Cooked Fruit Soups

Fresh fruits with firm or mealy textures when ripe, such as pears and apricots, are cooked first in liquid. Dried fruits are also made into cold soups by cooking them. The cooking liquid is usually a light syrup made from sugar and water, fruit juice, or wine. Because of the sugar present in the cooking liquid, the flavor of these soups usually must be balanced with a strong acid. Otherwise, they would be too sweet to be served as a first course. Cooked fruits soups are sometimes puréed but are often left chunky and are lightly thickened with a cornstarch or arrowroot slurry, or tapioca.