Tackling the Sweet Tooth
© Liana Brittain 2008
I confess. I have a sweet tooth. I want a little something sweet at the end of a meal. When I’m working and want a quick break, I crave something sweet. I’m not talking about half a layer cake, an entire tub of ice cream, or a whole bag of cookies. I mean a square of chocolate or a hard candy: something small, something sweet. If it’s also decedent, so much the better.
I didn’t realize how much this meant to me until I started eating gluten free. I couldn’t just go to the cupboard and take a cookie. I’m not talking about dessert. That’s different. I satisfy that need with unsweetened organic applesauce or a small container of fruit cocktail. I used to enjoy a little bowl of yoghurt, but my body doesn’t like too much dairy at the moment, so it’s off the list. Raw fruit isn’t an option. I can’t digest it and end up with all sorts of unmentionable problems if I try to indulge. No, I’m talking about a little treat – just a bite of something.
Up until now, I’ve been managing this problem with organic chocolate and organic hard candies. While searching for gluten free products, I discovered Green and Black Chocolate. Wow! What a find. At some point in the future, I intend to devote an entire entry just to chocolate. For now, suffice it to say that when I want chocolate I know where to find a safe source. The hard candies are another matter.
I ran out the other day and went to the health food store to get another bag. ( I buy them one bag at a time and ration them. ) To my horror, they were out! There were lots of other kinds of hard candies, but every one contained citrus: another thing that’s not on my list of safe foods to eat. I’m highly allergic to oranges, pineapples and grapefruit. Needless to say, I was devastated. ( Sometimes, it’s the little things that get me down. )
I was sitting here today, wondering what I could have as a quick snack when I remembered the sugar plums I made last Christmas. Now, you might be wondering what sugar plums are. In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the famous poem ” ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”. In this poem, he wrote the immortal lines:
“The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads;”
Sugar plums conjure up all sorts of images, but today they’ve disappeared from our Christmas traditions. Victorians offered these bite size treats to both old and young alike. This ancient treat probably originated in the Middle East in the form of whole figs transformed into a type of fruit glace by long and frequent simmering in a sugar syrup.
Most traditional Victorian recipes contain a combination of nuts and dried fruit blended with cognac including: pistachios, almonds, cashews, walnuts, dried cranberries, raisins, dried apricots, figs, and dates. They’re formed into bite size morsels and then rolled in fine sugar.
So, I headed off to my pantry to see what I could find that I could make into a batch of sugar plums. I found I had an excellent variety of nuts and dried fruit that I could use, so I whipped up two small batches. Like everyone, I have taste preferences. Instead of the traditional sugar plum recipe, I’ve created a formula that I can apply to whatever I have on hand. It consists of one part nuts or seeds, to four parts dried fruits and one sixteenth of a part liquid. It works out to 1/4 cup nuts or seeds, to a cup of dried fruits and one tablespoon of liquid. You can find several of my favourite forms of this treat under Sugar Plums in the recipe section of this site called “My Recipes”, in the “Snack Food” section.
For now, I’ve solved the quick sweet dilemma. If you have some ideas that work for you, please drop me a line and share your discoveries. I’ll look forward to hearing them.
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