Gooseberry Elderflower Fool Recipes

GOOSEBERRY & ELDERFLOWER FOOL

Steps:

• Wash the gooseberries thoroughly, top and tail them, then place in a wide heavy-bottomed pan with the sugar, cordial and lemon juice. Simmer over a gentle heat until all the gooseberries have burst.
• Lightly crush with a fork, tip into a bowl to cool and chill for at least 2 hrs. This can be done up to 2 days ahead.
• Lightly whip the cream to a soft dropping consistency, then swirl in the cooked gooseberries to give a rippled effect. Spoon the fool into glasses and chill until you are ready to serve.

GOOSEBERRY & ELDERFLOWER JAM

Steps:

• Tip the gooseberries into a large saucepan or preserving pan with 300ml water. Cook over a low heat for about 15 mins, stirring occasionally, until the fruit has broken down into a soupy purée.
• Add the sugar and cook over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat as high as it will go and boil everything for 10 mins, stirring the bottom to make sure the jam doesn't burn and skimming any scum off when it appears. If you have a jam or digital thermometer, the optimum temperature for the jam to set is 105C, but anything around 104C will be fine.
• Do the wrinkle test (see tip) on a frozen saucer to make sure it's set, then add the elderflower cordial and leave to cool before decanting your jam into sterilised jars.

GOOSEBERRY YOGHURT FOOL

Steps:

• For the fullest flavour, I think gooseberries are best cooked in the oven. So first place them in the baking dish, sprinkle on the sugar and bake them on the centre shelf of the oven, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, or until tender when tested with a skewer. After that tip them into a sieve set over a bowl to drain off the excess juice. Now reserve about a quarter of the cooked gooseberries for later, then place the rest in the bowl of a food processor, add 4 tablespoons of the reserved juice and whiz to a thick purée. After that, leave the purée to get quite cold, then empty the yoghurt into a bowl, give it a stir, then fold in half the purée. Now spoon this mixture into the serving glasses, spoon the rest of the purée on top and, finally, add the reserved gooseberries. Cover the glasses with clingfilm and chill till you're ready to serve, then serve with some Pecan Shortbreads (see below) cut into smaller rounds.

GOOSEBERRY FOOL

Steps:

• Place the gooseberries in a saucepan.
• Stir in the sugar and the water.
• Heat over low heat, stirring frequently, until the fruit begins to break apart. This will take between ten and fifteen minutes.
• Remove from the heat and stir, breaking any remaining pieces of fruit down so that the fruit is a rough puree. Don't worry about the seeds.
• Put the gooseberry puree in a heat-proof bowl.
• Let the mixture cool and then refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 24 hours.
• Remove the gooseberry puree from the fridge. Drain away any runny liquid using a sieve.
• Stir the St Gemain liqueur or Elderflower cordial into the gooseberry puree.
• Whip the cream and the tablespoon of sugar in an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
• Whip in the yogurt.
• Fold the gooseberry puree very gently into the cream and yogurt mixture. It's okay if you can see ripples of puree.
• Spoon gently into 6 serving dishes.
• You can serve the fools immediately but it is best if you can refrigerate them for at least an hour before.
• Garnish each fool with a couple of mint leaves.
• Any leftover Gooseberry Fool will keep for about 24 hours in the fridge.

GOOSEBERRY & ELDERFLOWER JAM

Steps:

• Top and tail the gooseberries, discarding the hard ends, and place in a large saucepan. If you're using elderflowers, tie them up in a piece of muslin and secure with string, then add to the saucepan. If using cordial, add to the pan with 150ml water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and has broken down nicely. Remove from the heat, squeeze any liquid out of the elderflower parcel and discard.
• Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Add the sugar and the vanilla pod and seeds to the pan and boil over a high heat for about 10 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms on the surface. Pour through a strainer into sterilised jars and leave to cool before putting sealing with the lids.