Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Refreshing Fruit Desserts
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Fran Costigan - Refreshing Fruit Desserts
This event was on
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Fran Costigan, Rouxbe Director of Vegan Pastry, for an enticing, interactive presentation in which she will explore the vibrant world of summer fruit desserts! From juicy b… Read More.
Question:
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Can you please tell us about arrowroot?
— Nancy Calkins
Answer:
I have it, well, I don't have the box. This is organic arrow root from Let's Do Organic, which is Edwards and Suns. And I really like Arrow Root a lot. It's a white flavorless powder and it lasts a long time. It's used like other starches, corn starch, tapioca starch, our root, they're all used a little differently too thicken to thicken a mixture or a food. Um, arrow root has no flavor. Um, I remember giving my kids arrow root cookies and I, I did think there was a little bit of flavor, but it's, it's pleasant. Um, it's comprised of starches extracted from various tropical tubers. And what's different between arrow root and cornstarch, because it's the same, you use the same amount and oftentimes you make a slurry before you use them, which means you dissolve them in a liquid before you cook them arrow root thickens just before the boil is reached. Whereas Corn Star has to be cooked for about 30 to 40 seconds. And so, you know, I learned that it is soothing to the digestive system. It is gluten-free and you wanna keep it in a cool dry place. I always unbox it and keep it like this in my baking drawer, but I really like it. Um, one of my favorite or most requested recipes is for a very easy chocolate pudding. It's in fact the name is almost Instant Chocolate Pudding. And that is an instance where you need to use corn starch, not arrow root, because arrow root gets the culinary word is stringy. I call it slimy. So that's my story on arrow root and, um, it's a very handy, and that's why I back up a little bit here and say what Chef Char was asking about. She saw a recipe that called for in avocado nice cream. And, and I'm gonna, if there anybody, if there is anyone here who doesn't know what nice cream means, it's referred, it's really a classification of frozen desserts that often have a frozen banana base or fruit base, oftentimes a banana base. And they, they aren't sweetened for the most part, but you can do lots with them. If, as I said to Chef Shaw, if you're just putting powdered arrow root, uh, into the nice cream, I just can't imagine it's not going to do anything unless it gets cooked.
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