Traditional and modern Scandinavian and Nordic recipes.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Gooseberry Fool Recipe- A delicious dessert to celebrate April Fool's Day! Stikkelsbær dessert


We love gooseberries (stikkelsbær)! A typical Danish fruit that we have grown in our yards for years. Believe it or not we still have some gooseberries in the freezer from last summer.  So, April Fool's Day is coming up and we thought what better way to enjoy April Fool's Day by making Gooseberry Fool.
Gooseberries make a classic Fool dessert which dates as far back as the sixteenth century in England.  Even though Gooseberry Fool is not a Scandinavian dessert it is a wonderful refreshing dessert to serve after a Scandinavian dinner.  A delicious mixture of lightly sweetened fruit puree, sweet custard and whipped cream.
The word "Fool" is believed to have originated from the French word "fouler" which means "to mash" or "to press".  And this is exactly what we will do with this fruit dessert. So let's get started!

 
 Click on our YouTube video 
to see how Karen Grete prepares this delicious dessert. 

First Step: Make the Gooseberry Stewed Puree 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of gooseberries rinsed and drained, or frozen berries, thawed
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar or to taste
  • 2 tablespoons of Elderberry syrup or elderflower cordial or water
Instruction: 
  1. Clean, top and tail the gooseberries. 
  2. Put the gooseberries into medium, heavy saucepan over low heat.  
  3. Add in the elderberry syrup and sugar into the saucepan. 
  4. Bring up to boil and then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes gently until the gooseberries are soft and pulpy.  Keep stirring often.
  5. Then crush the berries with a potato masher or a fork when they are thoroughly soft. 
  6. Taste the liquid mixture to see if it needs more sugar. It might be tart
  7. If you like the gooseberries to be pureed, use a blender or a fruit processor.  Then strain if you like it smooth.  
  8. Cover and refrigerate until cool.
Second Step: Make the Custard
Check out our recent post on how to make homemade custard.  This custard recipe is very versatile and perfect for this dessert.
 Click on our YouTube video 
to see how Karen Grete prepares the custard.
Third Step: Make the Whipped Cream
Ingredients
  • 1 1/4 cup of heavy cream
Before serving make the whipped cream until soft peaks.
Fourth Step: Combine all of the Ingredients 
 
Instruction:
  1. Before you get started be sure the custard and the gooseberry puree have cooled down.
  2. When ready, gently fold the whipped cream into the custard into a medium mixing bowl. Leave about 1/4 of the whipped cream on the side for decoration later.
  3. Now we should be ready to prepare the serving bowl or individual glasses.  First, spoon the custard mixture onto the bottom of a serving bowl or individual glass.  
  4. Next layer, spoon the gooseberry puree on top of the custard layer. Then layer custard on top of the gooseberry puree mixture and so on.  Keep layering until the glass bowl is full with layers. This gives a beautiful contrast if serving in a glass bowl.  
  5. Keep the serving bowls or individual glasses in the refrigerator until ready to serve. 
  6. Decorate with additional whipped cream.  
  7. Add either thin slices of almonds, fresh gooseberries or chocolate on top as garnish before serving.
  
 A delightful combination.  It so pretty to see the contrasting layers in a clear glass.
  
Here our table setting has George Jensen silverware, a vintage Royal Copenhagen pitcher, a glass candle holder by iittala Finland and a Swedish summer tablecloth from IKEA. 
Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/
*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)


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