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1
Preheat the oven to 325F and grease a baking sheet.
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2
Combine all the ingredients for the crunch topping in a bowl and mix well.
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3
Spread evenly on the baking sheet and bake for 4 minutes.
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4
Toss the ingredients and bake for 4 minutes more, or until the topping is dry.
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5
Let cool.
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6
Pour the pear juice into a saucepan.
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7
Add the cinnamon.
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8
Sprinkle the agar-agar powder over the juice and let soak for 15 minutes.
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9
Whisk the juice to remove any agar-agar that has gathered on the bottom of the pot.
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10
Bring to a boil, whisking occasionally, then decrease the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, continuing to whisk every few minutes.
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11
Turn off the heat and let cool to room temperature.
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12
Pour the mixture into a blender and add the orange juice, zest, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt, and blend for 1 minute.
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13
Pour equal amounts of the liquid into 4 wineglasses or martini glasses and chill for 1 hour.
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14
To serve, scatter a generous spoonful of the crunch topping over the kanten.
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15
Widely available in health food stores, agar-agar, also known as kanten or simply agar, is a seaweed that acts like gelatin.
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16
It is used throughout Southeast Asia to make candies, puddings, and other desserts.
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17
In Japan, it has recently been reinvented as a diet food because it contains no fat.
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18
Gelatin, often used in sweets like cheesecake, ice cream, jams, and jellies, is made from cattle bones and hidesby-products of factory farmsthat are treated with chemicals before the collagen within is extracted.
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19
Its an energy-intensive procedure that conjures some unpleasant images.
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20
Making gel from seaweed, however, has a low environmental impact.
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21
Cooking with agar-agar takes getting used to, but youll find that its adaptable to any flavor and fun to experiment with.
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22
Use 30 percent more agar-agar when working with an acidic ingredient like orange juice.
