Christmas Tidings!

Some exciting things are happening for us this Christmas season at Grassroots. We have just started up our official newsletter with info on auditions, historical tidbits on Shakespeare, and much much more. For those of you who aren't on our newsletter list yet, you can sign up here! 

Our show this Christmas, for those of you who don't know yet is going to be:

Nothing says Christmas like this show. Magic, mystery, love, and an old bearded man who punishes the naughty and rewards the nice? Sounds mighty similar to another jolly fellow, doesn't it? We'll be performing this show at the magnificent Masonic Temple in Salt Lake and will be posting more info as it comes. 

On our newsletter we talked a little bit about Elizabethan Christmas traditions, and here on the blog we wanted to share a delicious recipe that we found from the Tudor era. This is a very adaptable recipe and can me made with milk instead of almonds, fruit instead of rose petals, or any other variations you want to try. It's impressive yet simple. So here we go!

Servings: 4

Prep time: 15-20 min plus overnight set time for jelly. Add a day if making almond milk.

This recipe can be made with milk for those with nut allergies. For those who don't have time to make the almond milk can also just add some almond extract to the milk to give it a nice almonds taste.

Almond Milk:

• 1 cup of ground almond 
• 1cup rice flour moistened with 2 1/3 cups of water.

Milk Jelly

• Almond milk (or pint of full fat milk)
• 2-3 leaves of gelatin
• a little more than 1/4 cup of sugar

Fruit jelly

• pint of juice, wine, or other fruity beverage
• 1 leaf of gelatin
• rose petals or rose water (optional)

To make Almond Milk: (Note: You need to make this the day before)

• Cover the ground almonds with the boiling water, stand for 15 mins, rub through sieve/ cloth. Straining trough a cloth produces a smoother milk. If it is a bit thin- add rice flour and warm in a pan until it thickens.Cool and put in the fridge overnight. Almond milk goes bad quickly so don't keep this around for long.

To make the Leach:

Milk Jelly (make this first):

1. Soak the gelatine leaves in water
2. Warm the milk/ Almond milk ( do not boil)
3. Add the gelatine and stir until disolved
4. Pour into glasses and set overnight ( Putting it in the fridge helps)

Fruit Jelly:

1. Soak the gelatine leaf
2. Warm the juice 
3. Disolve the gelatine in the juice
4. Chop and add the rose petals or a teaspoon of rosewater (pieces of fruit are a good substitute if you don't like the idea of rose!)
5. Leave to go cold
6. Spoon the cold mixture onto the set milk pudding and return to the fridge to set
7. Once both parts are set, decorate and serve. 

It was common to cover this dessert with gold leaf, and you can find edible gold at your local baking supply store, but for those who want something a little less flashy, raspberries are a fine garnish to pair this with. 

Happy Holidays and bon appetit!