Just about every frozen treats on sticks, homemade or bought, drip everywhere. Unlike us grown-ups who race to finish our treats before even wasting a drop, our kids dawdle, savor every lick leaving a big sticky mess all-over. Keeping them from enjoying these delightful popsicles is simply not an option! Finally, I found a work-around to satisfy both my kids and me.

A few years back, I found these push-up pop molds
that were great from a parent’s standpoint. They come apart so it’s easy to clean and they keep the frozen treats from dripping down the sides. The problem is they sometimes drip from the inside down the handle! But with a slight modification, these molds are still my favorite to use for all our homemade frozen treats.

To make these push-up pop molds not so messy,

• take the handle and enclosure apart;
• cut approximately a 3″ x 4″ rectangular piece of rag – cotton terry cloth soaks well;
• fold in thirds and wrap around the handle and assemble.

A side benefit (at least for me) is this setup naturally lessens how much frozen treat can be packed in!

There are many contraptions to this simple experiment. In general, it involves suspending a weighted string or wooden skewer in a glass with the sugar solution. I like to use a short cocktail glass and toothpicks stuck in a piece of wire mesh screen. It’s less time consuming to set up and you can make several small sticks of rock candy per glass. You can find the wire mesh screen in rolls at Home Depot for under $8. Besides serving as a toothpick holder here, these mesh screens have many other uses such as lining the bottoms of your plant pots, repairing window screens, and patching wall holes. In other words, they are handy to have around the house and well worth the $8.

To make the sugar solution, start with:

• 1 part water
• 2 parts sugar

by volume. I.e., one cup water to two cups sugar.

Sugar crystals after one week.

• Heat the water in a saucepan until just boiling.
• Add the sugar and stir continuously until all the sugar is dissolved. Optionally dissolve extra sugar, a spoonful at a time. A well saturated sugar solution speeds up the crystal growth. If you add too much sugar and not all is dissolved, simple add a little bit of water at a time.
• Let cool a few minutes, occasionally stirring.
• Pour the mixture into clean, dry glass.
• Dip toothpicks in the sugar solution and roll them in sugar. Let dry. These tiny ‘seed’ crystals jump starts and accelerates the crystal growing process.
• Cover glass with prepared toothpick in mesh screen and wait.
• And wait and wait and wait. It will take at least a week for the crystals to grow to a good size.
• If you want to add food coloring or flavoring, add it after the first week when sizable crystals have formed. Otherwise, it will take much longer for the crystals to form. Let the crystals grow for at least another week.

At first, the kids were super excited and would check on the rock candy every day. By the second week after adding the color and flavor, they almost lost all interest after I told them they had to wait at least another week before they can eat it. But the longer they wait, the bigger the candy and well worth the wait!

Rock candy is just one of many experiments to show how crystals grow. Here are a few sites that explain the science behind it.

• Rock Candy Basics
• Grow Sugar Crystals
• Temperature Effect on Solubility and Supersaturated Solutions

If you’ve scoured the internet and various cooking books, you’ll notice that recipes for homemade dumpling skins all have the basic two ingredients, flour and water, but the proportions and technique vary greatly. They all work – dumpling skin dough is very forgiving. Using the right proportion and method, however, can make the process a lot easier and faster.

The ratio of flour to water for dumpling skin dough vary greatly ranging anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1 (or 66% to 80% flour by volume). Many recipes also call for hot or boiling water and letting the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. A soft, warm, well-rested, dough is easier to work with and roll out if you’re doing it all by hand. But who has the time? If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that my go-to appliance for almost anything dough related is my trusty KitchenAid stand mixer. Making dumpling skin is no exception. Here, I also use the pasta roller attachment. Let the appliance do all the hard work for you and make a cold, stiff dough instead with no resting time required.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cool/cold water
• 1 tsp salt (optional)
• extra flour for dusting the dough
• cornstarch for dusting the finished dumpling skin.

Directions:

• In the mixer bowl, combine flour with salt, if using.
• Add cool/cold water.
• Using the dough hook, knead until the dough comes together and forms a nice ball, about 2 minutes.



• Remove the bowl and hook and attach the pasta roller.
• Cut off a small piece, shape into an oval, flatten and dust with flour on both sides.
• Feed the dough through the pasta roller, making at least 2 passes – the first pass on the thicker setting and the second pass on the thinner, final setting. The thickness is really a matter of preference. I usually do the first pass on setting ’2′ and the second pass on setting ’4′.



• On a flour dusted surface, cut circles using a 3 inch (again, a matter of preference) cutter. Reuse all leftover dough.



• Dust the dumpling skin in a bowl filled with cornstarch.
• Set aside or refrigerate (up to a couple of days) until ready to use.

When you are ready to make the jiao-zi, you can simply seal the filling with warm water – the cornstarch will hold it together. If you roll out your dough to a final thickness setting of ’4′ and use a 3 inch cutter, then this recipe yields about 100 dumpling skins.

How often do they fall on the same day??? As with every holiday, our family celebrates both occasions with food and lots of cooking on the days before and the day of. For Chinese New Year, I like to make homemade jiao-zi, Chinese dumplings (more on this on another post) and fortune cookies. This year, though, I put sweet Valentine notes as the fortunes. Here are the recipes and directions for making homemade fortune cookies.

Ingredients
• 2 cups whole wheat flour (white whole wheat, traditional, pastry, or any combination)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
• 1 to 2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• coarse sea salt to taste

Follow directions in basic cracker recipe, sprinkling sea salt to rolled out dough and gently pressing down with a rolling pin or by hand.

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• With a paring knife, cut an ‘X’ on one side (to let the steam escape).
• Arrange on cookie sheet and bake about 20 minutes.
• Peel just when it’s cool enough to handle.

Note: If the chestnuts cool off too quickly, keep them in the oven at 125° F until ready to peel.

Crackers are one of the easiest, most versatile “quick breads” you can make. A basic cracker recipe contains just flour, fat, baking powder, and liquid. As for seasonings, anything goes! Once I discovered how quick and easy it was to make especially with the stand mixer doing all the work, I’ve not bought crackers since! Here’s my tried-and-true base recipe:

Ingredients:
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp oil, I prefer olive or grapeseed
• up to 2 3 tbsp dry seasonings

Directions:
• Preheat oven to 400°.
• In the stand mixer bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and dry seasonings.
• Add water and oil.
• Mix with the dough hook attachment until the dough comes together.
• Divide dough into 4 pieces, dust with flour and flatten.
• Using the pasta roller attachment, roll each piece down to the desired thickness. I prefer setting ’3′ for thin crackers.
• Lay the flat pieces on a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet or silpat.
• Prick with a fork.
• Cut each piece to desired cracker sizes using a pizza wheel or ravioli wheel.
• Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until browned on the edges.

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion gives an excellent explanation on ways to vary your recipe, types of flour you can use, and baking temperature and time variations. I’ve used many types and combinations of flour and the crackers have all come out well, but different every time.

photo by Emily

Related post: rosemary parmesan 100% whole wheat crackers

This recipe is about as simple as it gets. I’ve tried custard based ice cream with egg yolks and since my kids and husband like it just the same, I opt for the simpler recipe. Plus, it is easy enough that my kids can take part in the process. We usually have ‘cooking school’ in the early afternoon right before quiet time and since it takes about 30 minutes to churn, they can’t have it right away and must wait until they wake up. Patience.

I make all homemade ice cream in the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker which I highly recommend. It is easy to clean, small enough for our limited kitchen storage and freezer space, and is less than $50.

Ingredients:
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1/3 cup local honey
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:
• Blend honey and milk with a hand mixer until wel combined; use a 4 cup glass measuring cup with a spout for easier pouring.
• Add cream and vanilla. Stir together.
• Pour the mixture into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions.

Note: you can substitute 2/3 cups of sugar for the honey. I’ve modified this from the original recipe that came with the Cuisinart maker which called for whole milk and 3/4 cups of sugar.

• Add desired amount of loose leaf tea.
• Pour hot, not boiling, water. If you’re heating over the stove top, wait until you see bubbles form at the bottom of the saucepan but before the water comes to a rolling boil.
• Let steep.
• Plunge to separate the leaves from the brewed tea and…
• Enjoy!

Freeze and Thaw.

With minimal effort on your part or a machine’s, you can easily extract the syrupy naturally sweet liquid from some fruits. You just have to plan ahead and be willing to wait a day or so. This works especially well with strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. I have not tried it with other fruits yet.

• Wash berries
• If using strawberries or large fruits, cut in half or quarters.
• Freeze overnight in freezer bags.
• Thaw in refrigerator or at room temperature.
• Pour contents through a strainer to separate the juice and fruit.
• One quart size bag of strawberries yields approximately one cup of strawberry syrup.
• Enjoy fruit as is and substitute the liquid wherever a recipe calls for berry syrup. Or simply mix it in a drink. I don’t think there is enough pectin to use it in a jam or jelly. If you do try it, please post your results here.
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