POM Wonderful

Ryan from POM Wonderful recently sent me a free box of their juice to play with.  Like everything lately, I've been a bit behind in putting it to good use, but I have come up with some goodies!   While I'm not an avid juice drinker, the absence of added sugar and plentiful antioxidants makes POM one of my favorites.   When I got about to figure out what to do, I discovered that grenadine was originally made from pomegranate juice??  I had no idea :)  Sounds much better than that HFCS-laden syrup I recalled using way back in the day!!

Love the cute 8oz bottles!

Grenadine


1c POM juice
1/2c cane sugar
splash of orange blossom water (optional)

Heat the POM and sugar until dissolved (in the microwave or on the stove).  Remove from heat, add a splash of orange blossom water.  Once cooled, transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge.

I saw quite a few variations on the recipe, including some that reduced the juice by half, but I thought that seemed more like making pomegranate molasses.  You could also add in a little vodka to help preserve the grenadine if you're not planning on using it right away.


I love the tart frozen yogurt places that have opened up in Boston, and have recently been getting the pomegranate flavor with semisweet chips and raspberries.  The first thing I wanted to do when I got the juice was to try and recreate this at home!  I'm sharing the recipe that I used with what was already in my fridge, but I would make some changes as it froze very hard (evidenced by the picture, I was unable to get a good-looking scoop).  I'm not a chemist, but I think it needed either a higher percentage of fat and/or a splash of liquor to help the consistency after being frozen for a day or two.

Tart POM Yogurt w/Chips
Recipe by Shannon


The sweetness of this frozen yogurt can be adjusted according to your tastes.  Mine wasn't too sweet, and just what I was after.  If you'd like less of a tang, add a bit more sugar!

2c POM juice
1/2c grenadine (see above)
2c greek yogurt (use 2% or higher, otherwise it will be too hard)
1T pomegranate liquor or vodka
1/2c semisweet mini chips

Whisk together juice, grenadine, yogurt and liquor until well combined.  I found that I didn't need to heat this at all, but my grenadine may have been warm enough to help it come together.  Refrigerate for an hour or more, to make sure the mixture is chilled.  Churn according to manufacturers directions, adding the chips towards the end of churning!


I went for my first bike ride outside with my second cousin last weekend, so I brought him and his wife some Dark Chocolate POM Brownies.  I just made them in a 9"pan instead of making individual brownie cups and frosting them.  May have kept 1 or 2 for myself...  they didn't all fit in the container ;) Can't say the pomegranate flavor was that prominent, but they were still yummy.

I also figured I could use some of the POM juice to bake something for work.  I decided on a POM Velvet Cake w/POM Cream Cheese Frosting.  Yeah...  cream cheese frosting is right up there with peanut butter frosting in that I should not have it in the house.  At least most of it ended up on the cake ;)  Again I couldn't quite pick out the pomegranate in the chocolate cake, but it probably did add a certain dimension to the flavor.  Pomegranate definitely came out in frosting, adding a subtle tart that helped keep the frosting from becoming too sweet.    Nobody complained :)

Need more ideas?  How about caramel sauce, jello or truffles??  There are quite a few savory options out there too (especially with pomegranate molasses)!  What's your favorite way to use pomegranate juice??

Thanks again Ryan and POM Wonderful!!