ginger – A Pat & A Pinch

Ginger, Hazelnut and Blackberry Biscuits with Fennel Sugar

There is nothing like a good biscuit or scone. When I came across this recipe on the blog Twig Studios, I was intrigued. It brings together so many flavours that I love; blackberries, ginger, lemon and fennel. The result was fantastic – with a nice texture these biscuits are nutty, sweet, and savoury at the same time. Spread with a little butter, they are even better!

The recipe is much more complex that the buttermilk biscuits that I usually make in both in the number of ingredients and the method, but the good news is that it works. To make the fennel sugar, you have to plan in advance. Combine about one teaspoon of fennel seeds in a jar of sugar to infuse the flavour for about two weeks prior to making the recipe. If you don’t have the patience to do this in advance, just break up the fennel seeds with a mortar and pestle, combine with the sugar, and move on.

I made some adjustments increasing the amount of both blackberries and candied ginger, and found that I needed more buttermilk than the original recipe suggested to get the dough to come together.

This recipe made a dozen generous biscuits. I’d suggest cutting it in half if you don’t anticipate being able to use them all the same day that they are made – they are very filling and so much better fresh!

Gingered Fennel, Hazelnut and Blackberry Biscuits

1/2 cup 115g cold unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups 150g old fashioned rolled oats plus more for garnish

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp fine grain turbinado or granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (see comment above).

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped unblanched hazelnuts with their skins plus more sliced for garnish

6 ounces blackberries

grated zest of one lemon

about 1 cup plus 6 tbsp shaken buttermilk

5 tbsp chopped candied ginger

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with baking paper or silpats.

Cut the butter into small cubes and place on a plate in the freezer.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade grind 3/4 cup of the oats until it is a fine meal, then add the flour and ground flaxseed, 1/2 cup of the fenneled sugar, baking powder and soda and salt and pulse a few times to combine. Add the remaining 3/4 cup 75g rolled oats, the hazelnuts and cubed butter pulsing and additional 7 to 9 times or until the butter pieces are pea sized.

Turn the mixture into a large bowl and add the lemon, ginger, and blackberries tossing gently to mix. Then pour in half the buttermilk and, using a bowl scraper or a spatula, gently mix the mixture adding enough buttermilk until a rough ragged dough comes together (you may not need all of the buttermilk). Hold back just enough of the buttermilk to brush the tops of the biscuits later.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a flat rectangle about one inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut into triangles or squares. Brush the tops with the remains of the buttermilk and sprinkle over the remaining tablespoon of fenneled sugar, oats and sliced hazelnuts

Bake for about 20 minutes until evenly browned.

February 16, 2016June 19, 2016

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Spiced Apple Butter

My parents live on a property that has the remnants of an old orchard. The apple trees are larger than ideal and you can tell that they have witnessed a lot of history but they still produce apples. This weekend the Gravensteins were ready to be picked. Gravensteins are a tasty eating apple, but they aren’t any good for pies. With a bumper crop, they needed to be used and what better solution than apple butter.

Choose a day when you can be home all day to make apple butter: It takes a long time to cook! Mine cooked all day – a good 12 hours in total but I think that that was largely due to the volume I made which necessitated starting it on the cooktop and then shifting it to the oven. It needs to be stirred regularly, but other than the stirring it requires little attention. If I was making a smaller batch, I would simply use the oven or a crock pot – it is so much less effort and requires so much less attention!

I can’t give you a specific recipe for apple butter – it depends on what type(s) of apples you have and how many of them you have. The good news, however, is that you really don’t need a recipe.

I peeled, sliced and cored my apples using a peeling and coring gizmo like this. It yields a spiral sliced apple that I then cut into quarters. If you have a food mill, you can slice your apples whole with peel and then run the cooked mixture through the mill, but I find beginning with prepared apples easier.

I filled a heavy bottomed 17 litre stock pot to within 2 inches of the top with the apples and added 2 litres of some soft apple cider from a previous year’s bounty that we keep frozen until needed. You could also simply start with a little water or commercial apple juice. I put the pot on low on the cooktop and began to let it cook. The fruit broke down into an applesauce quite quickly. Gravensteins do break down easily but if you have an apple that doesn’t, you can easily break it down with an immersion blender or with a food mill.

I added spices to taste: my choices were cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and some ground ginger. For my first batch, I used whole spices tied up in cheese cloth and then supplemented with ground spices. For the second batch, I went straight to the ground spices. Remember that the apples are going to be reduced by at least half, so the spices you add will concentrate. You can always add more spices later in the process if you find that you would like more.

As the fruit cooked down, I tasted it for sweetness and added brown sugar to my taste. Again, it is important to remember that the apples will reduce, so be careful not to over sweeten.

When my mixture had reduced by about half, I put it into two uncovered dutch ovens which I placed in a 250 degree F oven. I continued to cook down the mixture, but in the oven it only needed to be stirred hourly.

The apple butter is done when it is very thick. You can almost slice the mixture and it will retain the “cut”. By the time it reaches this consistency it is a lovely rich reddish brown colour.

I poured the hot mixture into hot canning jars, filling them to within a quarter inch of the top. I then quickly placed the lids on top. All of the jars sealed without the need for an additional canning process.

My son loves this on pancakes, but I use it liberally on anything and everything that lends itself well to jam.

September 1, 2014

zucchinicarmama2 Comments

Ginger Spice Cookies

Today, I craved something sweet, something spicy, something delicious to overcome the dreary day and something to inspire me to read more cases for school. The solution: these ginger cookies which are an adaptation of a recipe with the same name from Epicurious.

The candied ginger in these cookies is what takes them beyond the standard ginger cookie. They have a lovely texture, neither too crisp nor too chewy and they go so well with a cup of tea or coffee or even a glass of milk.

Ginger Spice Cookies

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 teaspoon salt

¾ to 1 cup crystallized ginger depending on your taste and the size of the chunks (for finer chunks, use less)

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed (I use whatever brown sugar I have on hand, light or dark)

3/4 cup unsalted butter — (1 1/2 sticks) room temperature

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

White sugar to roll cookies in

Using a food processor, pulse the crystalized ginger and ¼ cup of the flour together until the ginger is crumb-like.

Combine the remaining 2 cups of flour and the next five ingredients in a medium bowl, blending with a spoon or whisk. Mix in the crystallized ginger and flour mixture.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses, beating until blended. Add the flour mixture and mix just until blended. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the white sugar in thick layer onto a small plate or flat bowl. Using your hands, form the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls, rolling each in the sugar to coat completely. Place the coated balls on the prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies until just beginning to crack on top but still soft to touch, about 12 minutes in a conventional oven. Cool on sheets at least 1 minute before carefully transferring to racks and allowing to cool completely.

Don’t be surprised when the cookies fall a little while cooling – this is to be expected.

March 9, 2014April 23, 2014

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