As soon as the snow is gone, my body starts to crave greens, my eyes long to see green things growing, my mouth starts to water at the thought of rhubarb desserts. Almost as soon as the rhubarb was big enough to pick, I made a strawberry-rhubarb crisp. A couple of days later, I used chickpea flour to create a rhubarb coffee cake. A week went by before I made a rhubarb jam bar. I picked some rhubarb to make my favorite rhubarb brownies, but without knowing my plans, my son asked if I could make something light with it.
“Sure,” I said. “What about rhubarb fool?”
Jump to Recipe
This is not a traditional fool recipe. Because I assumed there were missing ingredients and instructions.
When you google “fool” it’ll tell you that it’s pureed fruit mixed with custard or whipped cream. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_fool) This one, regardless of how great-grandma intended it, is both. We could talk about who the fool is here, but I’m working on keeping my self-esteem high. Also, the dessert is excellent served this way.
Another example of how I go the extra mile.
I had this boss who was fond of cliches, but in the most excellent way. (Teamwork makes the dream work, anyone?) When doing Business Analysis and Project Management work, he reminded us that when the project sponsor wants says they want a can of peas to give them a can of peas. However, if your sponsor says they need a can of peas, but your analysis shows they need a can of corn, give them both the peas and corn and let them decide what they need.
My version of the rhubarb fool is like that. Maybe you want a heavier custard? You can opt out of the whipped cream. Maybe you just want cream with no custard, that’s ok also. I suggest adding the rhubarb no matter if you choose cream or custard, but do you.
If you are one of those quarantine sourdough bakers, this makes an excellent topping for sourdough pancakes or waffles. If we’d had any leftovers, I’m sure they would’ve been good for a day or two, but we had no leftovers.
You’d be a rhubarb fool to not use pie plant in this way…
The Recipe:
Rhubarb Fool
Ingredients
Rhubarb Sauce
- 6 Cups Rhubarb chopped
- 1 Cup Sugar
Custard
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 Cup milk scalded
- 2 TB Sugar
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Whipped Cream
- 1 pt Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1/4 cup Sugar
Instructions
Rhubarb Sauce preparation
- Combine rhubarb sauce ingredients and cook until tender. Cool for about an hour.
Custard Preparation
- Combine cream ingredients over low heat and whisk until thickened. In order to prevent your eggs from curdling, mix eggs with a couple of TB of scalded milk prior to adding to the rest of the ingredients. Whisk constantly. Mixture will coat the back of a spoon when thickened sufficiently. Cool for about an hour.
Whipping Cream Preparation
- I always use my mixer for this, but some people enjoy doing it by hand. Fit your mixer with the whip attachment, add the cream, start whipping at top speed. As cream whips, gradually add sugar. Cream is sufficiently whipped when you can see the tracks of the whip through the cream. When the mixer is stopped and the head is raised, soft peaks should be visible. Whipping too far will create butter, which is really good, but not with sugar and not for this.
Presentation
- Fold together rhubarb sauce, custard, and whipped cream. Serve in parfait glasses and garnish.
If you like this rhubarb dessert and are hungry for other recipes, you might want to try: Pineapple Rhubarb Ring, Cinnamon Rhubarb Cake, Rhubarb Jam, or Rhubarb Dream Dessert. If you play with gluten-free versions of the cakes, let me know how they turn out.
Yum!! I love love LOVE Rhubarb Fool, and now I can’t wait for this season’s rhubarb crop to be ready.
How much longer is it for you? I have friends up north that are just getting rid of their snow now.