Fallen Berry Muffins

I don’t make muffins very often because, for me, they are an awfully sweet way to start the day.  Besides, if I am going down the sweet breakfast road, I’m much more inclined toward pancakes and waffles.  D loves muffins, though.  I recently made some banana muffins out of Heidi‘s wonderful book Super Natural Cooking only to discover (after almost 8 years of marriage!) that D is not fond of banana in baked goods.  He does like banana bread, though…hmmm…

Anyway, I felt I owed him some of his kind of muffins.  These are them.

I wanted to make blueberry muffins, but discovered we had only a few blueberries left in the freezer.  Fortunately, we also had some strawberries, so I combined the two.  I decided to add some sour cream too because I wanted to offset the sweetness of the muffins (which we all know are really cupcakes in disguise, right?).  I started with a recipe out of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion and sort of winged it.  They turned out darned good, if a little flat on top.

Fallen Berry Muffins

• 8 T butter
• 1 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 2 c AP flour
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 c strawberries, roughly mashed (I used frozen)
• 1/2 c blueberries (again, frozen)
• 3/4 c sour cream
• cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add the salt, baking powder, cinnamon and then the flour alternately with the milk.  Add the strawberries, but don’t do any more stirring than necessary.  Stir too much and the muffins will get tough.  Now, gently and gingerly, stir in the blueberries and vanilla extract.

Dole the batter out into muffin tins. (With liners, if you prefer.  I do).  My batch filled 12 muffin cups.  Take the sour cream and dollop the top of each muffin with about a teaspoon (but, really, don’t bother measuring).  Now smoosh the sour cream down into the center of the muffins with your spoon or a finger.  Whatever works.

Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with cinnamon-sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove them from the oven and cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. (KAF tells me that muffins left in the pan will steam, creating a tough crust).

Yum 🙂

Lemon Bars

When I start thinking about favorite yearly events I always come up with two related to our lovely little lemon tree. The first, in spring when the tree is in bloom. That heavenly, intoxicating citrus bloom smell. I can hardly wait! The second, early winter when the lemons from our tree (and all the other citrus, for that matter), are ripe and ready to be enjoyed.

Several years ago, when we were living in Seattle, I encountered my first lemon tree in bloom at a nursery. Right then and there I decided that I would someday own a lemon tree. I may have to build a green house, but I would own a lemon tree. As such, when we moved to Tucson getting a lemon tree was a no-brainer.

We have a dwarf Meyer Lemon, which produces some of the most fragrant decadent fruit you can imagine. It’s a cross between a lemon and an orange, so it’s slightly sweeter than a straight lemon. We actually only got one lemon off of the tree this year (apparently citrus trees cycle up and down with their abundance of production). Because Meyer’s are so perfect for lemonade, I saved ours for that purpose.

The lemons for these bars came from next door. Our neighbors Malcolm and Barbara were lovely enough to plant a full-sized lemon tree next to the wall we share. It’s still small (they only put it in last year), but it produced a copious amount of lemons this year. Because they won’t be back in town until mid-February, we took the liberty of rescuing what lemons we could reach to save them from an ill fate. So, thank you Malcolm & Barbara!

It is already starting, but soon there will be more citrus than we can consume. The folks on the other side of us have an orange and a grapefruit. They usually take care of the orange but always have lots of extra grapefruits. Hmmm…grapefruit bars? If you have a yummy grapefruit recipe, please share 🙂

For now, I’m thrilled to have these Lemon Bars to wash away any cold-weather blues we may have been feeling. The dough that makes up the bottom of the bars is basically a shortbread, the top essentially a custard or curd, if you like. I sweeten the custard/curd with honey instead of regular sugar because I love the way lemons and honey go together. These bars are bright and tart, but not too tart. They taste like lemons in the best possible way!

Lemon Bars

• 1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temp (16 T)
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 t almond extract
• 3 c all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/8 t kosher salt
• 7 large eggs
• 1 c honey
• 2 T lemon zest
• 1 c lemon juice, fresh squeezed
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350° and greasing a 9×13 baking dish.

Cream together the butter, sugar and almond extract. Gradually add in 2 c of AP flour and all of the salt. Press the resulting dough into your baking dish. It’s likely that the dough will get really sticky, more so the warmer your hands are. If it’s hard to work with, stick the dish (dough and all) in to the fridge for a few minutes to help it firm up. It will be a lot easier to work with once it’s chilled. Prick the dough with a fork once it’s all pressed into the dish.

Bake the shortbread bottom at 350° for 25 minutes, until it begins to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool.

Beat together the eggs, honey, zest, juice and remaining 1 c of AP flour.

Pour the curd mixture over the shortbread and bake (still at 350°) for 25-30 minutes. You want everything to be firmly set before you pull it from the oven – no jiggling. I baked mine for 30 minutes, but you oven could run hotter, so check at 30.

Cool completely and cut into squares or triangles, depending on your preference. I used my dough scraper, sprayed with cooking oil, to slice even bars. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Mesquite Flour Pancakes

Early last fall one of my coworkers surprised me by bringing in two large buckets filled with mesquite pods she had collected from her property. She knew that I have a baking habit and thought I might be able to use the pods. All I had to do was take them to get ground into flour/meal. In Tucson we have a great organization called Desert Harvesters who set up at several locations around town in the fall to grind mesquite pods. Sadly, I managed to miss two different weekends when they had set up to mill the pods. In the end, the lovely pods that I had been gifted became infested with some sort of bug while sitting in my garage. I can not tell you how wasteful I felt. I had such a great opportunity, and I blew it.

Fortunately, acquiring mesquite flour isn’t terribly difficult in Tucson. Mesquites are the most common shrub/tree in the desert Southwest. The pods, ground into a flour or meal, have been a part of local cuisine for hundreds of years. In fact, several studies have show that, like many other desert foods, the sweetness of the meal is deceiving. In truth, mesquite flour can be wonderful for controlling blood sugar levels. Obviously, this is a boon to people with diabetes, but I think it’s really great for all of us.

I picked up some flour from my beloved Native Seeds/SEARCH. It is also available here, here and here. It’s a little pricey, but is used in smaller quantities and in combination with regular flour.

These pancakes have no sugar in the batter. In the picture, they are show with honey as a topping. For the gluten-free folks out there, just substitute your favorite gluten free flour mix for the all-purpose portion of this recipe and you’re all set!

Mesquite Flour Pancakes

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup mesquite flour
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups milk, maybe slightly less
• 2 eggs, well-beaten
• 1/2 stick butter, melted

In a large bowl sift together the all-purpose flour, mesquite flour, salt and baking powder.

In a separate, smaller bowl whisk together the eggs, butter and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. There will probably be some lumps, but if you mix too much your pancakes will get tough.

Pour your batter onto a hot , lightly greased skillet in 2 T increments for silver dollar sized pancakes or in 1/4 c dollops for full-sized pancakes.

Serve with warm honey, maple syrup or fruit preserves.

___________________

UPDATED 1.7.09:

Check out Peter’s comment below if you are planning to make these gluten free.  The picture below is his and shows the difference between waffles with mesquite flour subbed in using his method and plain GF flour waffles (looks like moslty just color to me).  He offers some experience with GF flour mixtures that I don’t have, hopefully it helps!

French Yule Log – A Daring Bakers Challenge

And the challenge this month is…

A French Yule Log!!!

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

(If you are not fluent in French, as I am not, you may want to consider Google Translator for some of the above links.)

Holy Yikes! That was my first reaction after I read the recipe. What have I gotten myself into? And, now that I have coerced my darling sister to join Daring Bakers as well, what have I gotten us into?

I mean, this was not like any of my previously completed challenges. Éclairs? Scary but, as my first challenge, really exciting. Lavosh crakers? Pizza? Holy heck, the complexity of this dessert was making my head spin.

This month’s challenge made me realize that I’m really starting to benefit from my habit of procrastinating until later in the month by taking in what other bakers share in the forums before I start. Seriously, I don’t think I would have been able to jump the stun hurdle without a little reassurance that others had successfully done this! Many, many thanks to those who took on the challenge before me and posted their experiences in the forums!

As it turns out, none of the individual components of the French Yule Log are all that difficult. The challenge is in reading through the long recipe and discerning the timing and order in which components should be made. I even found that within the recipes for each part I benefited greatly by planning everything out before I executed the first step in the recipe. Preparation is king.

Because the recipe for this Yule Log is very, very long, I won’t post it all here. Below, in order of the layers from top to bottom are the components I prepared (we had some leeway here). If you’d really like to try this at home, shoot me an e-mail. I’ll happily share the recipe with you.

• Almond Dacquoise Biscut
• Dark Chocolate Mousse – between all the layers
• Vanilla Creme Brulee Insert
• Pecan Praline Crisp Insert
• Chocolate Cinnamon Ganache
• Almond Dacquoise Biscut
• Chocolate Icing with Almond

If you look closely at the picture, you can see that my Yule Log was still not completely defrosted when I cut into it. I had let it defrost in the refrigerator for a hour before having it at room temperature for 15 minutes, but that was clearly not enough. I recommend an hour and a half in the fridge, unless you like these types of things pretty solid.

Overall, this was a complete hit with everyone who partook. It was definitely a challenge for me to make, as many of these components were completely new to me. I was scared, but I overcame my fear and just went for it. In the end, everything worked out – and that’s what Daring Bakers is all about!

Pear Gingerbread

Every year, without fail, we receive a box of Harry and David Royal Rivera Pears. Sometimes we get two. One year we even got three! They are the most delicious pears in the world, but we can only eat so many between the two of us!

Because we find ourselves faced with too many pears, I keep my eyes open all year long for recipes that involve them. This year, I came across several gingerbread/pear combo cakes. After perusing a few of them I came up with this cake.

There isn’t too much sugar in this recipe and, while I really liked the level of sweetness, Dylan said he would have liked it sweeter. If you do want a sweeter cake, sprinkle some brown sugar in the bottom of the pan (on top of the parchment) before you lay the pears down. Overall, I think it’s a welcome treat that won’t push you over the sugar edge, which was a good thing for me!

Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread

• 3-4 pears, peeled, cored and sliced in 1/8 segments
• 1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 t ground ginger
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1/8 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/4 c butter
• 1/3 c molasses
• 1 egg
• 2/3 c milk (I used 2%)

Line the bottom of a 9″ spring form pan with parchment paper. I did this by removing the bottom and tracing it onto the paper. Then I cut out my circle.

Lay your pears in the bottom of the pan. Try to cover all of the space in the pan, if you can.

Sift together the flour, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the molasses and the egg and beat well.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter and mix in gently. Add 1/2 the milk and continue to mix. Add the second 1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by the remainder of the milk. Finally, add the remaining 1/3 of dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Your batter won’t be especially runny.

Spread the cake batter evenly over the pears. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with whipped or ice cream.

Caramels for Christmas

Last year at Christmastime we were very lucky to have my mom and sister come to Tucson to stay with us for the holiday.  Usually, we have to travel SOMEwhere, since neither of our families live down here.  Getting to stay home and celebrate with family was truly a treat!

We did all of the usual bustling and prepping.  We had a beautiful tree and stocking stuffers.  We planned a full menu and fun activities to keep us busy between meals.  As part of a tradition we plucked from the West, we got a box of candies from See’s (there is no See’s in Chicago, where I grew up).

Yeah, about that box of candy…we waited.  As long as we could.  Then, on the day they were supposed to arrive we got a call – they would be late.  Very late.  The weather out on the road between Chicago and Tucson was not great.

We opened the box of candies.

Then, before we knew it, they were mostly gone.  I know what you are thinking: are you kidding?  I’m not.  I think we ate them for lunch.

Dylan wanted to get more, especially the caramels.  I looked at him straight on and said, “There is not chance, NONE, that I will be driving over to the See’s at the mall on the day before Christmas.  Sorry.”

So we did what any resourceful people with time on their hands would do.  We started searching the internet for a recipe so we could make them ourselves.  (What would we ever do without the internet?)

We found this recipe on All Recipes and proceeded to completely butcher it.  We didn’t’ have corn syrup and I think we were missing a few other things too.  So, we improvised.  The caramels turned out tasty, but didn’t have a very long shelf life.

This year, we decided to give the caramels another shot.  I mean, why buy something that you can make yourself?  Especially when you can be prepared and have all the ingredients!

Below I have copied the recipe from All Recipes.  If you want to make more or less, I encourage you to visit the original, as you can adjust the number of servings you want and see customized ingredient quantities.

Caramels

• 2 c white sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 c light corn syrup
• 1 c evaporated milk
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1 c unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 t vanilla extract

Start by preparing the pan that you will cool the hot caramel in.  This recipe calls for a 12×15″ pan, which I don’t have.  I did some estimating and came up with two pans that yielded approximately 180 square inches of pan space (I multiplied 12 x 15 to get this number).  In any case, line the bottom and two sides of whatever pan you use with parchment and grease well.  Cooking spray works well for this.

Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla in a large pot with high sides.  I used my 5.5 qt soup pot and it worked perfectly.  You probably don’t want something that is too tall, because you will need to be able to get down in there to measure temperature/cooking stage of the candy.

Turn the heat on low and stir all of your ingredients to incorporate them. Bring the mixture to a low simmer and keep it there.  You don’t want to cook the caramel too quickly – you will just burn the sugar and never thicken the candy.

Ultimately you want to heat your mixture to approximately 250º.  The temperature indicates how hard the caramels will be.  You want to reach the medium-hard ball stage – you want the caramel to form a smooth yet tacky ball.

You can use a candy thermometer to achieve this, but I highly recommend that you also do some testing the old-fashioned way.  To test the progress of your candy, drop a small amount into a cold glass of water.  You’ll be able to see immediately if you are close to the right temperature (in the above picture, the glass contains the winner).  Pour out the water and handle the little bit of candy.  What you feel here will be the final texture of your caramel, so shoot for what you want 🙂

You’ll know you are getting close to the right temperature when the candy gets much thicker and gloppy (for lack of a better term).  In the picture at the right, my caramel was at about 248º.  It took over an hour and a half to reach this temperature.  Be patient!

Once you reach the desired temperature, remove your pan from the heat source and stir in the vanilla.

Transfer your candy to the pan(s) you prepared and let the caramel cool completely.  I stuck mine in the fridge after 10 minutes on the counter.  You’ll need the caramel to firm up before you can do any chocolate dipping 🙂

As you can see from the photos, we chose to coat some of our caramels in dark chocolate.  The little garnish you see on top is Chocolate Salt, which I won in a giveaway last month.  Thanks to Katie from Salt and Chocolate for that extra special something!

Do you have a favorite candy at holiday time? What is it?

Apfelpfannkuchen

A few weeks back I promised I would post the outcome of our German Apfelpfannkuchen experiment. You see, when Dylan lived in Germany during high school his host Grandmother regularly made German Apple Pancakes. Thing was, when he got back to the states he couldn’t find the same type of pancake anywhere.

Sure, there are a lot of venues like OHOP that serve a dish that is called a German Apple Pancake, but that’s really more of a dutch baby with apples and lots of sugar. The pancakes, or Pfannkuchen, that D was served were practically savory, save for sugar sprinkled over the top. In fact, he says that the same batter was used for both the Apfelpfannkuchen and Pfannkuchen that featured Fleischwurst.

It is absolutely possible that the version that is predominate in the U.S. came from another region of Germany. I don’t know all that much about different regional cuisines. And, though I’m sure I’ll learn and share more information on that as time goes on, I don’t have much to put in this post in that regard. The one thing that I do know is that (purportedly) Bavarians have a predilection for cake at breakfast. This version certainly qualifies as just that.

Anyway, back to the experiment. Of course, we decided that we wanted to make the same pancakes he had in Germany here at home. The first attempt followed a recipe in Cooking Light, which we didn’t love. The product was intensely sugary and too eggy and dense to be an accurate replication.

I did some digging around using our good friend the internet and found several recipes that seemed to be more along the lines of what we were after. The recipe below is a conglomeration and adaptation of all of my findings. Dylan approved of the final result, though he did let me know that it was still not exactly like what he had in Germany. While I sandwiched the apples between batter, the Pfannkuchen he had in Germany had the apples on top. I’ll point out where you would vary the recipe to achieve that goal, should you choose to try that method.

Apfelpfannkuchen

• 1 1/4 c AP flour
• 2 T sugar
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 egg
• 5 T unsalted butter, melted, divided
• 3 medium apples
• 2 T sugar
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1/4 t fresh ground nutmeg
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/4 c water (for my version)

Sift together the first four ingredients, through the salt, in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl combine the milk, egg and 1 T melted butter. I used the milk to temper the melted butter before adding in the egg so that the egg wouldn’t scramble and the butter would be more evenly distributed.

Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl and mix until the batter just comes together. Don’t worry if there are a couple of lumps. For a quick cake/muffin batter like this you want to avoid mixing too much so your final dish isn’t too tough.

Now that the batter is done, set it aside while you deal with the apples.

Peel, core and slice your apples into approximately

1/8″ thick wedges. Toss in a medium bowl with the cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and lemon juice.

In a 10″ skillet heat 2 T of butter and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Sauté the apples for about 3 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup of water to the skillet and bring to a boil. Cover the apples and simmer 3 minutes. Remove them from the pan and set aside.

Melt the final 2 T of butter in the skillet and turn the pan to coat the bottom and sides as evenly as possible. Obviously you won’t be able to get the butter all of the way up the sides. That’s OK. Just coat as much as you can.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into the pan. Place the apples on top and cover with the remaining batter.

Cook over medium-high heat for about a minute, then lower the heat and cook for 3 more minutes. To finish, move the skillet to your broiler and cook 3-5 minutes, until the top begins to brown. If you aren’t using a cast-iron skillet, please double check to make sure the handle of your pan is oven safe before you stick it in there!

With a spatula, gently loosen the pancake from your skillet and slide it onto a plate to serve. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

If you are making the apples-on-top version, you’ll only pour half of the batter in the skillet and cover it with half of the apples. The rest of the cooking steps are the same. You’ll need to repeat the process and make 2 pancakes for the quantities listed in this recipe.

The one pancake that we made easily fed the two of us for breakfast with extra for snacking. I think you could feed 4 folks off of one pancake, especially if you served something yummy like bacon with it.

Guten Appetit!

Chocolate Flecked Cardamom Almond Crescents

I’m not sure where I developed the taste for almond crescent cookies, but I have loved them as long as I can remember. We never made them as kids. In fact, the only cookies I remember my mom making are her kitchen sink cookies – oatmeal cookies with all manner of things in them (chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut, cinnamon, etc.). Even those didn’t make a very regular appearance. She didn’t really promote sugar eating in our household.

Almond crescents were a treat that I would find on cookie trays at parties or as gifts given to our household. Usually, I was the kid eating the plate of brownies by myself. These cookies were an exception. Perhaps they made it into my book of accepted delights because of how rich they are. They are rich.

This year, I decided to mess with the basic almond cookie recipe just a bit. I added in some finely chopped chocolate and cardamom. Rich and decadent? Check. Chocolate? Check. Yum? Check.

Chocolate Flecked Cardamom Almond Crescents

• 1 c unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 t almond extract
• 2 1/4 c AP flour
• 1/2 t cardamom
• 1 c almond flour or meal
• 3 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
• powdered sugar for dusting, if desired

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Sift together the cardamom and flours. Set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar and extracts until light and fluffy. Add in the flour mixture and chocolate flecks and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough will pull cleanly away from the sides of your bowl. If the dough is sticking to the sides, add a little more flour until the dough comes together.

Measure dough in rounded tablespoon quantities (~1 oz), or rounded teaspoons (~1/2 oz), depending on your cookie preference. Roll each dough ball into a log with your hands and shape into a crescent.

Place shaped cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and gently press into the final shape you wish them to have. They will puff a little, but don’t spread very much, so you can place them as close as 1/2 inch.

Bake at 350° for 15 -20 minutes, until they begin to brown on the tips (see picture above). Cool on wire racks and enjoy with an afternoon cup of tea. Or with breakfast. Or share with your neighbors. You never know, their kids might be really thankful!

Pomegranate-Ginger Pork Tenderloin Medallions

As a kid, I was fascinated with pomegranates. I remember begging to get one as a treat and then proceeding to make the biggest imaginable mess while eating it. I did this with mangoes too – peeling and eating them by hand, juice dripping down my chin. Pomegranates, though, were more magical. Just getting the sweet jewel-like arils was like a treasure hunt. I suspect my mom indulged my request time and again because she knew the fruit would keep me occupied for a while.

More recently, when we first moved to Tucson, I developed a habit of drinking pomegranate juice every morning with my breakfast. The reason? Pomegranate juice is AMAZINGLY good for you. Many studies have concluded that it is the most antioxidant rich food you can eat.

At the end of October the good folks at POM Wonderful were kind enough to offer me a case (a full case!) of Pomegranate juice. They’re hosting a recipe contest that ends November 30^th with a grand prize opportunity to be a guest blogger for them for a year!

I thankfully accepted the case of POM juice and started brainstorming a recipe to enter in their contest. The first thing I came up with, POM Ginger Rugelach, was good, but not great. I was looking for great. (Besides, the next week zillions of people started posting Rugelachs for TWD!) Plus, I was pretty sure I wanted a savory dish. Finally it came to me:

POM-Ginger Pork Tenderloin Medallions

• 4 oz POM Wonderful juice
• ½ c sugar
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 t red pepper flakes
• 3 T light soy sauce
• 3 t ginger, minced
• 3 t garlic, minced (about 3-4 cloves)
• 1 to 1.5 lbs pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 3/4″ thick medallions
• 1 whole fresh pomegranate, separated into kernels.

Start by mixing together the pomegranate juice, sugar, cornstarch and red pepper flakes. Simmer over medium heat until a thick syrup forms. Remove from heat and set aside.

Mix together the soy sauce, ginger and garlic and set aside. Slice the pork tenderloin cross-wise into 1/2 to 3/4 inch medallions.

Add 1-2 vegetable oil to a hot skillet and gently place the tenderloin pieces in the pan. Press them to be thin using your fingertips. (Be careful of the hot oil!). Spoon the soy-ginger-garlic mixture onto each medallion. Cook 3 minutes, flip and cook the other side for 3 more minutes. Remove from the pan. You’ll probably need to do several batches until all of the pork is cooked.

Turn the heat off under the pan and add the syrup mixture you created to the pan. Stir for a few minutes to thicken the sauce and incorporate any yummy pork bits that remain in the pan. If you need to turn the heat back on under the meat, go for it. I usually start with it off so I can control things a little better.

To serve, spoon the sauce over the medallions and garnish with fresh pomegranate.

Gingersnap Cookies

This year for Thanksgiving our group of thanks-givers has elected to make a pumpkin cheesecake, rather than a pumpkin pie. Normally, this would be really sad for me, since pumpkin pie is really my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner (besides the company). Instead of being sad, though, I’m actually pretty excited to try a new recipe. We love cheesecake in this house and we LOVE cooking with our friends Phoebe & Ray, who are visiting us for the holiday.

The recipe I plan to use calls for a gingersnap crust. Being me, I decided to make the gingersnaps rather than by them. For one, I’m sure they will taste better than anything I could get from the store. Add that to sure price savings and confidence about what’s in them and I’m way on the side of baking the cookies from scratch. Plus, making them at home I was able to substitute some of the AP flour with whole wheat flour.

Of course, I couldn’t just bake the 7 oz of cookies that will be needed for the crust. That would be silly. I baked a whole batch, 60 cookies, so we would have extras for snacking and desserts between now and then.

Gingersnap Cookies

(based on a King Arthur Flour recipe)

• 1 1/3 c AP flour
• 1 c white whole wheat flour (or regular ww flour)
• 1 t ground ginger
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cloves
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 t baking soda
• 3/4 c shortening
• 1 c sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 c molasses
• 1/2 c cinnamon/sugar mixture (2t cinn & 1/2 c sugar)

Preheat your oven to 375°.

You’ll need two bowls for this recipe. In the first bowl, sift together the flours, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt and baking soda.

In a separate bowl beat the shortening, sugar and egg together until fluffy. Beat in the molasses and stir in the dry ingredients to make a soft, sticky dough.

Measure the dough 1/2 oz (rounded teaspoon) increments. Roll the each piece of dough into a ball and then gently roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place cookies 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake cookies at 375° for 10 minutes. Immediately after you remove them from the oven, raise the baking sheet 5 inches above the burners on your stove (or your counter, or the floor) and drop the pan quickly to push air out of the cookies. I usually do this 2-3 times per batch.

Cool the cookies completely on wire racks and store in a tightly closed container. Makes roughly 60 cookies.

Enjoy with hot cocoa, coffee or tea. Yum!