Hard to Resist

I started with packing up lots of the ‘pick 3’ orders, because it was simpler to batch them that way, but now I’m starting to move on to some of the larger orders. Here’s a ‘pick 5’ from someone who loves marshmallows — they went for three different kinds of marshmallows + passionfruit gummies and cashew milk toffee. Yummy. 🙂

Here’s a funny note — the gummies don’t use any preservatives — they’re just fruit juice, gelatin, and a little sugar. So they start to dry out if stored at room temperature for more than a few days — which means that I keep them in the fridge, and then, if I pack them up before I’m ready to ship (in this case, it’s waiting on one of my staff to make me a postage label), I still want to store them refrigerated until I put them in the mail (right now, it’s pretty cold out here, so the mailbox should work pretty well as refrigeration too). So there are a couple cardboard shipping boxes in my fridge right now, which is just funny.

I don’t think I’ll do this again — if I offer gummies in the future, I’m going to want to develop a shelf-stable recipe. But that will require adding some chemical ingredients, I think, and a bit of experimenting. We’ll see. Chocolates are simpler, but the gummies are awfully cute. Hard to resist!

Anyone Want to Guess?

One of the interesting things for me about doing the ‘pick out of 15 options’ for the Valentine’s orders was that I got to see what was most popular very clearly. Anyone want to guess what the favorite sweet was?

Sri Lankan cashew milk toffee!

I don’t know if it’s the Sri Lankan in the name setting it apart from the rest? Or just that cashew milk toffee is clearly insanely delicious. But it was sort of funny to me that it pulled so clearly ahead of the pack.

I think the second favorite were the dragonfruit chocolates (which are, I have to say, stellar), and then the gilded rose cayenne chocolates. I’m going to need to make second batches of all of those this weekend, I think, to finish fulfilling the Valentine’s orders.

And then the marshmallows line up after that, with the passionfruit dipped in dark chocolate coming slightly ahead of the others. I should make notes, so I remember to offer them again next year, if I’m still doing this kind of thing.

I’m actually hoping that by next year, we’ll be set up with Stephanie Bailey helping me with sweet-making, which means I probably should take some time to go over making Sri Lankan milk toffee with her this summer; it can be a little tricky, as all of my cousins will attest, I think.

The number of times I scorched it in my 20s and 30s, trying to get it right — it would make a Sri Lankan aunty weep!

Little Business Lessons Just Keep Coming

Writing workshop yesterday evening was followed by a few hours of sitting on the couch packaging up treat boxes, which actually does take time — it’s funny, there’s a part of my brain that really has a hard time internalizing that certain things take time. Apparently, I think that:

• answering e-mail
• packing things to put in the mail

• probably lots of other stuff I’m not aware of

…just happen instantaneously. They do not.

Packing up just five small treat boxes, for example — putting the sweets in cute little containers, adding stickers and ribbon, Valentine’s hearts and tissue paper, double-checking to make sure the right things are in the order, sealing them up, printing out a shipping label and putting it on — all of that took a solid hour, for only five orders.

I mean, it was a pleasant hour, accompanied by the season 4 finale of The Magicians, so it didn’t feel like very hard work or anything. Kind of a nice break after a long day of brain work; I didn’t want to think anymore, and dropping little pink hearts into boxes was just about my speed right then.

But it definitely took time. I imagine if I did this as a full-time business, I would find ways to be more efficient about it, with batch packaging, but still — packing time is real time, and should not be discounted.

Little business lessons just keep coming. 🙂

Here to Report

I am here to report that egg whites from a carton do not whip up beautifully into meringues — at least, mine didn’t. I should’ve known better, given how egg freshness is key to getting good meringue beating, and those egg whites have probably been sitting in that carton for a while. I was seduced by the convenience.

Now, is there anything to do with liquid egg whites + sugar + chai spices that refuse to whip up into meringues? Do I just have to pour them down the drain? (I HATE HATE HATE wasting food.)

A Seal for the Serendib Press

This was just fun. I got me and Kavi a present for Christmas — a little seal with the Serendib Press logo (that she drew) on it, a little cooking pot with stars floating up.

We’re giving people the option of ordering one of our Valentine’s cards to go with their orders (we’d write whatever message they wanted in the card), and I think it’s silly fun to seal those with our emblem, and then highlight the design in silver leaf.

If I were doing it again, the one thing I’d do is add a circle around the edge of the design, because the little stars are so small that they kind of disappear as an element — I think this effect works better with an intricate design with a lot of raised elements. But still, v. cute. When I was around her age, I was a little obsessed with seals and sealing wax. I think I mostly liked playing with fire. 🙂

Anand came over to help me do this, and had many questions about why we don’t use seals anymore as proof that something is really from someone else. I think the answer is that it eventually got cheap enough to create and engrave seals that they became too easy to forge, but I’m not positive that’s right?

Passionfruit Gummies

(makes about 250 teeny tiny gummies)

Super-easy, super-cute. Passionfruit puree, which I order online, is thick and intensely flavored, which is why I end up diluting it with water for these gummies. If you’re using juice, then just use 2 cups of juice and no water.

1 c. passionfruit puree
1 c. water
3 T (1.25 oz packet) plain gelatin

1/4 c. sugar (optional)

1. Combine passionfruit and water in a glass measuring cup and microwave on high a few minutes until hot (alternately, heat in a pot on the stove).

2. Stir in gelatin and sugar (if using) until dissolved.

3. Pour into gummy mold and chill one hour until set. (Alternately, pour into pie plates, and cut into squares or use a cookie cutter.)

NOTE: These store best in the refrigerator; after a few days at room temperature, they tend to dry out.

Your Vegan Cupboard

Question for vegans — as I’m working on Vegan Serendib, I’m mostly just creating recipes that are already vegan in nature — vegetable pickles, sambols, curries, etc. BUT, I’d like to include at least a few using specifically vegan ingredients, such as agar-agar, used to substitute for gelatin.

I could just buy a bunch of different things and try them, but I’d like to stay as much as possible to ingredients that are easy to get for the home cook.

Tell me about your vegan cupboard — what do you typically have on hand already? Vegan butter? Agar-agar? What else?

Thanks!