Reader Query: Enplumpening Liquid...Huh?

Cheryl wrote in with a question about my Cherry-Lemon Joy Cookies:

sounds like a yummy combo! what is enplumbing liquid??

Thanks for writing in, Cheryl! I think I go through phases when I fall in love with a particular technique or ingredient for a while, which means I've been doing a lot of enplumpening in my recipes lately.

To put it simply, to enplumpen is to soak some dried fruit in a warm liquid--either water or something flavored, like tea--to plump up and revive the fruit. The enplumpening liquid is flavorful juice created when the dried fruit and warm liquid hang out for a while.

Here's my original entry on enplumpening:

enplumpen \in- 'pləmp, en-\ vt (2009) 1 : to make dried fruits soft and moist before baking or cooking by soaking them in liquid : RECONSTITUTE 2 : to feast to the point of developing a temporarily protruding belly : STUFF

And I've even used it in a sentence. From my Picturing Toffee Figgy Pudding Cookies post:

“Chop the dried figs and then soak them in warm water to enplumpen 'em.”

And for the second usage:

“Last Thanksgiving I had so many Cranberry Crunch Cookies that I enplumpened myself and needed to put on my eating pants.”

Comments

[JS5981]

Hi CookieGuy

I was just wondering if you've had a chance to experiment on creating a meal replacement cookie (cookie diet type cookie)? I know I can afford to skip a few meals here and there so what better way to do it than eat a cookie :)

[Cheryl]

haha, thanks for answering my ? - now i know what it is!