spiced damson fool

when i had my glut of damsons (from an overenthusiastic scrumping session) i made a large amount of spiced damson puree which was frozen in batches, ready to be mixed with whipped cream and turned into a fool.

we finally tried it the other week and dennis cotter’s decision to add a layer of toffee flavours by using muscovado sugar to sweeten the damsons was proven to be entirely correct and utterly delicious! his suggestion of shortbread as an accompaniment also worked really well.

this spiced puree would, i think, also work well turned into an ice cream, using nigel slater’s damson ice cream made with yoghurt as the base recipe.

dennis cotter’s damson fool (serves 6-8)

100ml water

50g caster sugar

100g muscovado sugar (i used 2/3 dark and 1/3 light)

500g damsons

a large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

a large pinch of cinnamon

300ml whipping cream

20g icing sugar

bring the water to the boil in a large saucepan with the caster and muscovado sugar then add the damsons. bring back to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the fruit is soft. pass this through a coarse sieve to remove the damson stones, then puree the rest in a food processor. leave to cool. stir in the spices (this is when i froze the puree).

whip the cream and the icing sugar together until they form soft peaks then fold this into the fruit puree. serve with shortbread or sponge fingers.