Fool

We made this dessert for dinner guests this weekend. I was in the mood for ginger, and thought I would make a cake; but lost my motivation. Fool is an English dessert, something I learned to make when working in London. It is layered much like a parfait, but it doesn't require the arduous fiddling with eggs.

16 oz. greek yogurt

1 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peak

6 peaches, pitted and large dice

1/4 cup sugar

a generous grating of fresh ginger

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

There a lots of little tips I can give you with this recipe. The first, don't substitute anything for the greek yogurt. It has a natural tartness to it that is a beautiful foil for the fat and sweetness of this dessert. But if you must, if you cry, "Claudine, I cannot find greek yogurt for sale at my local grocery store", then try plain FULL FAT yogurt.

Secondly, I like to have fresh ginger to hand, but found myself constantly buying it, using a miniscule amount and then laying it in my crisper drawer to be forgotten and to become moldy. Then some clever cookbook recommended I keep it in the freezer and simply grate the frozen chunk into whatever recipe calls for it. Pure genius. The ginger will change in consistancy and become quite sodden with water if it is defrosted, but that should never be neccessary. Remember, freeze and grate.

Enough tips - let me outline the simple recipe for you.

The first step is one we used in England, and I skimped on it quite a bit when making the fool this weekend. I will let you decide whether you want to do it or not. I was taught to turn the yogurt onto a double or triple layer of cheesecloth. Gather the ends of the cloth and secure them. Then hang the whole contraption suspended over a large bowl and leave it to sit in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning you will find a thin yellowish liquid in the bowl, dispose of this. You have effectively leeched some of the liquid out of the yogurt making it thicker and creamier in consistency. If you would like to cheat, I will tell you that this weekend I only drained the yogurt for 2 hours, and had good results.

Combine the chopped peaches, 1/4 cup sugar, and grating of ginger in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir the mixture occassionally to prevent the sugar from catching and burning. You need only cook the peaches for a short time, perhaps ten minutes, only long enough for the fruit to soften and the flavours to combine.

Remove the pan from the heat and cool off the mixture. I placed the whole thing in the freezer and stirred it every ten minutes. You won't want to add it to your cream/yogurt mix until it has cooled. Lukewarm would be permissable.

Lastly whip your cream to soft peak. For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, soft peak refers to the type of mound you should see in the cream when you touch and pull your finger, a fork, a beater away from the surface. It happens shortly after you notice the cream thicken. And it should create a little mountain which falls over on itself at the tip.

Okay, I said this way easy...so here goes.

In a bowl large enough for the cream and yogurt stir your yogurt with a utensil to break it up and soften it. Add your cream and gently combine the mixture. Now you are ready with all your layers. Simply combine them yogurt, fruit, yogurt, fruit in a container for serving - or in individual containers - think glasses....

If you are using the crystallized ginger, it is typically very spicy, so be spare with it.

AND if you are like us and overfeed your guests you will find yourself with leftover fool. No matter. This recipe is fabulous on top of waffles in the morning, especially if you have candied nuts around. Or you can pop it all in the freezer for an impromptu semifreddo, simply be sure to stir the mixture every 1/2 hour to prevent untasty ice crystals from forming.