Delicious in Dungeon #32: Sweet Dryad

 The last of the fifth floor throwback trilogy!

So what was that creature stalking us? well it was just a damn fool shapeshifter. I shifted its shape flat-wards.

So for sweet dryad, I don't really know exactly what those are... but for me what springs to mind is a fruit-filled cookie! (Well also a greek roxakia but I don't know how to make those.) Cookies! cookies! cookies!

I'm using a simple sugar cookie recipe I found online. Its got flour, a little baking powder, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract!

Ah... I wish I had read ahead... it wanted me to whip the butter and sugar together in my mixer.. and i just filled the big bowl with the dry ingredients... DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, it was VERY RISKY to mix in a bowl this small, I had to use my advanced super strength gamer grip!

Now we can combine it all together, with an egg and the vanilla extract.

The mixer will turn it into some sort of scary looking crumble, but then you just take the whisks out and get your hands in to knead it back together...

Et voila! We have some good looking cookie dough! Let's put that in the fridge to chill while we do the next part.

So... I know previously we used pumpkin for the dryad fruit. But... I simply had something else in mind. I thought it would be really cool to use some tinned figs. Figs feel like such a medieval fantasy fruit to me, I dunno why. I've started by draining the syrup out, we want a mash thats not going to leak out of the cookie. I can use the syrup in some mixed drinks maybe?

The figs go in my blending cup and we add some SPICES! The obvious answer is still christmas style spices, so i've got ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.

Success! The figs and spices have blended into a thick jammy paste.

Now we preheat the oven and shape the cookies.

As you can see, I've just sort of shaped them by hand, rolling them into a ball and pressing a bucket shape with my knuckles.

And put a spoonful of the dryad fruit mush in each. Sure it looks pretty good now, but when the cookies heat up... I don't know how much they will melt. I've made them a bit taller than they need to be, but it remains to be seen whether theyll melt into a a mixed up pile or not.

Well that's not too bad! The dough has spread out while the fruit has stayed firmly in place. I could spread it out a little bit with the back of a spoon I guess, but I'm pretty happy with it anyway.

*****

These are delicious! Its sugary, buttery, sweet and festive. It's a combination of pretty standard cookie flavours, but being home-baked makes even the simplest cookie feel special. And its a perfect pairing with a hot cup of tea.

Delicious in Dungeon #10: Exorcism Sorbet

This one's got a bit of continuity, it uses the insect jam and a few other ingredients to create interfaith holy water, which then becomes a sorbet.

Ghosts!! Of sorts. And leftover jam. It kinda already looks like a juiced Gengar...

Here's the holy gang.. got some chopped up consecrated melon i had in the freezer, sacred icing sugar, enchanted lime juice, purifying salt and cleansing mint for garnish.

Im putting the melon, plenty of sugar, a splash of lime juice and a tiny pinch of salt in a blender...

Its looking nice and sludgey, I still fear with all that water content its going to turn into rock solid ice..

Once its all ready (i needed to do 2 halves to fit the blender) it can go in my little ice cream machine! Again, this should simply help it from not turning into a solid block of ice, but im not really a master of ratios for making sorbet yet.

Once its been churned and chilled into a kind of slush, i gently stir in the jam to try and get a bit of swirly colour variation before sticking it in the freezer for a day, and just... seeing what happens.

Next day: It looks like its held its shape and swirls! It looks pretty hard but itll probably be scoopable if i put it in the fridge for 10mins.

****

Pretty good appearance am I right? The texture was obviously not an ideal smooth sorbet, but it was a very nice flavoured ice slush. The melon and blueberry-grape-y jam and hint of mint go really well together. Tastes quite sugary. Is it ok to eat something that's had ghosts all over it? I think so, but it's not vegan. Omit the ghouls n' gummies if you want to do it vegan.

Delicious in Dungeon #9: Naturally Delicious Treasure Insect Snacks

Danger! Deception! Treasure! Insects!

So i tried to get a bunch of shiny and colourful fruits for this.. I got strawberries, blueberries, white grapes (cotton candy variety) and to really sell it, a packet of mini gems which is a classic british gummi sweet.

And I guess we're just gonna... throw em all together and try to jam them? I've just followed my instincts and done a couple handfuls of the fruit and a handful of the sweets. I think we want a very rough and lumpy jam, so ill just see how this goes. If it's anything like cranberry sauce itll sort of break down. 

Adding a bit of water and a few tablespoons of sugar. It doesn't really have to be proper jam, in fact maybe it'd be better if it doesnt set or break down too much...? after all, I want it to be sorta runny for the next recipe actually..? Maybe we want more like a kinda coulis type thing..? 

Its getting quite frisky already, don't want to dye my whole kitchen purple so ill let it simmer for an hour or so.

Ah but it's not just jam we're making, we got another whole variety of snacks to make! For the centipede skewers im going with grapes, and then...

My secret weapon, some sort of food safe pearlescent cake lustre i got years ago.

Hmm it says its meant to be all rainbow, but it kind of just looks dusty and white to me. I expected a bit more shimmer and sparkle... I guess maybe theres a slight shimmer to it? Still, i don't hate the effect.

For the coin bug crackers...im just giving myself a break!! I've bought some rice cracker discs that look perfect.

I've held back some fruits so that we can hopefully add some colour and shapes back into the jam jar at the end... if that even matters.

And of course, that homemade bread I made last recipe! I actually put them in the freezer already cause theyll go stale in like 1 day. So i've got one out and microwaved it.

****

Mmm! Kind of a strange meal to have. Very sweet and heavy. No surprises here, but the jam tastes kind of gummy-sweet-ish... a strange mixture of berries, grapes and weird vegetable starches used in the sweets. Tangy enough to balance out the sweetness and goes great with the bread. It's not set like a proper jam but its satisfyingly thick as a sauce, so just like how I wanted it. The skewers were sweet and fine, and the crackers (sweet chilli flavour) were a delicious and welcome savoury side.

I agree with Senshi's complaints that it doesn't really feel like a balanced meal. But i'm pleased with the result on every front.

Stardew Valley #49: Miner's Treat

Ingredients: Cave Carrot, Sugar, Milk

Item Description: This should keep your energy up.

Ayo this ones weird, and my track record with candy is not good because I dont want to actually make it proper because its a lot of work and specialised equipment and training and that. But i did see some recipe for candied grapes in boiled sweets that im gonna see what happens if i replicate with.... carrots...?

For "cave carrot" I wanted to get some heritage/rainbow carrots to be a bit more fun but they didnt have any, so ive just got a carrot and a parsnip.

Ok so we are going to make like lollipops, see, with the carrots, and dip them in caramel and then coat with them crushed up rainbow boiled sweets.. you with me? No? Come on.

Ok so the ratio of these sweets is... not amazing either. Doesnt feel like theres a point in doing orange on orange, so i'll just crush 3-4 each of the other colours. Oh also, the only rainbow boiled sweets I managed to find were sherbet filled ones. That'll have to do, probably quite nice actually.

This looks cool! this is happening right? This is something?

Ok since the recipe has sugar in milk, ive got a heap of sugar, a splash of milk and some syrup to hopefully, i dunno, stabilise it? 

To make caramel I think it needs to get up to about 300f, so ive finally cracked out this food thermometer someone got me for xmas the other year. Handy! Also by the time it got up to like 250f it started foaming up so i dunno, this isnt pro quality, maybe its about a good time to start dipping.

OK yeah I dont know. I guess I didnt wanna waste a lot off food, but making a small batch makes it all extra hard to try and apply things to things. Also for some reason I thought the vegetables would be able to cook while i was dipping them, but in reality you dont wanna just hang around deep frying stuff in hot sugar... Also the caramel is failing to stick to the veg as it cools... so its just getting all kind of messy in here. I also gave up on making them different colours and tried to sprinkle a rainbow over them all. Yeah, i've made a mess. I also foolishly decided to try and get this done before going to a party so I ended up rushing it.

**

This is stupid and unweildy and im never gonna make it again.

But................... ok im gonna say it.... the toffee and fruity sherbet actually goes REALLY WELL with the raw carrot and parsnip. I think there's a real potential in carrot and parsnip candies? It's stupid, its messy, it sticks straight to your teeth, but it actually tastes great.

Stardew Valley #39: Ice Cream

Ingredients: Milk, Sugar

Item Description: It's hard to find someone who doesn't like this.

Got some serious ambitions for this one. I have an ice cream maker, you see. And they want 3 different scoops, I want to try and make 3 different scoops.

Let's start with the most... normal one? Ive got some leftover strawberry essence, raspberry syrup, and then some double cream and sugar. 

In it all goes, the syrup will be slightly sweet already but i think this one will still need extra sugar.

It's also only gently pink, so ive got a little extra food colouring to top that up.

I thought it might need some extra heating to dissolve the sugar or something, but I dunno if that was really necessary. Well its done now.

Once its cooled it goes in the ice cream maker to churn. Gotta be quick!

That actually looks like its churned and cooled quite well. Now to pop it in the freezer and hope it doesnt go rock hard.

Next one! the ice cream maker needs cleaning, drying and re-freezing between rounds so im just doing one of these a day. This ideas a funky one, i thought itd be fun to make an avocado and lime flavour.

Im just shoving it all together in a blender, hey look the avocado has made a big air pocket! Not for long. The avocado will make up for some of the creamyness I guess, so we should need less cream..?

Another secret weapon! To enhance the green-ness im adding a touch of spirulina powder! Earthy! Im also going to try not cooking this one, surely the blender has mixed the sugar in enough?

This ones gone really well! it looks good to go already.. and tasting a little bit... it tastes so good! Hope it freezes ok.

And the last ones a white ice cream. But im too weird for vanilla, you can get that anywhere... i want to try making yogurt and honey ice cream.

At least this ones straightforward! Yogurt. honey. mix it up.

Well this ones not looking churned like the others. But it's not cream. Frogurt is still a thing so surely... itll just... work out...?

Alright moment of truth! Or rather, we'll make this work some way or another. The cream ones are a little stiff, and the yogurt one looks positively unscoopable. I'll leave them out for a few minutes and then we'll just hack our way through.

****

It was extremely annoying to get these 3 dry bitch scoops to stay stacked on a cheapass kiddy cone and balance them with 1 hand while unlocking my phone and taking a photo with the other. I'm annoyed, but at least I have ice cream. I wish I had a better sense of like, what temp to keep my freezer at, how to balance proportions with new flavours, good scoop technique, etc etc. I'd rather just buy ice cream if im gonna have to fit it in a cone instead of just eat it out of a tub same day. But damn look at it... now that its all done, it looks kinda good right?

Flavour wise its good! The pink and green are so creamy and fruity, and the white is quite sour, which complements the fruits very nicely. I think my favourite is the avocado lime. It's buttery, refreshing and adventurous. 

Next time... i should make this in summer and not the middle of winter. ._.