Fruit fool

Late summer's the time of plums, damsons and blackberries. But if you're lucky enough to have grown any of those in your garden, you've probably had to freeze some of them and now wonder what you can do rather than just pies and crumbles. When it comes to damsons I've been known to make damson gin and give it away for Christmas presents - as well as keeping some for the obligatory skiing hip flask.

But fruit fools are a quintessentially British pudding which are easy to make and very luxurious. You can use most common fruits, even apples and pears. They may need cooking for different lengths of time but it doesn't take much experience to work out how much and it's not particularly critical. It's worth having a go because, as you have to taste as you go along due to the differing sweetness of different fruits, the results are bound to be good.

You don't have to use the dessert wine but I saw the idea in a recipe recently and it does add that little extra.

Serves four

150g to 200g of fruit such as stoned and chopped plums, blackberries or damsons.
100g caster sugar (plus some more for adjustments)
Five tablespoonfuls of dessert wine
Juice of half a lemon
250ml of double cream

Place the fruit into a pan with about half the sugar and a couple of tablespoonfuls of water. Cook gently for ten minutes or so. Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. Then allow to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the remaining sugar with the lemon juice and dessert wine. Add the cream and whisk until it's at the soft peak stage. Don't make it too hard.

Gently fold the cooked fruit mixture into the whisked cream but don't worry about it being uniformly mixed. Changes in mixture only make it more interesting.

Spoon into wine glasses or suitable dessert bowls and chill for a couple of hours before serving - perhaps with a piece of shortbread. If you wished, when folding the fruit into the cream, you could keep some of it back in order to top your fool or even put a little in the glasses beforehand.