbsp.
3. I also added rose water instead of almond extract which gave the raspberry fool a wonderful exotic aroma and flavor.
4. Check out the mango-lime fool that I had posted earlier.
   

The pictures above are a few from our fun trip to an orchard where we picked raspberries and apples!! It sure was a memorable trip which lil LM enjoyed a lot. JM was busy taking pictures including the ones of a grasshopper and a cute lil lady bug! I was obviously busy picking 2 cartons of raspberries for us to enjoy!! So hold on, a couple more of raspberry recipes will be coming up soon on Tasty treats....

Thanks for visiting me today!! Have a great weekend....