For St. Patrick's day, I made a traditional Irish dessert: Blueberry fool. Oh my god it was amazing. According to this source, which is also the recipe that I used, certain Irish locals know where to look when they are in need of blueberries. This recipe was created when those blueberries were mixed with Whipped cream, vanilla, and sugar!
Ingredients
1 pint fresh blueberries
2 cups whipping cream
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Directions
1. Put the blueberries and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and cook just until the berries release their juice and some start to burst, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely.
2. Whip the cream with the 2 tablespoons sugar until soft peaks form. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Pour the cooled blueberries and their juice over the whipped cream and fold the fruit in lightly, allowing streaks to remain. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
4. Spoon into serving bowls or glasses.
While those were cooking and eventually cooling, I started on the whipping cream. I have to say, after these past weeks, my electric mixer is my best friend. I have used it with every dessert, and will probably use it for the upcoming ones as well. So the whipping cream was to have "soft peaks form." I let it whip and it looked like it cloud.
At this point, all my ingredients were ready to be mixed, I had the soft peaks, and the juicy blueberries. But the blueberries were still pretty warm, and the whipped cream was starting to wilt a little bit. I put both of them into the refrigerator and took a dinner break. When i pulled them out again, they were ready to mixed.
With the two of them finally together, it was pretty funny how my camera couldn't pick up the colors of the blueberries next to the bright white of the cream. Mixing them was difficult because I needed to mix them not too much where it would kill the whipped cream, and I also needed to keep it visually appealing of course.
I wanted to eat it so bad at this point. It was like tie dye. Letting it cool was the worst part of this process. It looks so ready for me to eat! Fortunately I resisted, because after it cooled it tasted so much better than what I had tried off the spoon prior. So, since I made a pound cake last week and wasn't in the mood for that process again, I picked up an angel food cake block from giant, and six little sponge cake cups also from giant. I cut out the center of the block and plopped the mix into it.
Along with flopping some of it into the mini cups.
And here's my super artsy collage:
The blueberry fool was seriously so good I've been having it for dessert every day since I've made it, and i'm pretty sure my Grandma has been having it for breakfast! :)
This was so good! (Thanks for bringing some in, by the way.) And this recipe seems, at least to me, to be more difficult than some of the others you've been doing. I may be wrong, but I've always thought that getting whipping cream to the right consistency was pretty difficult.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've found your blog so entertaining to read! Your voice accurately reflects the way you talk in person -- you add in humorous elements every now and then to keep it light and interesting.
Good luck with the rest of your project!
Ahhhh looks so yummy! I love how you included the recipe so maybe I'll try to make it as well. Also, your blog posts are very descriptive and with all the pictures and links I can see your whole cooking process clearly.
ReplyDeleteAs you said in your first blog post, you are definitely continuing to incorporate fruit in to these yummy confections. Do you know what you're "final product" is going to be yet?
This sounds so good I wish I could've had some! Your blog is very visually appealing and the fact that you add pictures every step of the way really helps the reader see exactly what you were doing and what the food should look like, especially if they are going to make it themselves. I also love how you have gained some culinary common sense of cooling the whipped cream and blueberries as they were starting to melt. What do you have planned for next week and do you plan on bringing in a sample of your genius project for the ted talk?
ReplyDeleteYour blueberry fool looks delcious! You know Jenna, you still have yet to bring me some food! Anyway, it seems like you are having a lot of fun making these desserts and you are actually suceeding in making them! As much as I love to cook, I stick to brownies, cupcakes, cookies and cakes. I really like how you incorporated other items with your dessert. Like putting the fool in the cake, I never would of thought of that. And your presentation is very nice, I might add.
ReplyDeleteOh man! It is quite a torture to see really pretty and delicious looking dessert right in my face without tasting it at all! I think I'm going to "try" making some for myself to by following your instructions! You described everything in such details that I think people like me can follow along, too. Your blog is very fun to follow along, and see such colorful pictures of sweet desserts! Hope your final project looks (and tastes) as appealing as this one. Great job!
ReplyDelete