I had some 'leftover' cooked rhubarb from when I made a batch of rhubarb syrup and decided to use that as a compote in a rhubarb dessert for our mothers' day dinner. I did some searching and came up with a layered dish with tangy-sweet rhubarb compote, fluffy whipped cream, and cookie crumbles, a fool. Why a fool?
Wikipedia reports: "Foole is first mentioned as a dessert in 1598 (together with trifle), although the origins of gooseberry fool may date back to the 15th century. The earliest recipe for fruit fool dates to the mid 17th century. Why the word "fool" is used as the name of this fruit dessert is not clear. Several authors derive it from the French verb fouler meaning "to crush" or "to press" (in the context of pressing grapes for wine), but this derivation is dismissed by the Oxford English Dictionary as baseless and inconsistent with the early use of the word."
So, I still don't have an answer to the etymology of the dessert name. But I do have a wildly successful dessert that is elegant, light, and easy to make.
Layer, in a large trifle dish...
- rhubarb compote
- ginger-scented whipped cream (whipped cream + ground ginger + dash of organic, granulated sugar)
- honey-ginger cookies, crumbled
I ended up with 4 whipped cream layers, 3 layers of rhubarb, and 4 layers of crumbles. It was delicious!
Great combination of flavors in one of my favorite types of dessert! I love the way a Fool is all at once light and full of flavor and richness!
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