October is the season of fresh
apples, pears, corn, and pumpkins. It is also the season of ghosts and
goblins and candy corn. Now candy corn is uniquely American, invented over a hundred
years ago by George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company. This white, orange,
and yellow striped confection is shaped to resemble a kernel of corn and 20 million pounds of it are sold every year. With such
popularity I decided to honor the candy corn by making Candy Corn Parfaits.
These delightful frozen parfaits are made by layering
vanilla ice cream, with orange sherbet and lemon sorbet and I can't help
but feel they do the original proud. The idea for making this dessert comes from
Matthew Mead's book Monster Book of Halloween. This book is absolutely
bursting with Halloween ideas, from cooking to decorating.
Children, in particular, enjoy these Candy Corn Parfaits with the
combination of vanilla ice cream with orange sherbet and lemon sorbet. Moms can also feel good that
they are serving a healthy alternative to all the candy floating around
this time of year. These parfaits begin with choosing a tall thin parfait, wine glass
or, if for a children's Halloween party, small
plastic cups. Then the layering begins. First, vanilla ice cream is
softened and then it is piped in an even layer into each glass. The
glasses are placed in the freezer so the ice cream can harden and then the
same process is repeated with the orange sherbet and lemon sorbet. Each
layer is frozen individually so the layers do not mix. You can garnish the
parfaits with candy corn, chopped peanuts, colored sprinkles or with a
dollop of softly whipped cream.
For those who
are unfamiliar with sorbet and sherbets I will explain the difference. Sorbet
(pronounced Sor-BAY) is French for sherbet and contains fresh fruit
(juices/purees), sugar, water and sometimes lemon/lime juice. It
contains no eggs, milk or cream. Sherbets
(pronounced SHER-biht), on the other hand, contain milk, cream, and
sometimes eggs which gives them a smooth and rich consistency somewhere
between an ice cream and a sorbet.
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