chewy and not so chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies

chewy and not so chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies

3 Aug 2015

A few years ago, a dear friend gave me a copy of Martha Stewart's Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations for Christmas. To say that Martha Stewart entertains in a lavish manner is an understatement. I was looking through the book last week and realised I've not made any of the recipes. I tagged a few recipes and as the biscuit tin was looking a bit empty, I thought her recipe for chocolate gingerbread cookies sounded nice. Then I thought about a chewy triple ginger cookie recipe I really like and decided to adapt it using Martha's recipe as my inspiration.



I used half the dough and put the rest of the dough in the freeze for later. I baked a dozen cookies using dough that had chilled for just 20 minutes and those cookies came out flat and crisp. I took them into work where they were demolished, so I don't have any photos to share with you. Then I baked another 6 cookies using dough that had been in the fridge for a few hours. 





Those ones I rolled in coffee crystals. Both were delicious but the second batch of cookies came out higher and were chewy.





The third batch I made with dough that had been in the fridge for a few days. I shaped the dough into a roll about 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide, coated the roll in raw sugar then cut the dough into 1 cm slices before baking. They were really delicious and my favourite, but they weren't chewy.





These are still a work in progress as the cookie itself, though lovely and spicy, wasn't quite chocolatey enough for me. Next time I'll be bumping up the cocoa but for now I'm happy with my restocked biscuit tin.

Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.





Chewy and not so Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies - makes 3 dozen

Ingredients 
160 gm (5½ oz) softened butter 
100 gm (3½ oz) each dark muscovado sugar and caster sugar 
60 gm (2 oz) honey or golden syrup 
1 egg 
330 gm (11½ oz) plain flour
1½ tbl dutch cocoa
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
1½ tbsp ground ginger
½ tsp each ground cinnamon and ground cloves 
40 gm (1½ oz) fresh ginger, finely grated 
30 gm (1 oz) candied ginger, finely diced
125 g (4 ½ oz) dark chocolate, cut into chunks 
pinch of salt and white pepper 
Raw sugar or coffee sugar crystals for coating 

Method
Beat butter, sugars and golden syrup in an electric mixer until fluffy and pale (3-4 minutes). Scrape down sides of bowl, beat in egg, then sieve over dry ingredients and stir to combine. Squeeze as much juice as possible from fresh ginger into the dough (discard solids) add candied ginger, chocolate chunks and a pinch of salt and white pepper and stir to combine. The dough is quite soft so shape the dough into 2 logs; wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap before putting into the fridge to firm for a few hours. If you'd like to make crisp cookies then chill the dough for 20 minutes

When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 180C°/350°F. Line baking trays with baking paper then roll heaped tablespoons of the mixture into balls, before coating in raw sugar. If you like, you can coat the roll of cookie dough with raw sugar before slicing the roll into 1 cm slices. 

Flatten the cookies slightly before placing on the oven trays, leaving about 5cm (2 in) between each cookie to allow for spreading. Bake in the preheated oven swapping trays halfway to cook evenly. 

Bake for about 10-15 minutes. When you take the cookies from the oven they'll still be soft but will harden as they cool. Cool on trays, then store in an airtight container until required. 

Cookies will keep for 5 days.



Who doesn't like a freshly baked cookie, still warm from the oven?

I'm writing this from my sick day where I've been languishing for the past 3 days surrounded by piles of tissues. I can't wait to feel better.

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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linzer cookies

linzer cookies

24 Feb 2014

Each month we hold a mega morning tea at work where every-one brings along something to share. Some-one brings dip, another person brings potato chips, someone else will bring fruit and I usually bake something. This month our morning tea had a Valentine's Day theme where we had to bring along something pink, red or heart shaped. 



I haven't been well the past week so I spent most of Valentine's Day in bed feeling sad and a bit sorry for myself. Thankfully I found enough energy to pull these together. I thought I had all the ingredients in the flat but discovered I'd run out of butter requiring a trip up to the Junction. I always have a few blocks of butter lurking in the fridge so I don't know where it went to. 




I've not made Linzer cookies before but they've been on my Christmas cookie list for quite some time. I adapted a Martha Stewart recipe which you can find here. Now great minds think alike 'cos look what I found on Deb's blog, Smitten Kitchen.






I already had hazelnut meal in the cupboard so I toasted the meal and used it in the cookies. I whizzed the whole mixture in the food processor and honestly it took about 2 minutes to make the dough from woe to go.



Here's the recipe for you.

Linzer Cookies
Ingredients
70 g (2½ oz) hazelnut meal
110 g (4 oz) unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
¼ cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour, plus more for work surface
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
icing sugar, for dusting
¼ cup raspberry or berry jam

Method
Place the hazelnut meal in a small frypan and lightly toast over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and place the meal into a small bowl. Leave to one side until cool.

In a food processor, combine the hazelnut meal, the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whiz for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter mixture and whiz until the mixture forms breadcrumbs. Add the vanilla to the lightly beaten egg and add to the mixture. Process until a soft ball forms around the blade. Remove the dough from the blade and form into a flattened disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. On a lightly floured work surface, thinly roll out half the dough. Using a medium size fluted cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking tray. Using a small cutter, cut the centres out of half the cookies. Combine the scraps, reroll and cut. Be careful not to incorporate too much flour or the pastry will be too crumbly to roll. You may need to add a few drops of water to the cookie dough.

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, 8-9 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through the cooking time. Remove the tray from the oven; allow the cookies to cool a little before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lightly sift the icing sugar over the decorative tops; set aside. Place a teaspoon of jam on the bottom of each cookie, and sandwich with the sugar-dusted tops. Makes about 20 sandwich cookies.



Now these were so popular they disappeared before I had a chance to try one. I froze some of the dough so when I have time I'll bake a few for my cookie jar.

I hope you all had lovely weekends. 

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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Lime Curd Crumble Cake

Lime Curd Crumble Cake

7 Jun 2010

One of my colleagues came back from an overseas trip raving about a cake she'd tried at the airport - a lime curd crumb cake. She took a photo of the cake with her i-phone and from that I was supposed to recreate the cake. Well I tried my best and the taste was close but it wasn't quite right.

I made the lime curd using the microwave method and adapted a Bill Granger recipe using the grated rind and juice of 2 limes. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the base but sorry Martha, apparently the texture was a bit heavy and there was too much crumb. I'll use my own lemon cake recipe next time and work on the lime curd which tasted right but wasn't soft enough. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to rectify that as the curd ends up being cooked twice.

I also forgot to dust the top of the cake with icing sugar but that's easy enough to rectify because undoubtedly, there will be a next time.

There's going to be quite a long break now before I can post any baking as I'll be on the road until the end of July. I hope I can keep you entertained with images and stories from the road. I'm not sure how regular the posting will be especially for the next week. It's a long way from Sydney to Oslo so it's going to take me about 30 hours to get there and once I'm there I'll be attending a a conference for 3 days.

I can't even tell you the challenges involved in negotiating a strange place with a head in a jetlag fog let alone staying awake through 10 hours of lectures when you keep waking at 2.00 a.m. Wish me luck!

Until the next time,

Jillian

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Lemon Almond Tart

Lemon Almond Tart

12 Jul 2009

It's seriously early on Sunday morning here and I'm about to get started on some baking but before I did, I thought I'd check the cricket score from the first Ashes Test in Cardiff. Australia had reached 600 before I fell asleep last night and this morning England are 2 down. I'm not gloating (well not too much) but I do love the Ashes. As I'm already on the laptop I thought I may as well put up todays post.



This recipe is an adaptation of a Tart au Citron Recipe from Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts, the only Martha Stewart recipe book I possess. Martha doesn't have the same presence in Australia that she does in North America and I'd not heard of her before living in Canada.



I bought a new tart pan a few weeks back to replace the oblong tart which was damaged in an unfortunate incident. I was dying to try it out and picked this lemon tart for it's maiden voyage. It's pretty easy to prepare and I've made it for many a work lunch in the past. The mixture is generous and was way too much for the oblong pan so I made 2 mini tartlets as well. I thought I'd try making some candied lemon rind for decoration - my first effort. The tart was devoured by lunchtime, which is always a good sign.



Another week coming up at work and another farewell morning tea and I've not yet decided what to bring. I'm toying with the idea of making a deconstructed pavlova so watch this space!

Happy Sunday,

Jillian

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