Honey Sweetened Raspberry Fool Dessert

Rich vanilla whipped cream and a tangy raspberry reduction gently swirled together to make a gently sweet raspberry fool dessert. Refined sugar free, it’s all you need to feel like you’ve had a dessert worth eating.

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These days the idea of sugar-laden desserts on on nearly as many people’s radars. Maybe they aren’t on yours. As we become more and more aware of the inflammatory effects white sugar has on our bodies, there’s never a better time to cut it wherever you can and this raspberry fool dessert is a great start.

I believe in still enjoying an occasional treat like this amazing rich, creamy, tangy raspberry fool but I used raw honey (which still spikes blood sugar, so don’t go wild) instead. You’ll never miss the sugar, and your body won’t miss the inflammation it causes.

What in the world is a raspberry fool dessert?

It’s an English dessert. Usually made with fruit that’s been cooked down and slightly thickened then gently stirred in to a thickened custard. Today most people skip the custard and use homemade whipped cream instead.

The Brits would leave the cream unsweetened, but I tweaked this version only slightly with a bit of honey and some vanilla. Feel free to leave the honey out if you’d like.

Let’s talk whipped cream

Cool whip is not whipped cream. Not even close. It’s whipped hydrogenated oil that’s synthetically flavored. That’s a no-no for your body. Let’s do better!

Even if you’ve never made homemade whipped cream before, you can. It’s not hard. Here’s how or you can watch this video:

1. Put cold heavy whipping cream (look for an organic version if you can afford it that’s free from carageenan or gums–or even better–use raw cream!) in to a bowl large enough to hold twice the volume of cream.
2. Add a tablespoon or two of vanilla.
3. Beat with a hand mixer or a stand mixer on high until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken–about 4 minutes.
4. Add a couple of tablespoons of honey (I usually do about 1 tablespoon of honey per 1 cup of cream I’m using, but you can certainly use less).
5. Keep beating until the cream will hold a stiff peak (another 4 or so minutes depending on how strong your mixer is) and then stop mixing or you’ll turn the whole thing to butter. (See picture below for what stiff peaks look like)
6. Then lick the spoon and realize you’re basically eating vanilla ice cream. It’s so dreamy.

What berries work best in a fool?

We’re using tart raspberries here. I intentionally kept the honey low in them so they’d be really sharp against the whipped cream.

If you are using a sweeter fruit like peaches, you may not need any honey at all! Any berry would work here though: blueberries or blackberries would be amazing as would peaches, cherries (tart ones), or strawberries.

Just cook the berries down in a pot with a little lemon juice and honey until they thicken a bit. That was about 10 minutes for me. Then set it aside to cool. You could do this the day ahead if you wanted to and frozen berries would be just fine to use.

To assemble your raspberry fool desserts

Use small jars or bowls. I was using half pint jars here–so that’s 1 cup. Start by dropping a spoonful of berry sauce in the bottom. Just a little. Then a dollop of cream, and then randomly keep adding cream and sauce until the jar is full.

Then (important): Take a knife and just swirl it through the jar once or twice. Don’t mix it. There should be streaks of berry sauce running through the jar, but just a bit.

Then you can refrigerate for up to 4 hours or serve immediately. It’s amazing to think that something so terribly simple could be so “scrummy” as the Brits say.

In Kentucky something like “I declare!” might fit the bill better, but either way it’s delicious. Check out my honey sweetened raspberry sorbet as well!