Pumpkin Lollipops (or Sweet Potato or Persimmon or Lucuma)

Lollipops don't require artificial flavors or colors or even fancy molds.  All you'll need to make these lollipops are canned pumpkin, canned sweet potato, persimmon pulp, or lucuma pulp*, plus water, sugar, and some sticks.  You'll also want to have a candy thermometer (my favorite is the Maverick because it's digital and you can set an alarm to warn you when you reach the desired temperature - but any candy thermometer will do). 

The texture of these lollipops is a bit different than a typical lollipop.  When you bite them, they have a slight crunch, like maple candy (my favorite candy on the planet).  However, sucking the pops is definitely an option.  I gave one to my gluten-free cousin (she is so happy when I make anything that she can eat), and she sucked on one pop for at least ten minutes.  She smiled the whole time, in a closed-mouth-I'm-sucking-on-a-pop kind of way.

The lollipops taste like a super sweet candy version of whatever you make them out of (pumpkin, sweet potato, persimmon, or lucuma).  If you make them out of pumpkin, they would be a such a fun treat for a Halloween party; it's mid-August - time to start thinking about one of the best holidays of the year!

Brown Butter Cupcakes - If You've Ever Burnt Something, You Can Make Brown Butter

Brown butter cupcakes have a caramel-like taste and smell like a hot skillet of bubbling butter waiting for mom's pancake batter to be poured on. If you've ever burnt dinner, you can burn butter and create unforgettable brown butter.

Brown butter cupcakes are basic, vanilla, butter-based cupcakes with the extra step of browning the butter.  It's a small step, but one that changes the cupcake flavor so much that it will seem like a huge brown bear step (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  I see delicious cupcakes looking at me!).    



Frost the brown butter cupcakes with your favorite frosting.  I think the cupcakes would be amazing with pumpkin pie frosting!  I topped mine with lucuma cream cheese frosting (luca-whaa?  Check out my post on lucama bars if you've never heard of lucuma).  The mellow sweetness of the lucuma frosting shined in its own right, but didn't overpower the brown butter.

Brown Butter Lucuma Bars

Brown butter lucuma bars taste exotic yet familiar at the same time. Bake the lucuma bars when you want to impress your foodie friends while still satisfying those with less adventurous palates.  Lucuma is a fruit most commonly found in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile with a pulp that has a texture like sweet potato or pumpkin and a flavor that some describe as maple-like (although I find the taste to be more of a cross between persimmon and plum).

If you're in the U.S. and you've had lucuma, it was most likely a powdered form of lucama that was used to flavor ice cream (if you are a raw foodist, you may have also used the powder as a sweetener).  In fact, I heard of lucuma for the first time when my friends Ian and Gabi mentioned that my candy cap mushrooms (also considered to have a maple flavor) reminded them of lucuma ice cream they had sampled. While lucuma powder has its place (I'll be writing about its use in frosting soon), lucuma pulp is also a wonderful ingredient to work with.  If you are lucky enough to live near an international or Latin grocery store, you should be able to find lucuma pulp in the freezer case.  Simply defrost the lucuma pulp and use it in place of pumpkin or sweet potato in your favorite dessert recipes. I went with lucuma bars, but lucuma pie is now on my to-try list.

These brown butter lucuma bars are a special treat - decadent, subtly sweet (like Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole), and basically irresistible.  Sadly, I know some of you won't be able to try them because lucuma may not be available in your area.  If you like the concept but can't find lucuma, this same recipe can be made with sweet potato, pumpkin, or persimmon pulp.