Science Fiction

Klah and bubbly pies!

Both are from the Pern series. Bubbly pies are just hand pies, basically. Fruit filled and yummy.

Klah is a fictional thing though. It's the bark of a tree native to Pern, so (unlike pies) you can't really have it.

Luckily, Anne McCaffrey allowed the making of a guide to Pern! It's the usual bits of world building of course, but there are several recipes in it, including bubbly pies and a kinda klah. The pies are standard pies of course.

But, klah in the books is described as being similar to coffee, cinnamon and cocoa. The guide book gives a nice recipe for an instant version that's super yummy. But, you can extrapolate from that and brew it instead.

Overall, the best version I've come up with is brewing the coffee with cinnamon and adding cocoa afterward. I tried doing cocoa nibs in the brewing, and it works, but it doesn't really taste right because there's a limit to how much you can add to the grounds, which limits the proportion of chocolate flavor too much.

I use what's called sipping chocolate. It's basically just cocoa powder, some ground chocolate, and sugar. But it's thick and sinful when made by itself. Done as klah, you only use a tablespoon for a full mug of the cinnamon coffe, so it isn't thick at all, it's barely detectable as thicker than regular coffee. But it is a flavor and scent bomb.

There's synergy between those three ingredients anyway, it isn't some kind of new thing. But doing it as a beverage, the scents are so powerful, which makes the experience so much better. You get all the floral notes delivered in the nose as well as across the tongue. The lingering bite of cinnamon and the earthy goodness of the cocoa are amazing of course.

Highly recommend it