In the 1600s, while the French were cooking up egg based custard and vanilla, a very similar but slightly different history was being made a bit down south in little nobody Catalunya. The catalunians were inventing crema catalana, an egg based custard flavored with lemon and cinnamon. This week, one year past my first descent in Catalunya, I decided to (attempt to) make crema catalana pops. The experience of crafting the pop was a lot like my experience living in Catalunya - frustrating, rewarding, the wrong consistency at times, covered in sugar, and ultimately delicious. The pop can either be enjoyed at fridge temperature, which will lead to a custardey pop, or frozen and rolled in sugar and then caramelized, which will lead to a crackly-outside but not creamy inside pop. A powerful lesson that sometimes you can't have it all. But what you can have will still be delicious. Crema Catalana Popsicles Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 5 hours Ingredients 2 tablespoons cornstarch 2½ cups of whole milk Half a peel from a lemon 1 cinnamon stick 5 large egg yolks ½ cup sugar 1 packet of gelatin Additional sugar to caramelize on top (if you are taking the frozen route) Directions Put the milk, peel and cinnamon on the stove in a small saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. While the milk is slowly heating, beat the egg yolks with the sugar, until the mixture turns pale yellow. Dissolve the cornstarch in a splash of water and beat into the yolks, along with a spoonful of the hot milk. Remove the citrus peels and cinnamon stick from the hot milk and lower the heat. Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened. In a separate bowl, activate the gelatin per the package's recommendations and then mix thoroughly into the custard. Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into the molds. Spraying your molds is a good idea with this pop! Allow the custard to cool, and then chill the pops for about four hours. If you want to create crystallization, freeze the pops until solid and then roll the pop in sugar. Caramelize with a small kitchen blowtorch. Here are some photos from the first round of tests, pre gelatin. The pops did not stay together, but we did enjoy them as pure crema catalana in bowls!
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On a recent run through Wilder Ranch, Fiona and I stopped abruptly as the intense smell of spearmint had taken over the trail. An enormous mint bush had made its home on the trail edge and was spilling its fragrance everywhere. We enjoyed the scent for a bit longer and then continued on our run, also passing many wild blackberry bushes on the trail. By the time we returned to the car, this popsicle had been born. This popsicle is a pretty block of ice. It is not creamy or soft like most of the other popsicles have been, as the base is not fruit juice or dairy, but water. It is still a good popsicle, if you are a patient popsicle consumer. Blackberry Mint Popsicles
Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 5 hours Ingredients 2 tbsp mint leaves 2 tsp honey 1/2 c blackberries Directions Place mint leaves and honey into a blender with two cups of water. Blend until mint is broken down. Pour into molds and add as many blackberries as you see fit. Freeze until solid. I cried while making this week's popsicle (tears are a fairly common occurrence in my life, thus no significant reason for concern) because the popsicle was going to be used to celebrate Lou's 21st birthday. All I could think about as I went through the ~painstaking process~ of freezing only orange juice) was how we have known each other for a decade and we have lived so much life together and time passes so fast and soon we will be living in Germany - you know, things that you cry about on a Wednesday. The popsicle itself, as I said, is only frozen orange juice. We placed the popsicles in their glasses, waited a moment to let them start to melt, and then threw in some aperol and prosecco. Finn the puppy and I enjoyed our popsicles with the lavish pairing of la croix. Of course, the concept of a popsicle in alcohol spans much further than one round of aperol spritzes on a beautiful wrap around porch. Earlier in the summer, I made a pure raspberry popsicle which we enjoyed with champagne and raspberries. All you really need for a good boozy popsicle is a pure fruit pop, a reason to celebrate, and people you love!
Every summer our family seems to get stuck on some sort of fruit dessert. It could be pies, galettes, crisps, cobblers, tarts, or ice creams. We pick a category early on and repeat it over and over on nights when we have friends coming over or on the rare days when the days' snacking fruit makes it to night. It bakes (or churns) while we eat dinner, and then is brought out and devoured in the quickly darkening night. This summer it has been galettes...plum basil (from when we had too many plums to know what to do), or apple and blackberry from our Sacramento families garden spoils. Last summer, though, it was crisps. Today's popsicle hints at that - putting first the flavor of a peach, but adding in the key ingredient of ice cream and the essential crunch of the topping. This week's popsicle was a wonderful idea but the proportions were NOT correct. I put TOO MUCH vanilla. I will post a recipe here once I have the ratios perfectly balanced! But the general idea is that it is peaches, cream, the spices that go along with a crisp, and puffed rice cereal to maintain structural integrity but also to give the oh-so-important crunch!
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