12/03/2010

Snack Foods: Juicy!

You might think that all we need for a juicy snack is fresh fruit, and you would be right in your supposition. We can improve upon that fresh fruit though, in really decadent ways. Not low-calorie ways, but tasty and sinful ways. Obviously, if one is diabetic or dieting, one should stick with just the fresh fruit...or just have a little bit of this sinful stuff I'm about to suggest. The most obvious way to make fresh fruit tastier is to roll it in something good like sugar, chocolate or nuts. Oh yeah, I'm going there...and maybe all three!

First let's talk about the easiest one: sugar. There is powdered sugar, regular granulated sugar, and sugar crystals; also colored sugar but don't go there (food colorings are not good for you). After you have washed the fruit, coat it with some simple syrup (sugar in a liquid form) and then roll it in the sugar of your choice. Then set it on a drying rack and place it in wax paper until you are ready to eat the fruits of your labor. It's still fresh fruit so eat it as soon as you would any fresh fruit.

The next, truly decadent, coating is chocolate...yum...which is just melted and then has fruit dipped into it so the fruit is coated except for the stem. Strawberries and cherries are most commonly treated in this manner but you can also coat orange and tangerine slices, other berries, sweet black grapes, bananas (which are great frozen), pear slices, peach, kiwi and apricot slices, and apple slices. Unless you are going to dehydrate the fruit first (which is also a delicious option), this fruit should be refrigerated and eaten as soon as you would eat any fresh fruit.

The healthier alternative to this whole fresh fruit decadence is to roast some chopped nuts, coat the fruit with either simple syrup or melted jelly, and roll the fruit in the nuts. The toasting of the nuts brings out the flavor and then you have the sweetness of the fruit combined with the nutty flavors and it is healthy. Again, it's still fresh fruit so has to be eaten before it spoils.

If you want to get really decadent, dehydrate the fruit, coat it with honey, simple syrup or melted jelly, and then coat it with a combination of the choices. With chocolate dipping you don't have to coat it with syrup, honey or jelly, just the chocolate...and then roll it in the sugar and/or nuts. Once the fruit is dried it will keep longer but you still need to take care to preserve it if you're going to keep it for more than a week (or if it's hot and moist where you live). If you work outside the home you may have to hide this kind of stuff or it will disappear from your desk. If that keeps happening perhaps you should consider selling your handiwork!

2010 Dr.Valerie Olmsted All Rights Reserved

没有评论:

发表评论