Blancmange is kind of a curious recipe to pick for a holiday dessert– but hear me out. After a heavy meal, not everyone wants to shovel down a rich dessert packed with eggs and cream. Blancmange, a cooked custard-like dessert traditionally made with spiced almond milk, seemed like the perfect candidate to get a holiday update. This blancmange is light and delicately spiced, but the spices and earthy sweet potato give it a flavor profile that is unmistakably wintry. Oh, and have I mentioned that it is also both vegan and gluten-free? (Who hasn’t been confronted with the challenge of cooking for a guest with a dietary restriction.) Forgive me for burying the lead. But I definitely think this dessert stands on its own even among voracious dairy and bread eaters (like me). Though blancmange is traditionally made out of almond milk,  in more contemporary recipes, you’ll often see lots of “real” dairy added in to the mix.

Sticking with the traditional nut milk not only makes this dessert lighter, but it’s also a little gift to all of those folks who avoid dairy (and anyone who cooks for them).  My version uses just enough cornstarch to thicken the blancmange to a silky, pudding-like consistency.  Decadent, not-too-filling, and you can totally make these ahead of time–enjoy!

Ingredients:

5 cardamom pods
1 star anise seed (just one of the points of the star, not all five)
1 small cinnamon stick
¼ t. black peppercorns
the zest of an orange
4 c. almond milk
1/3 c. cornstarch
1/3 c. + 2T. light brown sugar
3/4 c. cooked sweet potato
6T. maple syrup
¾ c. pecans
½ t. flaky sea salt

Infuse almond milk:

Crush cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, star anise and black peppercorns in a mortar & pestle or beneath a heavy saucepan. Zest orange. Place spices in a saucepan along with 3 c. of the almond milk. Bring the milk to a boil and immediately remove from the stove. Cover and let the milk sit with the spices for 10 minutes. (The milk will separate– don’t worry it will all come back together in the next step. )

Cook Blancmange:

Whisk together brown sugar and cornstarch. Add the remaining cup of almond milk and whisk to combine. Strain the spices out of the hot almond milk and return to your saucepan. Add the corn starch/sugar/almond milk mixture. Place saucepan over high heat. Whisk constantly as the mixture heats. Bring to a boil, whisking vigorously, and cook at a boil for one minute. Pour the mixture into a bowl, and place it in an ice bath to cool. Stir it every once in a while so that it doesn’t form a skin on top. (Alternately, you can place a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the blancmange and refrigerate until it is cool).

Blend:

Pour the cooled blancmange  into a blender and add the sweet potato. Blend on high for one minute, scraping down the sides of the blender if necessary. Carefully pour the mixture into four wine glasses. Chill glasses for at least an hour before serving. After the blancmange has set in the glasses, drizzle a tablespoon of maple syrup on top of each serving. Carefully tilt the glass so that the maple syrup coats the entire surface of the blancmange. This will keep it from getting a skin.

Candy Pecans:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss pecans with 2 T. maple syrup. Spread pecans onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 5 minutes, remove the pan and stir the pecans so that the bubbling maple syrup evenly coats the pecans. Return the pecans to the oven for 5 more minutes.

Serve:

Serve chilled, topped with candied pecans. Whipped cream makes a lovely accompaniment. You can make the blancmange up to two days in advance. After you coat the surface with maple syrup, wrap the glass in plastic and refrigerate.  Or you can prepare the cooked part of the blancmange, and puree it with the sweet potato just before serving.

Update! I’m entering this recipe in to the North Carolina SweetPotato Commision’s “No More Mallows” blogger recipe contest. Check out other awesome sweet potato recipes at their facebook page.

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Remember that time when I spent seven weeks obsessing over the colors of food? Well, this Wednesday (March 7th) I’m teaching a class all about pigments in food. If you’re in New York you can come!  You can sign up at my class listing through skillshare. I will make you tea, talk animatedly about pretty food pictures, and then feed you some gorgeously colorful snacks. It will be a hoot.

As a little teaser for my class (or the Cliff notes version for those of you who can’t make it), I thought I’d share a little infographic I drew up. It’s imperfect. It’s fun. And hopefully, it’s  a little informative, too.

And if you’ve noticed that my posting has been a bit *ahem* on the light side of late. Well, don’t worry. It’s just because I’ve been cooking up a storm for other offline activities. I’ll be back to geeking out on the web before you know it.

I can’t write this post without first making a confession: I have been through both architecture school and pastry school. For a long time I tried to avoid the obvious gingerbread-construction shaped overlap in my fields of study. (I was, I think,  afraid of being pigeon-holed into the crafty side of pastry). Sometimes, the shoe just fits and there is nothing to do but wear it. I have made my peace. And, yes, I have also made gingerbread.

We’ve all seen a million gaudy little gumdrop-studded gingerbread cottages. (Yawn) If I’m going to the trouble of making my own darn gingerbread house, then I’m going to make whatever type I want. So I thought I’d celebrate the house type in my adopted home, Brooklyn. And everyone knows New Yorkers spend a fair amount of their time coveting both real estate and fancy foodstuffs, so the whole thing just seemed to make sense.

My gingerbread house is, admittedly, a little bit on the involved side. So I’ve written instructions that you can use either to recreate my design, or to make your gingerbread creation, whether it is much simpler, or even more involved. As the scope of this post was reaching epic proportions, I decided to divide it into two separate sections. Keep reading right here to get the full story of how the house is made and put together. To get my recipes for gingerbread dough, royal icing and poured sugar, head over to my post on gingerbread house basics.

Enjoy, and have a very happy holidays!

Design Your House

At the risk of sounding obvious, the design of your gingerbread house might be the most important step. Sure, a handy decorator can turn a plain design into something lovely, but if you have an interesting design to start with (and one that is easy to put together) then you’re already halfway to having a beautiful gingerbread house. I’m attaching templates for my design right here, so if you want to build this exact design, you can skip all the design stuff and go to the next step.

What size will it be? One of the biggest decisions you’ll need to make is what size your house will be. The bigger the house gets, the trickier the construction is. I decided to make my design small enough that I could print out all the templates on a standard 8½ x 11 sheet of paper. For this size house, 3/16” thick gingerbread works quite well. But if you scaled up the design to make a 2 foot tall house, you’d need to use a thicker gingerbread (at least ¼”, maybe een ⅜”). Likewise, if you made a much smaller gingerbread house, you could make do with a thinner dough. I’d say a house smaller than 9” high, ⅛” thick gingerbread would be fine. But the thickness is not the only tricky thing about making a big gingerbread house. It will also be more challenging to glue the pieces into place securely without breaking your giant pieces of gingerbread.

Draw a template for each gingerbread piece. I’ve posted my design template, in case anyone wants to use it to make their own brownstone. But you can use the same techniques and recipes to make your own design– whether it is simpler or more complicated. If you are comfortable with designing and building stuff, and adjusting for the thickness of your gingerbread seems obvious, then go ahead and draw up a design straight from your imagination. If you’re not quite so confident, I’d recommend building a dummy house out of cardboard. Most corrugated cardboard is about the right thickness, and it will be much easier for you to make adjustments (and catch any mistakes) in a cardboard model. Whether you build a dummy model first or not, you’ll want to have a paper or cardboard template for each piece of gingerbread in your house.

I have one interior support piece in my design. This piece helps hold up the first wall and helps hold the roof up while the project is under construction. I also clipped a strand of led Christmas lights to this support, to have interior lighting. If you are making your own design, consider adding an interior support, or even more than one, depending on the shape of your house.

Don’t forget a base! I used a scrap piece of wood for a base to my gingerbread house. You can build one out of gingerbread, but I prefer having a stronger piece of material holding up all my hard work.

Add relief. It is possible to bake gingerbread on surfaces that are not entirely flat (like the rounded projection of bay windows on my house). To get this effect, you’ll need to find (or build) something in the right shape to give the gingerbread depth. And then you’ll need to cover that thing in parchment paper so that it doesn’t stick while baking.  I made a support for the bay window projection with a double thick piece of brown paper stapled and folded into the right shape and then sheathed in parchment paper. (The pattern for the support is in the pdf of my design as well). If you’re making your own design, you can obviously make your own supports. I would strongly suggest sticking to pretty basic shapes. Removing just the simple rounded paper template was a delicate operation, and more complicated shapes would be even trickier.

Carve Templates

I knew that for my brownstone, I’d want to add a stone patterned texture. In previous years, I have used a butter knife to make an impression and draw in the lines of stones. As you’d expect, this can get a little tedious. So this year I decided to try a different technique– carving a template out of wood, and then pressing the gingerbread into the mold. Sure, carving takes a little longer than forming the gingerbread. BUT, if you carve a design that you can repeat (such as the frieze pieces on the projecting bay windows) you can save yourself lots of time and produce multiple textured pieces. You certainly don’t have to carve anything to make a beautiful gingerbread house. I have made many houses, and this is the first one that I used carving as a technique. But if you happen to be one of those folks who likes carving (or if you know someone who is) then making your own templates can take your gingerbread sculpting to another level.

For this house, I made three carved templates: a simple carved cornice, a decorated frieze, and a dowel carved to make a stone pattern when it is rolled. If you chose to make a carved design, make sure that the design has a deep enough relief– anything less than 1/16” will likely disappear during baking.

Make Base Recipes (Gingerbread Dough & Royal Icing)

Now you’ve made your design, and maybe even a few textured molds. Time to get your hands dirty! I have a whole separate post with the base recipes for gingerbread dough, royal icing and poured sugar (that’s what the glass windows in my house are made of). These recipes make plenty of gingerbread and icing to create my brownstone design. You could halve these recipes, if you’re making a smaller house. Mix your big batches of gingerbread dough and royal icing first, and then you’ll be all set when it comes time to assemble and decorate your house.  If you decide to use poured sugar, wait until you’re ready to assemble the house to cook it. Then you can use it, not just as glass for the windows, but as glue to hold the walls up.

Cut & Shape Gingerbread

Roll your gingerbread out to the specified thickness on a piece of parchment paper. My pattern uses 3/16” thickness for the walls, and ⅛” thickness for the stairs. Carefully cut all the pieces, leaving them on the parchment paper. If you are rolling a pattern onto your dough (like my stone pattern) first roll the pattern into the dough then cut the pieces out. You can re-roll scraps and trimmings right away, just be sure to wrap them up so they don’t dry out.  Attach any sculpted or decorative pieces of gingerbread by first brushing on a little water. Once your gingerbread pieces are all cut out and textured the way you’d like them, leave them out overnight to dry.

Pipe Freestanding Royal Icing Pieces

My design for the fire escape uses royal icing not just as a surface decoration, but as its own structure. This technique works well for railings and other delicate pieces. Pipe the pieces out onto a piece of parchment and leave them to dry overnight before touching them.

Bake Gingerbread

Again, I have more detailed instructions for baking gingerbread at my post on gingerbread house basics. You want to bake the gingerbread for a long time (1 hour+) at a very low temperature.

Decorate Building Sides & Assemble Stairs

It is much easier to pipe onto flat gingerbread pieces than onto an already assembled house. So if you have any intricate designs you’ll be adding to the side of your house, think about piping them before the house is assembled. I mixed up some royal icing so that it is the same color as the gingerbread (colored with cocoa powder and cinnamon) and piped window frames, all before any of the gingerbread pieces were put together.

To build the fire escape, use royal icing to attach the bottoms and sides of each level to the building side, just below the middle set of windows. Let these pieces set up for a while. Finally, attach the big front piece of the fire escape to the side supports. I’ll be honest– mine cracked, but I was able to put the pieces together neatly enough that it didn’t matter.  Let this piece dry overnight before you try to turn the wall upright.

Even though you’re not ready to put the main walls up, you can still assemble any smaller freestanding structures (like the stairs). Because the stair pieces are so small, I don’t recommend using poured sugar as glue to construct the staircase. Start by gluing a few stairs to the center support, and then tacking that to one of the side supports. Continue working your way down the stairs until you’ve rounded the corner and attached all the side pieces. Stairs are a bit tricky and fussy to assemble, but if you take the time to make them look nice, they really add a lot to the house. Just be patient, and if the whole stair starts to wobble and seem out of control, take a break and let the icing set up.

Cook Poured Sugar & Cut Windows (Optional)

Now the sides are decorated, and your house is ready to assemble! If you are using poured sugar, either for windows or for glue, you’ll be working with the sugar and house assembly at the same time. First pour the windows and cut them into the proper shape. Then you can use the leftover sugar as glue.

Assemble the House

Trim the building front so that it lays flat against the base. Mark on the base where you want the building to be located. Apply glue to the bottom of the building front, and to two sides of the building support. (Either royal icing or cooked sugar.) Glue the support in place (on my design it is right between the door and the bay window). If you are adding poured sugar windows, then attach them to the back of the window holes.

Now on to the second wall. Add glue to the bottom and side of the second wall, and glue it in place. If you are making interior lights, attach the light fixture now. Turn it on to make sure that the light will reach the windows you want it to shine out of. Next glue the roof in place, making sure to add glue to the top of the wall support. Continue adding walls, gluing and trimming them as necessary. If your house starts to feel wobbly, then leave it for a few hours. Don’t try to add pieces to an unstable structure– no good will come of it.

Decorate

Now that the building is all together, it’s time to add final decorations. With a little royal icing to hold them in place, you can add all manner of confections for decoration. I chose a muted, more or less realistic palate– adding royal icing snow and just a few decorations. Don’t be afraid to think beyond the usual gumdrops and candy canes either–  I used fresh thyme to make garlands, and studded them with whole pink peppercorns. All sorts of pretty dried fruits, nuts, herbs and spices can make lovely gingerbread ornaments. Now you can light up your gingerbread house and show it off. If you’ve used poured sugar windows, try to keep it in a dry place (not a steamy kitchen) so that your windows won’t melt.

Admittedly my gingerbread house is a bit… involved. (I think it was around four evenings to make everything and put it together). But apart from the garlands (made of thyme and pink peppercorns) I used just three base recipes: gingerbread, royal icing and poured sugar. Gingerbread and royal icing are inescapable,  the poured sugar is used for amber colored “glass” in the windows. Totally an optional addition. (But it looks really good if you plan to put a light in your gingerbread house.)

The gingerbread recipe I made is technically edible, but it really is not meant for eating. Which explains why I call for shortening (I just can’t stand to put perfectly good butter into something that isn’t going to be eaten). The ideal gingerbread for making a house bakes up hard as a rock. The texture and flavor are rather similar to a thin plywood. I make gingerbread cookies for eating with good butter, and a delicate balance of spices. This dough was a good opportunity to get rid of some old, stale cinnamon. Royal icing is made of just egg whites and powdered sugar. It sounds easy enough, but there are a few particularities that you’ll want to be aware of before you get going. With these two recipes, you’ll be ready tackle just about any gingerbread project.

Gingerbread Construction Tools:

You can make a great gingerbread house in a fairly standard kitchen. You’ll probably want to have these tools nearby.

parchment paper (lots of it)
bread knife (for trimming cooked gingerbread)
silpat (optional, but preferred for pouring sugar)
rolling pin
dremel & scrap wood (optional, but awesome for carving intricate templates)
strips of wood that are precisely 3/16” thick
razor knife or sharp paring knife
Pastry bag and tips (optional)

Gingerbread Dough For Construction

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2c. sugar
2 T cinnamon
1 t. ground nutmeg
9 cups flour
½ c. corn starch
2 cups dark corn syrup or molasses
¼ c. water

Make Gingerbread Dough

In a large mixer bowl, cream the shortening together with the sugar and spices. Scrape down the sides of the bowl until the shortening mixture is completely homogeneous.  Add the flour a few cups at a time, mixing after each addition. (If you are using an electric mixer use the slowest speed)  Eventually the shortening will mix completely into the flour and it will resemble just-barely-damp sand. Pour in the molasses and water and mix until the liquid is distributed throughout the dough. The dough is very stiff, so you’ll need to knead it just to get the whole mass to come together. Turn the dough out onto a counter top and divide it into three parts. One by one knead each portion of dough until it is smooth and homogeneous. Press the dough into 1” thick rectangles and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let rest an hour or so before you roll it (just leaving it out at room temperature is fine). If you won’t be using it that day, store the dough in the refrigerator, but bring it up to room temperature before you roll and shape it.

Roll & Shape Gingerbread

It is always a challenge to roll your gingerbread uniformly, but an even thickness makes your house much easier to assemble. I glued a few strips of balsa wood together to make guides for rolling the gingerbread dough. This way I knew that all of my gingerbread pieces were rolled to exactly 3/16” thick. (See the section on designing a gingerbread house for more information on thickness). Take a few minutes and make (or just buy) guides for rolling your dough. Trust me, it will be much easier to roll your gingerbread, and you’ll get a better end result.   And most importantly, you won’t have any thin, weak spots liable to break during assembly.

Once the gingerbread is rolled out, you can use a number of techniques to give your gingerbread pieces some texture. You can roll them into a mold (like I did with the decorated friezes on the front of the house). Or you can use a butter knife or stamps to press a design into the surface. Remember that the gingerbread will puff up when it bakes, so don’t make your designs too subtle. It’s better to make them a little too deep than too shallow.

You can also sculpt little pieces of gingerbread and add them to a flat piece of dough to make a pattern. (See the pilasters on the front of the brownstone. Brush a little water on the surface where you want to attach a decorative piece, and use it to stick the pieces together. You don’t want to let your designs get too thick, though. Thicker pieces take longer to bake and are more likely to deform. Stick to mostly thin designs– a half inch would be the absolute thickest that I’d try to bake.

Bake Gingerbread

Just about everything deforms when you bake it. After all the work cutting pieces and impressing designs in them, we want to try to minimize the puffy swelling that happens in the oven.  First, I specify letting your cut & molded gingerbread pieces dry overnight. This helps set the surface texture up, so that we’ll see more of it after baking. Then when the pieces actually go in the oven, you’ll want to cook them at a very low heat (I used 250°F) with the oven door propped open with a wooden spoon. All this results in drying the gingerbread and cooking it very slowly. It will likely take an hour until your gingerbread is done (maybe longer depending on altitude, moisture, thickness…) Just keep checking it every 15 minutes or so, and eventually you will see it turn a slightly darker shade of brown. If you touch the surface of a piece, it will feel mostly firm, and your fingers will not easily leave an indentation.  Try to group your gingerbread pieces with other pieces that are a similar size. Smaller and thinner pieces will bake more quickly, and it will be easier to remove a whole sheet of small pieces together. Let all gingerbread pieces cool completely before assembling.

Trimming Gingerbread

In spite of all the efforts, the gingerbread pieces will still deform a bit during baking. You can either use royal icing to fill in the gaps, or you can very, very carefully trim the gingerbread pieces back to straight lines and perfect right angles. The risk with trimming is that you could break your gingerbread piece. On the other hand, trying to piece together distorted pieces can require using a lot of royal icing, and this will make your connections not look as tidy. You’ve got to make the call.  This gingerbread recipe cuts very well when the pieces are at least 3/16” thick. Thinner, more delicate pieces are prone to shattering.

To trim the gingerbread, start with a serrated bread knife and gradually shave away at the excess until you have the shape you want. Once you have a few pieces assembled, you’ll want to trim your pieces to fit together with the other (imperfect) pieces. So test each piece before assembly and trim as necessary.

Royal Icing

Ingredients:

6 egg whites
9 c. powdered sugar

Make Royal Icing

Pour egg whites into a large mixer bowl. If you are using a stand mixer, fit it with the paddle attachment.  Sift powdered sugar. (You can skip this step if you are using a stand mixer. ) Add 2 c. of the powdered sugar to the egg whites. Mix. Keep adding powdered sugar a cup at a time, mixing until the icing is smooth after each addition. Once you add the final powdered sugar addition, the mixture should be thick, almost like a buttercream. If you are using a stand mixer, turn the speed up to medium and beat for a few minutes. This will beat out any remaining little chunks of powdered sugar that could trip you up later on. If you are not planning to use the icing right away, transfer it immediately to a plastic container and cover. The surface of the icing dries out very quickly, so always plan to keep it covered. I know it has egg whites, but it is fine to keep this icing out at room temperature. The sugar concentration is so high, that it is not at risk for harboring nasty little microbes.

You can also color royal icing. I added a few tablespoons of cocoa powder and a little cinnamon to make a my icing roughly the same shade as my baked gingerbread. Of course you can use food coloring to color royal icing too. Just make sure that you don’t add so much that the consistency of the royal icing becomes runny.

Adjusting the Consistency

To minimize frustration and gingerbread induced despair, it is essential that your icing be at the proper consistency. If it is too stiff, it won’t stick and will be impossibly hard to pipe. If it is too runny, it will run right off the gingerbread or turn your intricate designs into a puddle.  Too stiff and you can add a few drops of water, to runny and you can add powdered sugar. I prefer to make a big batch of royal icing, (as my recipe indicates) and make sure that it’s on the stiff side. It’s much easier to add a few drops of water and loosen things up than to add more powdered sugar (it takes a surprising quantity of powdered sugar to stiffen things up). At the right texture, the surface of the icing will look shiny, but it will still hold its shape when you grab a spoonful. You’ll want to use

either a cornet or a piping bag to get your icing where you want it. Cornets work best for small quantities of royal icing– for this gingerbread house I only used cornets.

Making Cornets

1. Cut paper: Roll out and cut a section of parchment paper that is about square, or just slightly rectangular, with the width of the roll being the longer side. Cut the rectangle along the diagonal.

2. Roll into a cone: Roll the triangle into a cone, with the tip of the cone at the center of the longest side. There are three corners that you want to align: the bottom, the middle corner and the top. Line up these three layers, and your cornet will have the right proportions.

3. Tighten: Tighten the cone by pulling down on the outermost layer of paper while pushing up on the innermost layer with your thumb. The tip of the cone should close completely.

4. Lock: Fold over the flaps of the cone to lock the cornet together. I like to pinch a little vertical fold along the locked overlap on the base of the cornet (where you have the most layers of overlapping paper). This helps keep the slippery parchment paper from slipping and becoming loose.  Make a few cornets at a time and have them ready to go before you start. For this project, you’ll want to have at least three or four ready to go once you start assembling and decorating your house.

Filling Cornets

Place a cornet tip down into a narrow-mouthed  jar. Use a spatula to carefully scoop and a few tablespoons of icing into your cornet– try to avoid getting any icing on the top 2 “ of the cornet. (If you pour straight from the bowl you’re much more likely to make a mess.) Do not overfill- it might seem like it will save you time, but your icing will start to ooze out the back of the cornet later. Pick up the cornet and hold it with the seam facing you. Gently squeeze the icing down toward the base of the cornet. Try to get all of the icing out of the top two inches of the cornet. Fold over the ends of the cornet away from you. Then begin rolling the end of the cornet away from you, like you would a toothpaste tube. Snip the tip off your cornet and start squeezing from the end. Try to cut an even tip- no diagonals or wonky edges. When you are piping with the cornet, keep using the same toothpaste tube rolling motion to squeeze the icing out. (Ignore the fact that the photos show filling the cornet with chocolate… the technique is identical no matter what you are filling it with.)

Royal Icing For Structural Connections.

When it is completely dry, royal icing is quite firm. Hard enough to hold up a big gingerbread house. But, the icing has to be completely dry for it to be strong.  And disturbing it while it dries can ruin the hold and even collapse a gingerbread house.  The thicker the icing is applied, the more weight it will hold. But the thicker the icing is applied, the longer it will take to dry. Royal icing connections work best when the joint is well coated with royal icing– a smear of icing between two gingerbread pieces will not hold any weight. . If you want a neat looking connection on the front of your building, I suggest loading the back of the connection with a thick bead of royal icing. My summation: use enough icing, and let it dry completely without disturbing it. Sometimes this means gluing a few pieces together, and then leaving them for a while. Gingerbread building is an exercise in patience.

Royal Icing For Decoration

You can make a stunning gingerbread house using just royal icing decorations. Traditional decorations are piped directly onto the gingerbread pieces. But if you’re feeling ambitious, you can also pipe freestanding pieces onto a piece of parchment paper, then (when they are completely dry) you can carefully peel them off. I used this technique to make the fire escape and the bicycle.  Remember that the thinner your piping the more fragile your finished pieces will be, so larger pieces will need to be thicker to stay in one piece.

Poured Sugar

Ingredients:

1 c. sugar
½ c. water
1 T white vinegar

Safety First

Cooking sugar is not difficult, but it can be dangerous. Boiled sugar reaches much higher temperatures than boiling water, so little spatters of this stuff can really burn. If you do happen to get a spatter on you (don’t!) do not rip it off, immediately run the area under cold water, then once it has cooled, remove the sugar. A clean, uncluttered work space is also essential to safely work with this hot, sticky stuff.

Cooking Poured Sugar

Once the cooked sugar is ready to pour, it needs to be used immediately, so before you cook your sugar, prepare the surface where you will pour your sugar. I like to pour the sugar on to a silpat, directly on a countertop. (You can also use parchment paper) Make sure that your silpat/parchment paper is completely clean of specks and oil– if you’re in doubt rub it clean with a little white vinegar. If you are worried about the heat coming in to contact with your counter, use a cutting board or pizza stone as a base surface.  (Metal sheet pans will buckle with the heat, I don’t recommend them.)

Place sugar in a saucepan. Pour the water around the edge of the pan to wash any rogue sugar crystals into the center of the pan. Draw a clean finger through the center of the sugar pile to moisten any dry sugar in the center of the pan. Cover and place the saucepan over high heat. Grab a bowl and a pastry brush. Fill the bowl with cool water. Once the sugar mixture has come to a boil, remove the lid. Keep an eye on the sugar as it cooks. If necessary, use your pastry brush to clean any sugar buildup off of the sides of the pan. Take the damp brush and squeeze a little water onto the side of the pan directly above the sugary area. As the water drizzles down, it will dissolve the sugary gunk. It is important to dissolve sugar buildup or crystals, otherwise the sugar might crystalize.  But you don’t want to be overzealous with the pastry brush, adding water cools off and dilutes your sugar, which will make it take longer to cook. So use your water and brush judiciously.

Let the sugar boil. Do not stir. (I know you want to stir it– don’t! ) The sugar will boil very rapidly as it heats up. If you want the “glass” to be clear, cook the sugar to 320°F. If you’d like it to be golden (like mine) cook the sugar until it just barely starts to color. (You don’t need to use a candy thermometer for this option– once the sugar has started to caramelize, it is hot enough). Remove the pan from the heat and gently swirl the sugar mixture to even out the coloring. Hold the pan off the heat for a minute or so until the mixture cools to the consistency of honey.

Poured Sugar Windows

Start pouring slowly, the mixture will cool quickly once it is out of the pan. Keep pouring in the center of the sugar mixture, the cooler, firmer sugar at the edges will form something of a dam, so that the sugar you are pouring won’t run all over your counter. Pour the sugar out into the desired shape and thickness. As the sugar cools on the counter, use a butter knife to test and see if you can cut the sugar without it sticking. Once the sugar is cool enough, cut/shape it into the desired shapes. Let the sugar pieces cool completely, then snap them apart. If you have failed pieces, keep them clean and free of other crumbs. Then you can throw these cooked sugar scraps back into your saucepan and re-melt them. If you are using the caramel as a coloring (like I did) each time you remelt the sugar, it will get a little darker. I didn’t mind the slight variation in color, but it is something to keep in mind.

Poured Sugar Glue

You can also use hot poured sugar as glue to almost instantly set up the sides of the building. First pour the windows that you will need, then carefully dip the edge of the gingerbread piece in the hot “glue”. Immediately transfer it to where you need to attach it. Hold in place for about 30 seconds or until the sugar sets up. Once your glue cools down too much, it will be useless for sticking things together. If it starts leaving strands of sugar trailing behind, it is too cool.  Just heat the pan up enough to bring the sugar back to a honey-like consistency. Again, don’t stir! Just tilt and swirl the pan to mix the sugar.

Using cooked sugar, it is much easier to get the building together in the first place, but it does have some disadvantages. Cooked sugar is very susceptible  to damage from moisture– even just moisture in the air. So a poured sugar creation that looks pristine one day, might melt the next day into a sticky mess. And if that mess is the glue holding your house together… well, you see the problem. I like to use poured sugar as glue to initially get things together. And then (afterward) go back over the seam with a thick bead of royal icing. The royal icing will set up over time, and hopefully do the job even if the poured sugar should start to melt.

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Pumpkin cooking 101: first you scrape out the seeds and all the stringy stuff, right? Well…that’s what every recipe I have read says, with the exception of one. A few years back my sister gave me a book originally printed in 1833, The American Frugal Housewife.  I love reading old cookbooks; even if the recipes are not uniformly good, (and they’re not) they are almost always interesting. And every once in a while I stumble onto a little snippet that goes against everything I’ve learned about cooking. In this case the author, Mrs. Child (no relation, I presume to Julia) specified an unexpected protocol for preparing pumpkins: “Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin, or squash, before you stew it; but do not scrape the inside; the part nearest the seed is the sweetest part of the squash”. Was it possible that I had been throwing out the best part of the squash? After a few quick taste tests I can personally confirm that Mrs. Child had it right. That innermost stringy part of the squash is the most flavorful.  The same holds true for melons. Now when I cut melons, I save the pulp that I scrape out, strain it and add the flavorful juice back to the cut melon. With pumpkin it’s a bit trickier. Depending on the variety you can have quite a bit of stringy pulp, and if you aren’t stewing them this isn’t a very desirable texture.

I worked out a way to salvage most of that tasty (if stringy) flesh. You can even use this method for pumpkins that you are carving, not eating. First pour boiling water over your scraped seeds and pumpkin and you’ll gently soften the flesh. A quick whisk with a fork will help break down the flesh, then just strain the mixture and you’ve got a flavorful pumpkin juice. Freeze the juice and you can whip up a tasty smoothie in a minute or two. You could also add it to sauces, soups, or juices; anything that you want to have a big pumpkiny flavor. If you toast and salt the seeds and compost the skin, you can make use of every last part of the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Juice:

The scrapings from the inside of a pumpkin/orange squash
boiling water

Smoothie:

1 c. milk, soy milk or yogurt
⅓ c. pumpkin juice
1-3 T sugar or agave nectar
1 T. grated fresh ginger
a few pinch of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice mix
nutmeg

Yield:

1 servings

Scrape pumpkin

Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Scrape the seeds and stringy fibers out of the inside of your pumpkin. Place scrapings (including seeds) in a heat-resistant bowl.

Soak scrapings

Pour boiling water over your pumpkin scrapings– use just enough water to cover them. Let sit for 5 minutes. Using a fork, whisk the mixture to break up the pumpkin flesh. Strain through a mesh strainer. If there seems like there is still a lot of pumpkin flesh mixed in with the seeds, you can repeat the soaking and whisking once more.

Freeze

Pour pumpkin juice into an ice cube tray and freeze. After it has frozen solid, you can remove the cubes into a freezer-safe plastic bag. Stored this way, they will keep indefinitely.

Blend

Place milk, frozen pumpkin juice (⅓ c. is about 3 ice cubes), ginger and honey in a blender. Blend and adjust the sweetness to taste*. For a breakfast, I like to use yogurt and just a little honey to sweeten. For dessert, I add some more spices and top the whole thing with whipped cream and freshly grated nutmeg.

*Hint: start out with less sugar– you can always add more to taste later.

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I’m usually not one for gore. I hate scary movies (almost always). But if there was ever a time for a little gross-out fun it is October. And I’m not such a scrooge that I can’t enjoy a little Halloween silliness. So why not make a good dish, while you’re at it? The elements of this dish are all natural: the white is a coconut panna cotta, the iris a cut fresh kiwi, the pupil is made of plumped raisins, and the blood is simply a raspberry coulis. The one just-for-looks element is the lens that sits on top of the kiwi iris (a little gelatin sheet). While it doesn’t really add anything to the flavor of the dish, it makes the eye look much more convincing. Plated in a different way, this dish could be a dessert for any night of the year.

Because you need the eyeball to hold it’s shape for this plating, I added a teensy bit more gelatin than I would normally put in a panna cotta. (I’d cut back by ¼ tsp. if you’re not doing the eyeball plating) To make the panna cotta have a more delicate texture for serving, you can leave it out at room temperature for a half an hour before serving. Then plate it with hot raspberry coulis and the gelatin will soften just a bit. You can make this dessert a day in advance, but decrease the gelatin quantity by 1/8 tsp, as the gelatin will continue to firm up as the dessert sits refrigerated.

Update! This recipe is a finalist in yummly’s Halloween recipe contest! If you’re passionate about eyeballs, you can vote for me by going to the contest page and clicking “like”. Check out some other fun treat ideas while you’re at it. Thanks!

Panna Cotta:

⅓ c. shredded, dried coconut (unsweetened)
¼ c. raisins or other dark-colored dried fruit.
1½  t. unflavored, powdered gelatin
1T.  rum (optional, substitute water if you prefer)
1 c. whole milk
1 c. coconut milk
¼ c. sugar
3 kiwis

Coulis:

1-2 c. frozen raspberries
sugar

Lens:

1½t. gelatin
½ c. boiling water
1T. lime juice
1T. sugar

Yield:

6 servings
Equipment:
½ c. mise en place bowls or half-sphere molds
melon baller
1½“ circle cutter

Toast Coconut and Soak Raisins

Place coconut flakes on a baking sheet, and toast in an 350 F oven for 3-6 minutes, until lightly browned. Keep an eye on the coconut and stir it at least once mid cooking. (It cooks more quickly at the edges of the pan.) Place raisins in a jar and cover with warm water.

Infuse coconut cream

Measure gelatin into a small bowl and stir in the rum or water. Leave it to sit for a few minutes. Place the milk, coconut milk, coconut flakes and sugar in a saucepan over high heat. Stir the pan frequently as the cream is heating to prevent scorching. Watch carefully as the mixture will boil over very quickly. Once the mixture has just come to a boil, remove the pan from the heat, cover and let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Cut Kiwis

Skin kiwis and cut the end of the kiwi off. You want to cut enough off the end to have a 1½” circle for the iris of your eye. Place the end of a kiwi into your mise en place bowl or mold and carefully mark the side of the kiwi with a knife. Cut the kiwi so that it will be exactly the height of the mold. Use your circle cutter to cut the kiwi into a perfect cylinder. (If you don’t have a circle cutter, you can just carefully trim the kiwi into a circle.) Last, use a melon baller to scoop out a half sphere where you want the pupil to be. Put the little half sphere back into the kiwi for the moment. Spray your molds with non-stick cooking spray. Invert the kiwi half (so the scooped-out side is facing down) and place in the center of your mold. Repeat with the other kiwis until you have filled up all your molds.

Mold

By now, your coconut milk mixture should have an incredible coconut aroma and flavor. Strain the coconut flakes out of the mixture and pour it back into your saucepan. Add the gelatin/rum mixture to the saucepan and place over medium high heat. Stir constantly until the mixture is steaming, and all of the gelatin has dissolved. Strain the mixture into a liquid measuring cup. Pour your panna cotta into the molds. Fill them as close to completely full as you can. Carefully move the molds to the refrigerator. Refrigerate for 3- 4 hours, until set.

Make Lenses

Stir together gelatin, lime juice and sugar. Pour boiling water over the mix and stir until all of the gelatin granules are dissolved. Pour gelatin into muffin-tin liners. (make a few more lenses than you plan to use, just in case you tear one accidentally.) Refrigerate the muffin cups  until the gelatin has set (check in about half an hour). Once the gelatin is quite firm, carefully peel back the muffin tin liners and remove the gelatin layer. If you are having trouble releasing them, you can dip them in hot water for a second or two. The heat will melt the gelatin at the edges, and release the rest of the mold. Use your circle cutter to cut the lenses into perfect circles, the same size as your kiwi iris.

Assemble Eyeballs

Boil a few cups of water. Pour the hot water into a bowl and one at a time, dip your panna cotta molds for 3-4 seconds.  Carefully press around the edge of the mold with a moistened finger to release the edges of the panna cotta. Place a plate on top of the mold and invert both the plate and the mold. Slowly lift up the mold, peeking to make sure that the panna cotta is releasing onto the plate.  Pop out the half-sphere of kiwi, and clean up any bits of panna cotta on top of the kiwi. Drain your raisins and press a few raisins into your melon baller to make a half-sphere of raisins. Place the raisin pupil in the kiwi cavity. Finally, place the lens over the kiwi iris . The edge of the lens will look a little harsh. To sculpt it into a more natural looking rounded lens, dip a paring knife into very hot water, and hold the hot knife against the edge of the lens. You don’t need to cut the edge away, just use the hot knife to melt it.

Make Coulis

Heat raspberries in a saucepan. Stir to break up the fruit. Sweeten to taste and strain. Pour warm coulis around the edge of the panna cottas. Go ahead, add a few spatters for flair, too.

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Popcorn is definitely a rock star in the world of thrifty foods. It’s quick to prepare, it’s super-cheap and (depending on what you add to season it) it can be pretty virtuous in the nutrition front, too. Oh, and it is also delicious. Once you start buying microwave popcorn bags, though, these virtues evaporate. The cost is significantly higher, and there are lots of dubious artificial additives, sodium and saturated fats. I wondered if there wasn’t a way to use the undeniable convenience of the microwave, but with just plain old bulk popcorn kernels. The result is the fancy origami fold up contraption you see here. I do promise to post a simpler version soon (I recognize that not everyone harbors a secret paper-folding obsession, like me.)

The first challenge for a microwavable bag: what material to use.   It’s easy enough to find microwavable paper (wax paper, parchment, oiled brown paper), but any adhesives that would close a bag (staples, glue) would definitely not work in the microwave. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to use paper folding as a structural technique to make an attractive and functional microwavable bag. My first attempt was making popcorn in the first origami model I ever learned: a paper balloon. It worked brilliantly. The popcorn popped and inflated my balloon perfectly. The only problem was that the serving size was a little small to be practical (just about a cup of popped kernels from a standard sized roll of wax paper). And I couldn’t help but imagine an attractive origami model that popped up into a perfect popcorn bag. After many, many crumpled up sheets of paper (and a few messy spills in the microwave), I finally worked out this design.  It works, it’s cute, and heck, it’s even reusable! I’ve made a few of these as gifts– I love the idea of giving someone a card that they can microwave and turn into a snack. I even designed some cute tags to attach with instructions for popping (pdf attached, just scroll down to the bottom of the page). These little guys work beautifully as a favor or hostess gift. And you can jazz them up by adding a little seasoning packet to go with them.

Materials

a 12″x18″ piece of plain (not recycled) brown packing paper*
non-stick cooking spray or oil
paper towels
a ruler
scissors
popcorn
high-heat cooking oil (such as canola, avocado or grapeseed)
salt (optional)

Cut and Divide Paper

Measure and cut your paper. I used a 12″x18″ rectangle, but you can make a bag that is a little bigger or smaller. Just make sure that the long side is 1 1/2 times as long as the short side.

Divide the long side of your paper by 10, and mark this interval along both sides of your paper. For my sheet, a tenth was 1.8″, so just over the 1 3/4″ mark.

Oil Paper

Spray brown paper with non-stick cooking spray or an oil sprayer, or lightly dab the sheet with oil until the surface is even and saturated. Your paper will feel less greasy and be much neater to work with if you use just enough oil to saturate the paper, and if you let the oil sit for an hour or so before folding. If there is any excess (shiny) oil remaining when you want to fold, use a paper towel to blot the paper.

Crimp

Zig-zag fold your sheet of paper aligned with the markings you made earlier. You should now have a zig-zagged piece of paper with ten equal rectangles. It’s easy to rush this step, but the more precise you are with these set-up folds, the prettier your card will turn out.

Fold into a Tube

Fold zig-zagged paper over to make a tube. There should be 4 equal sides to the tube with a crease in the middle of each side. One side will be an overlap of the ends, so it will be double thickness. I’m calling the side with the overlapping paper the bottom, and the side opposite the top. Pleat the sides and lay the tube flat. It should look something like a paper lunch bag.

Make Diagonal Creases

Fold the rectangle in half, forming a crease down the center. Use this crease to align a diagonal, and crease along that diagonal line. Make another diagonal crease going the opposite direction.

Use these two diagonals to align a vertical crease– this crease will mark a square. Use this crease to align two more diagonal folds along the edge of the paper.

Repeat these folds on the other side.

Open the Ends

Your model now has 2 complete squares in the center, flanked by a little more than half of another square. Make a vertical crease through the middle of one of the center squares (see pictures). Fold the whole side of the model straight up. Stick your hand inside the edge of the model and open the ends of the model as you would open a paper bag. Spread the folds out along the creases until the model has a flat, square base (think the bottom of a paper bag) with four sides sticking directly up.

Repeat with the other side.

Close the Ends

Fold each edge of the “paper bag” sides down and over to the right. Because these pieces interlock, you might have to unfold and refold to get all of the fold to lie flat. Eventually each corner crease should align with a side of the square base. Now the sides will interlock into a pinwheel configuration.

Tuck the Ends Under

Each pinwheel has four flaps. Unfold one flap and ,starting at the outside edge, fold the flap underneath to align with the diagonal crease. Make a second fold, this time starting at the center of the pinwheel. Again, fold the flap in half, aligning the edge with the diagonal crease. Fold the flap back to its original position.

Continue on to the next flap, making the same two folds. Work your way through all the flaps in this manner until all the edges are neatly tucked under and you have an attractive pinwheel pattern.

Repeat with the other side.

Fill

Unfold one end of the model so that the end is sticking up. Lightly coat 1/4c.  popcorn kernels in cooking oil and sprinkle with 1/2 t. salt** (optional). Scoop the kernels in so that they fall into the cavity of the model. Shake and rearrange the bag so that the kernels are evenly distributed. Refold end as before along existing creases.

Pop

Lay bag flat, with the folded ends facing up. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, until there are 5 seconds between pops. Now your bag will have inflated and filled with tasty popcorn! Sprinkle with desired seasonings and shake closed bag to distribute the seasonings.

*There are lots of tutorials out there suggesting that you can use an ordinary brown paper bags to make popcorn in the microwave (including one published in the New York Times). Paper bags are convenient, to be sure, but I had a hunch that they might not be entirely safe for cooking.  Turns out the USDA agrees with me. Their guidelines advise against using brown paper bags.  Recycled paper and adhesives can release fumes when exposed to heat, that you wouldn’t necessarily want in your food. The USDA suggests buying paper bags made particularly for cooking (only I haven’t been able to locate any). Obviously you’ve got to make the call about what cooking materials you feel safe using. Paper can be safe for cooking, and coating it in oil (as I suggest) reduces the risk of scorching. But you do want to avoid extra, nasty chemicals that might be used to process them. I used (not recycled) brown packing paper. My best guess is this is about as safe a cooking paper as you can find, and I’m comfortable using it. The call is obviously yours.

You can also make this design using wax paper or parchment paper, though it is flimsier and harder to fold. If you decide to make this bag out of wax or parchment paper, you’ll have to make a few modifications to the process. First cut two identical sheets of wax/parchment paper. Skip the oiling step parchment and wax paper don’t need to be oiled. Complete the zigzags folds separately out of each sheet of paper. Fold both pieces of paper into a tube.  Once you have 2 paper tubes, slide one inside the other, staggering the overlapped side. So the top of the innermost tube will be next to the bottom of the outermost tube. From this point on fold the two sheets together as if they were one.

**You might be tempted to add other seasonings to your popcorn when you are filling the bag. (I was). From experience, it is better to add seasonings after you have popped the corn. It is very difficult to evenly distribute any seasonings in a way that does not cause them to burn in the microwave. If you are making the pop up card as a gift and want to add flavor, make a little envelope and fill it with seasonings to add afterward.

And here’s my popcorn labels:  the front, and the back.

I did a double take at the farmer’s market this weekend– were those this year’s apples? And grapes- already?!? If labor day and the start of school were not enough to let me know summer is on its way out, those apples sure were. I was instantly overcome with the urge stuff myself with stone fruit as quickly as possible. After my panic subsided, I decided that the more rational approach was to do a little bit of canning. Preserving is a fundamental, old-school way to keep a thrifty kitchen. Buy fruits and vegetables when they are in peak season, and they will be cheaper and tastier.  And if you preserve them, then you can spread this bounty out throughout the year. Right now stone fruits, tomatoes and peppers are still in peak season, and there seem to be enough not-too-hot days that boiling a big old pot of water doesn’t seem like an entirely foolish idea. So two big bags of plums are finding their way into jars this week– hopefully enough to keep my fruit cravings at bay through much of the winter.

For this jam, I first roasted the red plums which concentrates their flavor and adds a pleasant note of  caramelized richness. It also allows the beautiful red pigment and tartness of the skin to seep into the sweet yellow flesh of the plum. Then I boiled the resulting juice together with the peels (which now slip off the fruit easily) and some fresh thyme to round out the flavor. I also specify low-sugar pectin– regular pectin requires specific quantities of sugar and citric acid to set up. I don’t like my jams to be too sweet, so unless I am making a very tart preserve (see my blood orange marmalade using natural pectin in the citrus peels), I typically like to use a low-sugar pectin. Low-sugar pectin uses a salt to activate the gelling in the pectin– so essentially, you can cheat on the sugar concentration. One last note:  if you are looking to do any summer preserving, I wholeheartedly recommend the USDA’s guide to canning and preserving– it is comprehensive, readable and practical (not what I usually expect to find in a government document). And it’s free! So happy canning, and make the most of these last few days of summer.

Ingredients:

5 lb. Red Plums
a large bunch of fresh Thyme
½ c. sugar
2 lemons
1½ c-2 c. sugar
5½t. low-sugar pectin
calcium water (prepare as directed on pectin package)

Yield:

2 qts. jam

Roast Fruit:

Preheat your oven to 425°F. Halve the plums and place them pit side up on a baking sheet. (If the pits are difficult to remove, you can remove them later). Tuck sprigs of thyme into the fruit and sprinkle with ¼c. sugar. Roast for 25 minutes, until the fruit is soft and just lightly caramelized. Leave out until the fruit is cool enough to handle.

Sterilize Jars:

Wash and rinse the jars and lids you’ll be preserving in. Place the jars in a stock pot with a small grate on the bottom. Pour hot water from the tap over the jars and let them sit for a few minutes to slowly warm up. Place the stockpot over high heat. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn heat off and leave jars to sit in the hot water.

Prepare Fruit:

Scoop pits out of plums and discard. Separate the plums from the skins, placing the skins, thyme  and the plum syrup in a saucepan and the fruit in a  separate bowl or stock pot. The plum flesh will have turned a beautiful ruby color. You should have about 5c. of plum flesh and 4 c. of combined juice and skin.

Concentrate Juice:

Zest the two lemons. Add the lemon zest to the saucepan with the plum skins and juice. You can taste the juice and decide if you want a more pronounced thyme flavor. If you do, then add in a few thyme sprigs to the saucepan as well. Bring to a boil. Let mixture boil down to 2 c. Stir frequently to prevent sticking on the bottom of the pot. Strain and add to the reserved plum flesh.

Cook Jam with Thickeners:

Place jam in a large stockpot. Juice lemons. Add lemon juice and 1c. sugar to the jam and place over high heat. Add calcium water. Mix pectin with ½c. sugar. Once the jam has come to a boil, slowly stir in the pectin to the jam mixture until it is thoroughly dissolved.

Process Jars:

Remove jars from the hot water and place on a clean dishcloth. Fill with hot jam to ½” from the top of the jar. Place jars on lids and tighten. Place filled jars back in the stockpot and fill with hot water. Bring the stockpot to a boil and process jars for a full ten minutes. Carefully remove jars and set on a clean dishcloth to dry. Once the jars have cooled check to see that they have fully sealed.

Store:

Sealed jars will keep for a year or more. Once the jar has been opened it will keep, refrigerated, for three weeks.

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I love the combination of tangy and creamy treats, so I decided to gear my popsicles in that direction. All-fruit popsicles can be lovely, but they aren’t very satisfying if you’re at all hungry. And using buckets of fruit juices and purees can get spendy in a hurry. Tangy-yet-creamy creations can help out both of these shortcomings– filling out the light, sweet fruit with some heartier dairy, and stretching expensive fruit with less expensive dairy. But you have to be careful with tangy-yet creamy creations.  I learned as a young teenager (conducting an ill-fated orange julius replica experiment) that if you add too much acidic fruit to milk you will get a curdled mess. The easy answer is to use cultured milk products, like yogurt and buttermilk.  Then you can add as much acidic fruit as you like, and the mixture will still be creamy and smooth.

I decided to keep the recipe quantities a little vague for a couple of reasons. First, popsicles are very versatile– unlike ice cream or sorbet the sugar concentration can be simply a matter of taste (not prescribed by chemistry). I also liked  the idea that preparing these recipes would create as little mess in the kitchen as possible (less measuring=less dishes to wash). And last, popsicle molds are far from standardized- so if I scaled the recipe to make a full batch for my mold, it wouldn’t necessarily fill up your mold. Much better, I think, to make a recipe that can be made in just about any quantity. These treats are so simple and tasty, I’m pretty sure they’ll be in my freezer for the rest of the summer. And maybe next year I’ll get an air conditioner.

Key Lime Pie:

1 part zest and juice of limes
7-8 parts buttermilk
sweetened condensed milk to taste ( I used about half a can to sweeten the juice of three limes)
graham cracker crumbs (optional)

Zest and juice limes (omit the lime zest if you’d prefer a milder lime flavor). Stir lime juice together with sweetened condensed milk until there is a pleasant balance of sweetness to tartness. Add in 6-7 times the volume of liquid in buttermilk. The sweetened condensed milk makes this popsicle the richest most ice cream-like of the bunch. It is also the most fragile– be very delicate when removing these pops from the mold. If you would like a lighter popsicle, you can swap out some (or all) of the sweetened condensed milk, and sweeten the lime juice with a sugar syrup or agave nectar. Stir in graham cracker crumbs for texture, if you’re so inclined.

Grapefruit Buttermilk:

1 part grapefruit juice
1 part buttermilk
honey to taste

This popsicle is both the simplest and lightest recipe of the bunch. First mix the grapefruit juice and buttermilk, then stir in honey until the mix has a sweetness that you like. Make sure that you completely stir in the honey each time, so you don’t accidentally oversweeten the mix .

Mango Lassi:

1 part mango chunks (frozen or fresh) or mango  puree
1-2 parts yogurt
lime juice to taste
simple syrup or agave nectar to taste
a few drops orange flower water (optional)
a pinch ground cardamom (optional)

Blend mango together with yogurt. I like to use frozen mango chunks, and then add enough yogurt for the mixture to blend fully. Add in lime juice, then sweeten to taste.

Store

Freeze popsicles in molds. Remove frozen pops and store in plastic bags for several months.

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This week, I’ve created a refreshing, chilled summer salad that is visually striking in both daylight and in ultraviolet light. And though the plating makes it look complicated, the elements are incredibly simple. Cucumber and watermelon, when they are cut carefully, look like precious little crystalline gems. The tonic granita is unusual for a salad, but adding a frozen element makes this dish unusual and perfect for enduring the summer heat (I also took some inspiration from ooold, old Roman salad recipes that were served in a bed of snow carried down from mountain tops). Mint-infused oil provides a refreshing contrast to the acidic/bitter granita. And the finishing touch? Salt. I don’t sprinkle salt onto my slices of watermelon (though my grandmother always did) but a sprinkling of salt brings out the subtle flavors of the watermelon and cucumber and nudges this salad firmly into the realm of savory foods. You do need to take plenty of time and effort cutting the fruit, though; pretty, meticulously cut fruit is what makes this dish elegant. If you happen to have a black light, it is pretty fun to switch off the lights and see this dish glow. But rest assured that it is just as tasty under normal lighting conditions.

For a simple recipe, this one took a long time for me to come up with. My plan was to find a few foods that are luminous in ultraviolet light, pick a few that had flavors I liked, whip up a dish then: voilà! I’d have a luminous, delicious dish. But luminous foods proved more fickle than I had planned for, I ended up trying lots of things that just didn’t look interesting under an ultraviolet light. Tonic-candied lemons were de-li-cious, but barely glowed at all. And contrary to what I had read in other sources, pureed greens do not glow red, unless they are pureed with oil, not water (so my  layered herbal gin fizz was murky and unimpressive). In the end, I decided to stick with the two most impressive glowing foods (in my own subjective judgement), infused oils and tonic. The final dish is a rather simple one, where these two luminous elements can show off their unique visual qualities, while each adding a complimenting flavor and texture to the central elements of the dish.

Salad:

watermelon
cucumber
flaky sea salt

Granita:

1 lime
1 c. Tonic water

Mint Oil:

a handful of mint leaves
½ c. grapeseed oil

Make Granita

Juice lime and add juice to tonic water. There are endless techniques to make a granita, each technique yielding a slightly different texture. I favor the method of freezing granita in a shallow dish, stirring every half hour or so for the first hour and a half of freezing (though the sugar content of this granita is so low that this step is not quite as necessary). Once the granita is frozen solid, use a fork to scrape off flakes of snowy granita. You can also freeze the granita in an ice cube tray and throw the cubes into the food processor right before serving.

Make Infused Oil

Bring a saucepan or kettle of water to a boil. Pour boiling water over mint leaves and leave them to wilt for one minute exactly. Pull the leaves from the hot water and immediately plunge into a large bowl of ice water. Squeeze excess water from the leaves and throw them into a blender. Blend wilted leaves together with grapeseed oil on high speed for one minute or until leaves are completely pulverized. Strain oil through a tea strainer or several layers of cheesecloth.

Cut Salad

Halve and peel cucumbers, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut watermelon and cucumber into very neat, small cubes. Reserve the odd pieces for another use. (Agua fresca, perhaps?)

Plate

It is ideal to use chilled plates for this dish. Drizzle mint oil on the plate in a very simple decorative pattern (the oil will move and slide more than an emulsified sauce, so complex patterns do not work well). Place a dessert ring* on the plate and spoon in the cucumber and melon mix. Gently press down on the top of the salad to help it hold its shape, but not so hard as to crush the fruit. Carefully lift the mold away. Sprinkle the plate and top of the fruit with sea salt. Scrape or process granita, and place a generous spoonful on top of the cucumber melon mix. Serve immediately.

Store:

Cut watermelon and cucumber will keep refrigerated for several days. Mint oil will keep at room temperature for about a week, or refrigerated for several weeks. Granita will keep indefinitely, though you might need to recrush or scrape it before serving.
*Don’t worry if you don’t have a dessert ring. Simply cut a 2” deep section from a water or soda bottle with straight, vertical sides.

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