Grandma's Recipe: Gingersnaps!

This has got to be one of the best recipes for gingersnaps I've ever tasted - lovely, chewy ginger cookies with a nice molasses flavour that's not too overpowering. And it makes a ton of cookies, which is good; everyone seems to love them - they never last for long! I don't know where my Grandma got this recipe from, but it's easily 20 years old, if not older. They freeze really well, so they're good for making ahead. Grandma always used to have a bucket of them in the freezer for when she had little visitors.

These are amazing on their own, but you can also dress them up if you want - so far I've served them with pumpkin spiced whipped cream or eggnog ice cream.

Grandma's Gingersnaps
Makes 5-6 doz. (she was making cookies for 10 kids!)

1 c. butter (original recipe calls for margarine)
2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2/3 c. molasses
1/3 c. golden corn syrup
4 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Cream softened butter and brown sugar. Add egg, molasses, and syrup. Stir dry ingredients together and add gradually to mixture. Add vanilla. Gather dough into a bowl, cover, and chill for several hours or overnight (this really helps - you don't want to make these cookies until the dough is good and chilled!). Roll approx 1 Tbsp of dough into a ball, roll in sugar, and place on cookie sheet. Do not flatten! Bake @ 350ºF for 10-12 min.

You'll know they're done when they're nice and crinkly on top! They come out out of the oven all puffed up and then flatten a bit as they cool.

Dinner Tonight: Roasted butternut squash with chèvre

I found this recipe for roasted stuffed squash somewhere a while back and it's becoming a staple dish for us. It's quick and easy, and really versatile if you like to play with your food. :) I often substitute shallots for the onions, add some mushrooms, and sprinkle some balsamic vinegar over the veggies before roasting.

So delicious! And it left time to work on a Christmas project: developing a recipe for candy cane ice cream. Yay!

Experimental Food: Caramel Apple Almond Tart - Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free

Dr. Awesome and I were invited to a murder mystery birthday party tonight (It wasn't me - I promise!) and it was my job to make dessert. I was planning to just make cupcakes, but when I called my friend to ask what flavour she likes, I found out that she is on a gluten-, dairy-, and egg-free diet! This was a challenge; normally I pull out meringues when I need to do gluten-free, and dairy-free is pretty easy to do. But since eggs were out too, I had to get creative about what to make!

My first attempt failed horribly (too much coconut oil for the almond flour), but my second attempt worked out pretty well. I started with a rice/almond flour hybrid crust in a tart pan.

Tart Base:
1/2 c. rice flour
1/2 c. almond flour
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. coconut oil

1. Mix together until combined and press into tart pan (or anything else, really - my first plan was to make these in canning jars). 
2. Bake at 350°F for 20 min or so until golden brown.

I layered apple slices soaked in butter ripple schnapps over the base and drizzled them with dairy-free caramel sauce (adapted from Melissa Goulet's recipe over at Buttercream Couture).

Dairy-free Caramel Sauce:
1 c. sugar
6 Tbsp. coconut oil
1/2 c. coconut cream (just skim it off the top of a can of coconut milk)

1. Put the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. When it starts to liquefy around the edges, use a heatproof spatula or whisk to stir it until it's a clear, deep-ish amber shade. 
2. Whisk in the coconut oil and coconut cream. The caramel will bubble and seize up, but just keep stirring until it's smooth and beautiful! Let it cool a bit before using.

I covered the apples with a layer of whipped coconut cream (I added a bit of almond extract) and topped it all with almond brittle.

Nut Brittle:
1 c. sugar
Coarse salt
Chopped, toasted nuts (I didn't measure! I just chopped a bunch and then threw in what looked good. I used almonds, but I think hazelnuts would be heavenly too).

1. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Put the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. When it starts to liquefy around the edges, use a heatproof spatula or whisk to stir it until it's a clear, deep-ish amber shade. 
3. Throw in the nuts, stir to combine, and pour onto the baking sheet, using a spatula to spread as thinly as you can.
4. Sprinkle some salt over top!
5. (Note: I think a little bit of cinnamon somewhere in here would go a long way for this dessert.)
6. Let cool and then break into a million pieces.

It worked! A bit more caramel and maybe some cinnamon might add to this dessert, and I think it would be fun to play around with a vegan cream cheese topping instead of the whipped coconut cream next time. I liked the crispness of the fresh apples against the creaminess of the whipped cream and the texture of the base, but you could definitely try using cooked apples instead. The nut brittle was definitely the best part of the whole thing - perfect topping! Just don't sprinkle it on until just before serving, or it'll begin to soften. But if you forget, you can always sprinkle a bit extra on at the last minute. :)

I'm really happy about having an attractive, delicious dessert option for restricted diets. Experimental food for the win!

Let Them Eat Cake: Part 4

You can breathe again! Now that we've learned how to be awesome, tonight was the put-it-all-together-and-make-something-awesome grand finale. We learned how to make ribbon roses and write with frosting, and then designed our own beautiful cakes to show off everything we've learned. Some of the girls came with ready-made flowers and designs all planned; I didn't have time for that so I decided to wing it and see where my fancy took me. Well, this is how it turned out:

Sometime I would like to make a really intricate, complex design, but for tonight I thought simple would be nice. I wanted to experiment with colour mixing a bit, so I swirled pink, red, and yellow into white frosting for the roses. It took a bunch of practicing to get the roses working so the colours mixed into a peachy sunrise colour, but you can see some yellow on the tip of the centre rose. Overall, I'm happy with how the cake looks. I think the roses and embellishments should either be more centered or more off-centre, but this is a good beginner's try.

I'm fortunate to have a friend upstairs who likes this kind of frosting (the cupcakes from last week sat on our table for a week and then we threw them away), so I wrote Congratulations - the "You get a cake!" was implied :) - and ran it up to her when I got home. Cake giveaway FTW!

So now I'm officially qualified to sugar people up with fancy frosting - I have a certificate to prove it! Next time, though, I'm going to stick with my style - something like an almondy-white cake like this again, filled with raspberry curd, covered in marzipan, decorated with chocolate ganache piping. That's my kind of cake!

Let Them Eat Cake: Bunny Trail

Wednesdays just might be my favourite day at work. We have chapel, which provides a mid-week change of pace, and then we have treats in the staff room during recess. Staff members take turns providing weekly "indulgences", which range from carrots and hummus, to cheeses and crackers, to sweets. This week was my turn, and since this week's focus in my cake decorating class was cupcakes, I decided to double up and take it easy a little bit - I was already making six; why not make a bunch of extras and play with those?

I generally don't eat chocolate cake; I guess I prefer my chocolate in meltable form. But for some reason, chocolate was stuck in my head, so I decided to play with Buttercream Couture's Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes. Mouthwatering, right?

Now, as I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of buttercream but Melissa Goulet's recipe is lovely. It's light and has about half the sugar of regular buttercream, so it's not too sweet in a delicious sort of way. This is a girl after my own heart when it comes to desserts. :)

I didn't want to bother with dipping the cupcakes in chocolate (too much hassle and not enough time for this particular engagement), so I just swirled a bit of frosting on each cupcake and then sprinkled them with Skor bits and fleur de sel. Every single one of them was gone within a half hour.

 They were so pretty, too! Here's another picture just for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Let Them Eat Cake: Part 3

This week's cake decorating class covered a subject near and dear to my heart: cupcakes! I needed to bring six cupcakes, so of course I made a dozen regular-sized and 40 mini ones. Of course. But I had a plan for the rest - I'll post about that in a minute.

Anyway, I made some delicious chocolate cupcakes and set off for class. I didn't worry about fillings and flavourings - I was saving all of that creative energy for the aforementioned plan. Also, I was busy colouring all of the gross frosting, and kind of grumpy about all the effort it was taking for something I don't really like that much and wouldn't be super excited about sharing with friends.

The class itself was a lot of fun, though. I learned a lot of different piping techniques for creating borders and some very pretty flowers. I'll have to practice to get really good at them, but I was pretty happy with my first tries.

We practiced some things, like this pom-pom flower, on parchment or practice boards before putting them on the cupcakes. This was probably a good thing, 'cause I definitely messed up this flower and had to start over, and I would have been a bit persnickety if I'd had to do that on a cupcake.

Others, like this "shaggy mum", we piped straight onto the cupcakes. It's kind of a weird flower - you'd really have to like frosting a lot to enjoy this. You could use the same tip for grass, or, as I found out from one of the moms who's taking the course, for piping the Cookie Monster on a cake. :)

After we'd done all of the guided piping, we just played around with the techniques. I started by trying to put a few small flowers on this cupcake, but I messed it up so I just covered it up in a whole bunch of icing. It turned out pretty well in the end anyway.

I ended the evening with four finished cupcakes (well, 3 1/2 - I'm not sure the plain white swirl really counts. I really like that one, though)!

Now that I'm an expert frosting piper, I have all the tools I need to build a deliciously gorgeous cake next week. Hold your breath - it's going to be amazing! ;)

Experimental Food: Crispy Crunch Caramel Cream Cheese Dip*

Every year on November 1, Dr. Awesome and I go shopping for discount Halloween candy. We put it in a huge bowl and nibble at it for weeks. Tonight, as he was making a hot artichoke dip for our guests, I decided that a cream cheese fruit dip with Crispy Crunch candy bars mixed in would be a delicious sweet counterpart to the savory fare. As per usual, once I got started, I went a bit overboard! I figured that this dip would be infinitely more awesome with caramel sauce drizzled over it....

I've developed this caramel sauce over the past few months, and I never measure it - I just throw everything together and it works. It's delicious served over ice cream. The recipe looks something like this:

Microwave Caramel Sauce (approximate measurements):
Makes a little less than 2 cups

• 6 Tbsp butter (salted or unsalted)
• 7 oz brown sugar (1 c. pressed)
• 2-4 Tbsp light corn syrup
• pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)
• 1/3-1/2 c. cream or evaporated milk
• 1-2 tsp vanilla

If you want chocolate caramel sauce (kind of like hot fudge sauce), add 2-4 Tbsp cocoa powder.

1. Measure (or chuck) ingredients in a 4 cup measure.

2. Microwave at full power for 2 minutes, then stir ingredients until fully incorporated. Be sure to scrape the sides clean so no crystals are left. It should look something like this:

3. Microwave for another 2 minutes. Don't stir! Caramel works better when it's not messed with (you're less likely to end up with crystallization). At this point the mixture should look something like this, with medium-sized bubbles.

4. Microwave for another 1-2 minutes. Don't stir!! When it's done, it will still be boiling as you take it out of the microwave, and it will have lots of tiny bubble all over, like this:

I often stop here, but if you push it a little farther to the edge of burned, it will have a stronger, deeper, rich flavour to it. The best version I've made was cooked to the point where it turned into little hard lumps when I mixed the cream in. I just kept whisking until it became smooth, and when I put it in the fridge it stayed creamy and perfect. Of course, I didn't measure the ingredients or the time, so I have no idea how to recreate it! It's still been delicious every other time, though. :)

5. Now is the time to stir! Whisking constantly (or stirring with a spoon), pour the cream/evaporated milk into the caramel and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla.

Cover and store in the fridge! Because I don't measure, sometimes this thickens quite a bit in the fridge. It can be reheated to your desired consistency for use over ice cream or apple pie, or in delicious cream cheese-based fruit dips. :)

Crispy Crunch Cream Cheese Fruit Dip:
Makes between 1-2 cups

• 1/2 c. cream cheese, softened
• 1/8-1/4 c. Greek yogurt or sour cream (I used nonfat)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• caramel sauce (you could try dulce de leche if you want)
• 4-6 mini Crispy Crunch candy bars, chopped

1. Cream the cheese and yogurt together until smooth. Add vanilla
2. Mix in the caramel sauce 1 Tbsp at a time until you like it. I think I added about 1/4 cup. If you're using the sauce from the fridge, you may want to reheat it so it's pouring consistency.

3. Mix in candy bars, saving a little bit for the topping.

Serve with crisp, tart apples like McIntosh, or spread it on cake (ooh, or fill cupcakes with it! How delicious would that be?), or eat it by the spoonful - whatever you like!

This was a smashing success with our guests. This will definitely make its way into the regular hosting rotation. Success!

*How's that for alliterative?! Oh, yeah!

I a Kitty Cat!

Halloween has always been my least favourite holiday. I hate all of the creepy, scary, gory, macabre stuff that goes along with it. Pumpkins, autumn leaves, candy, cute kids dressed up in adorable costumes - those things I like. I just don't enjoy all of the yucky other stuff that goes with it. I never have. I never dress up and generally try to ignore Halloween as best I can.*

So my husband was understandably shocked when I walked in the door today and said, "I'm going to be a kitty cat." The almost-three year old who lives upstairs loves all things kitty (including my friend HK), and I thought it would be fun to surprise her. I figured I could dress in black and wear a scarf for a tail, and use eyeliner to paint whiskers. But, this being a last-minute idea and all, I didn't have any ears! No problem - I just decided to crochet myself a pair.

They worked out great! The pattern went something like:

Chain 12
Row 1: dc in 3rd chain, dc in each chain to end of row. Turn.
Row 2-3: hdc in 2nd dc, hdc in each dc to end of row. Turn.
Row 3: sc in 2nd hdc, scin each hdc to end of row. Turn.
Row 4+: sc in 2nd sc, sc in each sc to end of row. Turn. Repeat until it takes only 1 stitch to complete row.

I joined the ears by making slip stitches along the bottom of one ear, chaining 4-5 stitches between (whatever looked right on my headband), and then continuing slip stitches along the bottom of the other. Then I sewed them to the headband, and voila! Kitty cat ears!

This may be the one and only time I make an effort to dress up for Halloween, but I'm happy with how it turned out.
 

*My husband and I hand out candy with friends, but that's about as far as it goes.