Friday, June 28, 2019

Mulberry Marzipane and Mulberry Agar jewels


Mulberries are falling and staining the sidewalks around town, and you can hear the flocks of birds among the branches. Mulberry picking is easy--the ripe berries almost fall into your bucket, or you can spread a tarp under a small tree and give it a hearty shake to make it rain berries.


I ran the mulberries through our Roma food mill 3 times to extract the juice and pulp, while removing the seeds and stems. This is the juice/pulp from which we would normally make jam, but we decided to try a few other things as well this year. 

Mulberry marzipan

First, Robert made some mulberry marzipan, sticking a single slivered almond into the end of the shaped paste to mimic the small stem. The flavor is subtle because you don't need too much liquid when making marzipan from scratch.

Mulberry agar jelly jewels

The second thing we tried was mulberry jelly jewels, made using agar-agar as a gelling agent and pouring the mixture into silicone molds. Once the agar firms up, I just popped them out of the molds. In one batch, I used mulberry juice with a touch of lemon juice added, in the second batch I mixed in a little coconut milk to make them creamier and lighter purple. They are small enough to pop them in your mouth, one at a time.

See this link for an older recipe for Black and White Mulberry Ricotta Tart

1 comment:

magnoliasntea said...

Those are absolutely gorgeous mulberry treat photos!
Our two mulberry trees are only two years old, but expectation is mounting for next year.
Thank you for sharing your lovely gems.