Fruit desserts a perfect finale

Eating a few bites of something sweet is the way to end a meal. It clears the head, aids digestion and leaves you in a good mood for whatever you do next. The trick is to keep it light on the tummy and made with real, unrefined ingredients.

When thinking about dessert, I start with fruit. Keep a bowl of apples, oranges, grapes or other fruits on the table for people to reach for, and there’s no need to cook anything or even get out a clean plate.

Sometimes, though, a special dessert is in order. In fall and winter, when the idea of heating up the kitchen is a pleasant one, I might make a hearty fruit pie, tart, cobbler or crisp. Those make good use of stored fruit such as apples and berries that have been frozen or otherwise preserved.

But the summer-long parade of fresh fruit has begun. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and grapes will all have their moment of glory. It’s hard to improve on a bowl of fresh-picked berries, a platter of sliced, aromatic melons or a perfect peach. Still, I’m always looking for new ways to enhance any fruit at its seasonal best.

Fruit ice cream is great. So is fruit on top of ice cream, either cut up or pureed. Every fall, I make a syrup out of dark purple grapes.

Spain has flan. France has crème caramel. England has trifle. Italy has its divine zabaglione, in which egg yolks are beaten over heat with sugar and Marsala wine. All can be topped with — or even cooked with — fresh fruit.

Basically, custard is milk or cream thickened with egg, or with agents such as cornstarch and rennet. Italian panna cotta is thickened with gelatin and best made ahead so that it will set. If it doesn’t set, call it a sauce, or an exquisite form of adult baby food.

My custard formula is the one Julia Child used for quiche: one egg to a half cup of cream. Sometimes I bake it in a Pyrex pie pan, with pears or plums. Other times I add a few tablespoons of flour to make a French clafoutis, just firm enough to be cut into wedges. The classic clafoutis is made with ripe cherries.

Custard is only a start. The planet is full of tasty little desserts. Start with kheer, which is rice pudding cooked with milk, sugar and dried fruits such as mangoes or raisins. Then try kulfi, an ice cream made with dried fruits, pistachio and spices such as nutmeg and saffron.

A fruit mousse, fluffed up with whipped cream, is not hard to make, but there’s an uncooked version I like even better. It’s a modern take on an English dessert called a fool, for which fruits (traditionally gooseberries) are pureed and folded into custard. Like many cooks, I fold in whipped cream instead, topping the mixture with the fruit itself, and a little whipped cream on top of that.