like pumpkin, only way way better

[rushthatspeaks]

Several years ago I wrote down in my commonplace book a very simple recipe by Elizabeth David; I was sitting in some used bookstore or out-of-town library or other, and it was not a book of hers I've seen round since, although nothing of hers is that rare. But I knew I'd forget to do it if I didn't write it down, which is why I have a commonplace book in the first place. (Well, and also for people's phone numbers, and the addresses of various restaurants, and the list of things I want to get various library systems to cough up, and this-and-that quotation, and because papersky gave me the book and it was one of those Christmas presents that one can't figure out how one survived before having, but I digress.)

sovay and I finally cooked it, and everyone ought to go and do likewise, because it is brilliant.

Dried Apricot Fool,
freely paraphrased from Elizabeth David

1/2 lb. unsulfured dried apricots. This is Very Important. You cannot do this with sulfured ones; they just won't. Finding unsulfured dried apricots that weren't as shriveled and hardened as a wood ear mushroom is the reason it took me five years to make this recipe, and sovay was the one who eventually found them. (Yes, I know Trader Joe's theoretically carries them. Theirs suck.) Unsulfured dried apricots will be a warm shade of brown, not remotely orange; will have, as the only ingredient, 'apricots'; and may say somewhere on the label 'unsulfured' or 'no preservatives'. They should be plump and moderately soft to the touch.

Honey.
Water.
A pot to put the apricots in, with a lid.
1/4 pint lightly whipped cream, just to soft-peak stage.

Put the apricots in the pot, and just cover them with water. Put on the lid. Leave them to soak for, oh, let's say at least four hours, or overnight, if that's more convenient.

When they've soaked, they will be plump, soft, squishy, and very close to disintegrating outright into the water. Put the entire pot, lid on, adding nothing, into a 330F oven for one hour.

Pour off the water. It will be cider-brown and smell and taste strongly of apricot; I kept it and am calling it apricot simple syrup and using it as such, because it needs no sugar. Coarsely puree the apricots.

Elizabeth David thinks you ought to coarsely strain them, too, at this point, but I can't see why. I suppose if you have any bits that resolutely failed to stop being hard and crunchy you ought to.

Mix in honey to taste. About two tablespoons, maybe? We were very doubtful about the honey, because the apricots are quite sweet enough, but it turns out to add not sweetness but complexity; don't skip it.

When the apricots are cool enough not to curdle the whipped cream, beat the whipped cream in. Elizabeth David would like you to chill the fool now; I'd say, chill at least long enough to get it to room temperature, as it is better than when hot, but you don't need to go all the way to cold.

The result resembles a pumpkin custard, except that it is better than anything of that sort I have ever had. It is as complex as though it had a week of careful stewing with spices, it has none of the tinny taste you can get from canned pumpkin or pumpkin cooked in the wrong pot, it maintains the perfect consistency and doesn't go watery, and it also tastes like apricots, but as though somebody achieved some kind of perfect apricot-pumpkin meld on, like, a genetic level. I instantly wanted to put it in a pie. (nineweaving points out that one should probably blind-bake a pie shell and do it as a chilled, molded pie, or the cream will run when it heats up. I am not sure whether I will try it that way, or beat an egg into it and make a cooked pie.)

Elizabeth David also thinks that if you are feeling particularly flush, you can beat ground almonds into it, too. My brain both trips over itself attempting to cope with the amount of sheer deliciousness that would produce, and starts muttering things about frangipane and phyllo and I could make some honey candy on the side...

... which is my usual attempt to complicate the hell out of a very simple and delicious dessert which is perfect for fall and requires no thought whatsoever except when you are finding the apricots.

Seriously. Do this. It is amazing.

Comments

[kore]

OMG wow. That sounds amazing.

[rushthatspeaks]

It really is, and I was also happy with the effort involved, i.e. basically none.

[movingfinger]

I have bought good unsulphured fruit from Bella Viva Orchards in the past, if you have trouble finding it again.

[rushthatspeaks]

Ooh, thank you, and they seem to carry dried persimmons, too.

[hunningham]

Okay, I am looking out for unsulfured apricots from tomorrow.

[movingfinger]

Just realized that this is essentially the same thing as good old Prune Whip, made with cream rather than egg whites. The cream gives it a more central European air (mit Schlag, danke), but it might be very nice with egg whites.

[rushthatspeaks]

It might well. I think the canonical difference between a whip and a fool is that a whip is whites and a fool is cream, which feels backwards to my U.S.-raised self but seems consistent in the British cookbooks I read. Which means a dried apricot whip is probably perfectly lovely.

I think Elizabeth David had a recipe for prune fool at one point but, true to her metric that something about the recipe (time, technique, ingredient) shall be unattainable to us mere mortals, she wanted one to use a specific type of prunes from the Auvergne and also fill the thing full of Armagnac. To which my response, as with much of Elizabeth David, is 'yes dear, I'd love to, you're funny'. Sigh. The thing is that every single one of her recipes I've actually managed to do has been downright astonishing, which means I would be rather sad to do it with lesser prunes. May someday, though.

[movingfinger]

I usually don't hesitate to substitute, but in this case I think I could go along with David. Plums/prunes vary hugely and the few varieties of specifically French prunes I have eaten were qualitatively different from both other (common California) prunes and also from each other, particularly around Agen which is famed for them. There are many deliciously distinct kinds in farmers' markets. American prunes are not in the same universe.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

What an amazing idea. The pareve substitution clamoring for my attention just now involves coconut milk. (Incredibly creamy. Won't curdle. Mild yet complex flavor, compatible with apricot.) One of my out-laws recently discovered that something very like sweetened condensed milk can be made with coconut milk and honey. (She was making it for the sake of caramel. I haven't tried it yet.) As sweetened condensed milk can be whipped, if it's cold enough. There needs to be honey, but it shouldn't matter which component you add it to.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Or almond milk!
if you can get it. (Though I've seen it - at church coffee hours, no less - as a non-dairy Half&Half substitute, so it shouldn't be as hard to find as it used to be.)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Almond milk, saith various folk I know, is easy enough to make at home; but also not hard to get. What I'm worried about is the whippable nature. It will bear looking into, since the flavor is definitely right.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Almond milk is very easy to get around here. I just don't want to. I like whole almonds and almond flour for lots of things, but somehow the taste and texture of almond milk disgusts me. I like soymilk for some purposes, coconut milk for others. Soy has the most protein content, so it helps lighten baked goods. Coconut milk has incredible creaminess, so it's good for making ice cream. (And it's relatively hard to curdle, so it goes well in sauces.) It's the creaminess that's supposed to make it whippable, and smooth out the mouthfeel of the apricot puree.

These days, I have been seeing almond milk in most major supermarkets. Maybe it's just a Cambridge effect, but I think it has to do with Silk packaging the stuff and marketing it alongside their soymilk. All the Silk stuff is "packaged on dairy equipment," so it's not pareve according to the technicalities. And I don't think they do a special run for Passover.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I should definitely try that. I'm not sure whether one would have to use more honey than would be optimal for the apricots in order to get the coconut milk to whip, but there is such a thing as coconut cream, it's just more expensive and always seems to come sweetened... experimentation is definitely in order. As is a pareve substitution, as this is something I can see making for inlaws for Pesach.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

According to my source, it's 2 cans of coconut milk (those 14-ounce cans) mixed with 0.5 cups of honey. Mix well, bring barely to simmer, and evaporate to one-half volume. I'm not at all sure I could do it with available hands and equipment*, but I've been wondering about maple syrup. Might be too much complexity for this, for a first try...I'd want to try it with just the apricots, coconut, and honey.


*mostly hands. I haven't had access to a stirring hot plate for almost 20 years, and even then I didn't use it for food.

[rosefox]

I vote for cashew cream, made a little thin for super-smooth blending and then simmered until really nice and thick.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My golly, isn't that a thing.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

It is a thing I expect to become a staple around here when a special dessert is needed, I'll say that.

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds amazing!

[sovay]

I am not sure whether I will try it that way, or beat an egg into it and make a cooked pie.

Yes, because the result with the quarter-pint of whipped cream will be custard.

My brain both trips over itself attempting to cope with the amount of sheer deliciousness that would produce, and starts muttering things about frangipane and phyllo and I could make some honey candy on the side...

(And we didn't even try it with different kinds of honey. I bought a jar of apple blossom honey from Follow the Honey yesterday—they have it on tap—for eating with Rosh Hashanah sliced apples and it tasted exactly as fragrant as you would hope. If the honey adds flavor to the apricots as well as dimension, this could get ridiculous.)

... which is my usual attempt to complicate the hell out of a very simple and delicious dessert which is perfect for fall and requires no thought whatsoever except when you are finding the apricots.

Love.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

which is my usual attempt to complicate the hell out of a very simple and delicious dessert which is perfect for fall and requires no thought whatsoever except when you are finding the apricots.

Love.

Yes.

Also, you should make this for Thanksgiving.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure the kind of honey would be very influential. I don't think it wants a really dark honey-- something like locust would just overwhelm-- but apple blossom is tempting as a thought.

[gwynnega]

That does sound awfully good.

[selidor]

I've just had breakfast and already I'm hungry. No fair.

(No apricots, but there is a glut of strawberries. Someone in Queensland seriously mistimed their production, and they're $5/kg. Jam time, probably...)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

It's been a year where there are strawberries around, which confuses me somewhat but I'll take it. Am considering jam myself.

[occultatio.livejournal.com]

Was your solution to locating unsulfured apricots transferable or location-specific?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

The brand is Nature's Promise, which is I think a nationally available label? The internet is not helping me here. They came from a local locally-produced-and-organic-and-specialty shop, but not a terribly upscale one, and they're labeled 'Organic Turkish Apricots'. If they're imported from Turkey I don't see why they shouldn't be distributed nationally, it doesn't seem that much more work. It is absolutely worth a try since they didn't come off a nearby farm or anything like that.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Being in need of a code break, I went to check Formaggio Kitchen, but their apricots were orange.

Being in need of a code break *anyway*, I tried it with dried cherries. Hm. The cherries have a caramelized quality which is not what you're shooting for -- or what I imagine you're shooting for; they're not very aromatic at all. Nor very sweet. (Kariba Farms was the brand.) However, the result certainly wasn't *bad*.

I would definitely try this with prunes, given another slow day and extra cup of whipping cream. Conveniently, an extra cup of whipping cream is how much I have left over...

[elij-0650.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a recipe my Grandmother used to make but she used milk & set the mix with gelatine. Very light and full of flavour.
I don't think she would have used honey but will try it instead of sugar when I make it next.

Splendid!