Pink is for pear, prickly pear

This week has been so long. Have you ever had one of those weeks where you never know when its going to end? That was my week this week. But that is not why you read this blog so I will leave it at that.

At work my boss picks one item to showcase every month. He tries to find something that we have never used so we can really learn new skills. This month it was prickly pear. We are supposed to make new foods and try incorporating it into different recipes. Today I decided to make cupcakes. I know I have said I hate cupcakes which I do but I am pushing my boundaries in all areas.

Side note Prickly pears remind me of the jungle book. Every time I cook with it I hum the bear necessities. Have you ever made something that reminds you of something completely different. I love finding connections between my past and my present. This item did that for me.

 I started with a batch of coffee cupcakes. I know, I know coffee in a cupcake sounds gross. I have never worked with coffee before. Since I don't drink it, its hard for me to know if things taste correctly. Shocked that I don't drink coffee? Its a life choice, mostly because I think it is one of the nastiest things I have ever tried, and I have tried some pretty nasty things. (Like frog ovaries when I was in china or squid eyes when I was in El Salvador, that one was a dare but still, eww) I have seen in a lot of recipes that they add coffee to make it more flavorful so I decided to give it a try. Plus its a bonus that my husband is addicted to coffee so lets pretend I made them just for him. "Cupcake sweetie, I made your favorite coffee flavored, just for you."

Back to the prickly pear, most people have not worked with prickly pear so I took a few extra photos. A prickly pear also known as cactus are actually very good for you. These little guys grow off the paddles of the cactus. Which you can also eat the paddle or turn it into aloe vera. The prickly pear I have here came with the needles removed. If you get one with the needles make sure you wear gloves. You don't want to prick yourself, from what I know I would guess they are not sold with needles on them. As you can see I have peeled the pear and rough diced it. This is four pears diced which seems like a lot. These little guys have small seeds that are edible but pretty hard. So I decided to juice it. Once you take the skin off all the flesh inside is edible.

 As you can see from this picture I have juiced the diced pear. I don't have a blender so I had to juice it by straining it in a sifter. In the last month I have come to discover why so many people own a blender. I tend to come across the need of one more and more. After juicing the diced pear I had nice prickle pear juice. Four pears only produced 1/2 cup of juice. I am sure it would give more if you use a blender but for what I needed a 1/2 a cup was plenty. Plus if you wanted to eat the actual fruit after you can.

 I decided to make cream cheese frosting while my cupcakes were cooling. Every cupcake needs good old cream cheese frosting on top. Instead of using heavy cream I used the prickly pear juice. That is what gave the frosting its amazing color. I can call these little guys, "no coloring needed". Maybe not. A lot of things can be replaced with other foods to either make something healthier. Like applesauce for eggs or make something vegan, like avocado for butter. I'm not sure if this works with everything but I would assume if the consistency is the same you could substitute one item with another. Once you decide what you want to substitute you have to have an open mind about the end product. Some things may turn out a little different than how they normally would. Because I substituted prickly pear juice instead of heavy cream the cream is thicker than the juice. This means I had to add more powdered sugar to thicken it up.

 In the end once I let the frosting chill I was able to frost the cupcakes. As you can see my husband snagged one before I could take a picture. There once were twelve cupcakes. Thats okay though because eleven is enough for sharing.

I enjoyed working with this prickly pear. It is very versatile product. I think I might take the extra frosting and make something else. Maybe this week while you're at the grocery store you will find something you have never worked with. Why not buy it and see what you can do? Who knows maybe you will find your new favorite food.