Strawberry Fool Dessert Recipe

🍓 Ingredients

My fool is simple and straightforward to prepare. Yet, I have added a small flavor element to keep things interesting.

You can find the detailed US and Metric measurements listed in the recipe card further below.

• Strawberries — super fresh.
• Lemon Juice — to marinate the cut mashed strawberries in lemon juice.
• Black Pepper — helps in balancing the tart strawberry flavors. It's a secret ingredient! 🙂
• Whipping Cream — look out for quality whipping cream with at least 30% fat content, anything less won't stiffen as well.
• Powdered Sugar — Blends well into the whipping cream mass.
• Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Sugar — a small quantity to taste. I use a German vanilla extract.

🔪 How to make it?

I show you in a nutshell here how this dessert comes together. This will help you to understand the process quickly. The video shows it better and the detailed recipe is further below.

Step 1

Clean Strawberries and quarter.

Stir in lemon juice and black pepper. Mash strawberries with a fork and leave to marinate.

Step 2

Add whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract to a cold bowl.

Whip to stiff whipping cream.

Step 3

Place marinated strawberries into a serving glass or bowl, add a layer of whipping cream, and repeat.

Garnish at the end with some fruit fool or strawberry slices.

💡 Tips

Here are some things to look out for when preparing this dessert from scratch.

• The longer you keep the strawberries to marinate, the better they will taste. I kept them for about 1 hour.
• Use a cold bowl. Place it in the fridge before using it. Metal bowl will work better.
• Keep your liquid whipping cream in the fridge. It needs to be cold as this will help your cream to stiffen better.
• Use only heavy whipping cream with at least 30% fat content. This is required or else your cream won't whip.
• You can add some whipping cream stabilizer powder to help you whip this cream stiff. We used it all the time in culinary school in Austria. The one from Dr.Oetker is the only one that I recommend.

💖 Variations

You can add other fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, currants, and blackberries to your fool.

To make “healthier” fools, use Greek yogurt instead of whipping cream. This might also be a better option if you struggle to find whipping cream that actually stiffens.

Another great idea is to add a dollop or two jam to your strawberries. A great addition to your strawberry fool is rhubarb jam, rhubarb sauce, or strawberry rhubarb jam.

Other jams can be added as well, such as blueberry jam or raspberry jam.

My secret tip? I love to use wild strawberries. They are hard to come by, but they are super flavorful.

🥣 Serving

Serve up your strawberry fool cold. It's a great summer dessert, but it's equally delicious any other time of the year.

Strawberries are in season in spring and late summer, so that's when you get the best strawberries. You can cut some and place your strawberry slices as a garnish.

Fresh mint leave makes a great garnish.

🍱 Storing

Your strawberry fool will keep well in your fridge for up to 3 days.

You can freeze your fool too, but it will turn hard and kind of like ice cream. BUT ice water crystals will form and reduce the quality experience of having this dessert. So, I don't recommend it.