Poached peach fool

Fool is a very simple dessert, but it shines when you use great ingredients, like fresh seasonal peaches. Here, poached fruit is layered with a cream-ricotta mixture, a quick berry sauce and crushed biscuits.

Credit: Barossa Gourmet with Justine Schofield

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 4 peaches
• 1 tbsp verjuice
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 2 vanilla beans, split and vanilla beans scraped
• 1 cup ricotta
• ½ cup cream
• 4 biscotti, crumbled

 

Quick coulis

• 1 punnet of raspberries
• 3 tbsp icing sugar  

Instructions

1. For the quick coulis, blend or crush in a mortar and pestle the raspberries with the sugar until smooth. Force through a fine sieve until smooth (optional).
2. To make the sugar syrup, in a medium pot add water halfway up, verjuice, sugar, scraped vanilla seeds and their pods and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the peaches, then cover with a cartouche (a piece of baking paper cut to the size of the pot and pierced in the centre). Poach on a gentle heat for 3-4 minutes then, with a slotted spoon remove. Allow to cool then carefully remove the skins and cut them into wedges.
3. Whisk the ricotta with a sprinkle of sugar. Add the cream and whisk again until smooth and fluffy.
4. Serve dollops of ricotta cream into individual glasses, and top with peaches, coulis and crumbled biscotti.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.