Witchy Kitchen

Tag: sweets

  • Ectolime Curd and Stay Puft Fluff

    Ectolime Curd and Stay Puft Fluff

    Ghostbusters-inspired Ectolime Curd and Stay Puft Fluff are good enough to get you believing in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis.

    There are tons of uses for these sweet goos; on the Fiction Kitchen podcast I talked about using this marshmallow fluff and lime curd to make s’mores and keylime pie gram cracker thumbprint cookies, but that’s just one idea. Eventually I’d love to make a marshmallow popsicles with ectolime curd filling inspired by Andrew Heath’s pop art popsicles!

    Ectolime Curd

    Adapted from Ina Garten
    • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
    • 1 1/2 cups sugar
    • zest and juice of 2 limes
    • 4 eggs
    • 2 drops green, 1 drop yellow food coloring (optional)
    • 1/8 tsp salt
    • Cream the butter, then beat in the sugar and lime zest. Add the eggs one by one, then the lime juice and salt.
    Pour into a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until thickened (15 minutes or so). Remove from heat and cool completely. Save in the fridge in an airtight container.

    Stay Puft Fluff

    From The Kitchn – this makes a TON, if I make again will do half
    • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 3/4 cup light corn syrup
    • 3 egg whites
    • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (if you, like me, forgot you were out, can omit)
    • pinch salt
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    Warm water, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan over medium high heat until mixture reaches 240°. Meanwhile, beat egg whites until foamy, then add cream of tartar and salt and beat to soft peaks. When sugar mixture is heated, remove from heat and let rest 20 seconds. Slowly stream into the egg mixture while beating on high. Beat for 7-8 minutes until room temperature. Add in vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form. Save in the fridge in an airtight container.

    I love making and using fruit curds. See some other variations with:

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Episode 43: Ghostbusters in which Carrie and Diana talk about the new movie and all that came before. Get ready for Ecto Cooler, twinkies, sad wonton soup, Cheezits, flying sandwiches, refrigerator portals, and wacky party food. We ain’t afraid of no ghost!


  • Rose Creams

    Rose Creams

    Eid is right around the corner! This has been a lovely and peaceful Ramadan. Every year I celebrate it, along with family and friends, but also in my own way, choosing some piece of personal improvement to work on for the month. This year however, I chose to do what everyone else does, which is to think nice thoughts, act with generosity and kindness…and fast.

    I only fasted the first ten days. “That’s not very much!” I was told. Um, true, but afterwards I just couldn’t keep up. I have major respect for those of you with the devotion to fast while still maintaining your responsibilities – it’s absolutely not easy, and not for the faint-hearted!

    These ten days weren’t lost on me. The first few were frustrating, I had difficulty focusing at work and difficulty keeping up with housework and kids. However, this really did force me to prioritize what is important in my life. At work I started clearing the clutter (goodbye podcasts, goodbye Twitter, I’ll miss you) and setting lots of minitasks for myself that were completely manageable, less daunting. At home I slowed down on pretty much everything but spending time with my kids. If the house isn’t perfectly clean, if an elaborate meal isn’t cooked, if my blog is neglected, if I take a break from yoga, none of that matters that much. Fasting cleared my vision and showed me what was truly important in my life.

    During this time I coincidentally was reading a marvelous book for our Fiction Kitchen podcast, Chocolat (the book is SO much better than the movie by the way) about a woman who opens a chocolaterie during Lent. There are so many parallels between Lent and Ramadan, so it felt interesting reading this at the same time. We talk about it on the episode.

    So of course I had chocolate on my mind when thinking of a recipe for Eid Eats, which I was delighted to see Sarah from Flour & Spice, Asiya from Chocolate & Chilis and Henna from My Ninja Naan were organizing again this year! I participated last year and have enjoyed interacting with these ladies over the course of the year – including cooking their delicious recipes!

    In the book Chocolat, the main character Vianne has a knack for guessing everyone’s favorites, and I imagined if she guessed mine it would be something floral – I have a mild rosewater obsession, am intrigued by edible flowers, and love floral notes in all kinds of foods, from drinks to sweets to biryanis. These rose creams are an old-fashioned sweet, but made with Rooh Afza, the Pakistani rose syrup that we’ve been making into a refreshing drink almost every night this Ramadan. It seemed fitting to end the month on a sweet rosy note.

    I attempted to follow this recipe from The Daily Mail, but it appears making fondant in cool, crisp England may be different than in the sticky, humid American South, so these are the instructions that ended up working for me.

    Rose Creams

    • 3 tablespoons each heavy cream and Rooh Afza syrup. Next time I might tweak this to 4 tablespoons cream, 2 Rooh Afza
    • 10+ ounces powdered sugar
    • 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
    • 2 teaspoons peanut oil

    In a medium bowl, whisk together heavy cream and Rooh Afza syrup. Sift 10 ounces of powdered sugar and stir into the liquid until thoroughly combined. Add more sugar by the tablespoon until the mixture is very thick and starting to come together as a ball (although the Daily Mail wants you to be able to knead this on the counter, mine wasn’t anywhere close to that and wasn’t getting there even after 6 tablespoons, so I stopped there. Things worked out ok).

    Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight.

    Use the mixture to make 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls, which you can flatten slightly into disks, then place them in two batches on powdered sugar-dusted plates. Make sure the mixture stays cool so it doesn’t get too sticky, and coat your hands well with powdered sugar to make rolling them more manageable. Place in the fridge while you prepare the chocolate.

    In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut oil, stirring occasionally. When they are thoroughly melted, remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.

    Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Using two forks, dip and roll each of the rosy fondant disks in the chocolate to coat, working quickly so as not to melt them. Place each on the wax paper and cool completely until the chocolate has hardened.

    Makes about 30 with a couple leftover disks I didn’t have enough chocolate for 😉

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