Clementine spiced cookies

I think one can say I am addicted to baking cookies – as you have probably noticed already – and for a good while now slice and bake cookies have been my favorites: they are easy to make and the uncooked dough can spend some time in the fridge or in the freezer waiting for the right moment to be baked.

Even though the dough can be kept for a good while before baking, I hardly ever keep it that long: I prefer to bake lots of cookies at once and eat them and also share them with my family and friends – a “spreading joy” operation, let’s say. :)

These cookies, deliciously fragrant from the tangerine zest and with a kick from the spices, will make your kitchen smell like heaven. The almond meal makes them quite delicate and tricky to be transported, so for a bit firmer – but still wonderful – cookies omit the almond meal and use a total of 175g all purpose flour.

Clementine spiced cookies
slightly adapted from Annie Rigg's breathtakingly beautiful book

1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
¼ cup (25g) almond meal
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
finely grated zest of 2 clementines
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 pieces of crystallized ginger, cut into small dice

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
Put zest and sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer and rub them together with your fingertips until sugar is fragrant. Add the butter and using the mixer beat ingredients together until creamy and light in color. Beat in the honey and vanilla. Turn off the mixer and mix in the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula just until a dough forms – do not overmix.

Place the dough on a large piece of parchment paper; shape into a log. Fold parchment over dough; using a ruler, roll and press into a 3.5cm (1.4in) log – like Martha does here. Wrap in parchment. Chill in the fridge until very firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Unwrap the dough log and cut into 5mm (¼in) thick rounds; space 2.5cm (1in) apart onto prepared sheets. Gently press a piece of crystallized ginger in the center of each cookie. Bake until golden brown around the edges, 10-12 minutes. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then carefully slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 30

Apple gingerbread crumble and weekends

Today is Friday (thank you, Universe!), or as I call it the Universal day of people asking each other what they will do on the weekend. :D

I am a very talkative person and luckily I have a good relationship with most people at the office. On Fridays some of them usually stop by my desk and ask me what my big plans for the weekend are, and it is funny to watch the look on their faces when I tell them that I intend to bake and watch Netflix. :D

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons one of the things I like doing the most is making a crumble with whatever fruit I have in the fridge/freezer and then seat comfortably on my couch to watch a movie or a TV show – it relaxes me and makes me happy. I did exactly that last weekend with a handful of apples and since I have been on a Christmas vibe lately I added a few spices to the crumble topping – it turned out delicious, therefore I share it with you now.

Apple gingerbread crumble
own creation

5 Granny Smith apples
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
5 tablespoons demerara sugar
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
70g unsalted butter, cold and diced
6 tablespoons rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Peel, core and dice the apples, then place them into a shallow 4-cup heatproof baking dish (if you prefer, make individual crumbles dividing the apples among four 1-cup heatproof ramekins).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices and salt. Add the butter and rub the ingredients together with your fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Using a fork, stir in the oats. Sprinkle over the apples and bake for about 25 minutes or until topping is golden and crispy.
Serve with heavy cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4

Spiced apple cake

I was telling you the other day about how the food magazines I subscribe to fulfill my need for new recipes and inspiration – they indeed to. I subscribe to a handful of magazines – the digital versions made it easy and cheaper and no more issues lost in the way (I got addicted). I had sworn that I would not subscribe to other magazines, but then I got an offer from Zinio to get 12 issues of Martha’s magazine for 5 dollars… I just did not resist it. ;)

The latest issue celebrates the fall and Thanksgiving, so among all the beautiful pies there I found this spiced apple cake, which was perfect for my Saturday baking: I had apples and heavy cream begging to be used. I tweaked the recipe just a little bit and ended up with a moist, tender and delicious cake – it perfumed my whole apartment for hours after it was baked.

I never tire of apple cakes and this one is definitely a keeper.

Spiced apple cake
slightly adapted from Martha’s magazine

2 Granny Smith apples (about 200g each)
juice of 1 large lime or 1 large lemon
2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ cup (120ml) canola oil
½ cup sour cream*
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons demerara sugar, for sprinkling over the apples

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20x30cm (12x8in) baking pan and line it with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Butter the foil as well.
Peel and core the apples, then cut them in half and cut each half lengthwise in thin slices. Place them in a medium bowl and toss them in the lemon juice.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, oil and sour cream.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk eggs until light and thick. Gradually mix in the granulated sugar by the sides of the bowl, to avoid losing the air incorporated in the eggs – you do not want to disinflate the mixture. Whisk in the vanilla, then continue whisking until mixture is thick and glossy.
On slow speed, mix in the dry ingredients in two additions, alternating with the butter/oil/sour cream mixture. Mix only until combined – do not overmix.
Spread batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter and push them into the batter slightly. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake for about 45 minutes or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack before serving.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)

Serves 18

Chocolate gingerbread bites

The Internet can be a great source of inspiration, I am sure you all agree with me – not only for food, obviously, but let’s focus on that now: there are so many great recipes out there it is hard to choose which one to make, but depending on what we see it gets easier to take our pick.

I saw these bars on Rebecca’s blog and immediately felt like baking them: chocolate, spices, and molasses beautifully combined. Very Christmassy, exactly what I wanted at the moment. When I wrote to her about it, she told me she’d gotten the recipe on another blog, and that person had gotten the recipe from Martha. I then remembered I’d seen the recipe on Martha’s website more than once and thought “well, Martha did not inspire me to make these, Rebecca did”. So these delicious bars, a sort of cake perfumed with spices and moist with the addition of sour cream, have become part of my repertoire of great recipes thanks to a search online – a beautiful blog inspired me to make them, and I hope my blog can inspire some of you to make them, too.

Chocolate gingerbread bites
from Rebecca's blog

¼ cup (56g/½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup (22g) unsweetened cocoa powder + about ½ tablespoon for dusting the pan
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (88g) light brown sugar (packed)
¼ cup (60ml) unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
¼ cup (60ml) sour cream*
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (85g) dark chocolate chips
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20cm (8in) square pan, line it with foil and butter it as well. Dust it all with cocoa and tap out the excess.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, spices, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, butter, egg, molasses, sour cream and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack.
Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares to serve.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)

Makes 16

Almond gingerbread puffs

I work for a Swiss company, and some of my coworkers have discovered how much I love sweets – every now and then I get Lindt chocolates, which make my days a lot sweeter. :)

I have to say that I love getting food as gifts – I believe that food = love, and I love giving food as gifts, too, especially at this time of the year. Cookies are easy to make and to package, most people like them therefore they are the perfect present. These almond puffs taste delicious and they get more intense as days go by, especially if kept in an airtight container, but they might not last that long. :)

Almond gingerbread puffs
slightly adapted from the always wonderful Delicious magazine

1 cup minus 1 tablespoon (140g) almond meal
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
generous pinch of ground cloves
pinch of salt
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Amaretto (optional)
about 3 tablespoons icing sugar, for dusting the cookies

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together almond meal, flour, spices and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and honey until light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla and the Amaretto. On low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until a dough forms – it mixture is too dry, add 1 teaspoon of water and mix again.

Using leveled 2 tablespoons of dough per cookies, roll balls and place them onto prepared baking sheets 2.5cm (1in) apart. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden. Sift icing sugar over the cookies and return them to the oven for 2 more minutes. Cool on sheets over a wire rack.

The cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes about 30

Gingerbread pepper cookies

So you know that I decided to bake for the Christmas series, got carried away and made cookies beside this cake – I have to tell you, without false modesty, that the cookies turned out wonderful! Soft, packed with oats and perfumed with spices, they were a hit with my family and also my coworkers.

I used to take my baked goods to work all the time in the past, but this was the first time I baked for my new coworkers and I did not know if the girls would like the cookies – they loved them and now I want to bake more delicious things for them. <3

Gingerbread pepper cookies
slightly adapted from the wonderful and beautiful Home Baked: More Than 150 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Goodies

200g all purpose flour
150g rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
generous pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
250g light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cointreau (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, pepper and spices. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and Cointreau. On low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until combined (do not overmix).

Using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop drop portions of dough per cookie onto prepared sheets, spacing 5cm (2in) apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are golden around the edges. Cool on sheet over a wire rack for 5 minutes, then slide the paper onto the rack and cool completely.

Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 5 days.

Makes about 28

Gingerbread honey cake because Christmas is coming

I was sitting home the other day, thinking about Christmas and how it is my favorite time of the year. I thought about my Christmas tree, and how I would be decorating it in a few days and felt miserable because this year I would not be able to prepare the Christmas recipes for the blog like I’d done in previous years.

I decided that there would be at least one recipe for the Christmas series this year, went to the kitchen and baked this cake – actually, I baked some cookies, too. ;)

This gingerbread cake is super tender, smells and tastes delicious and will perfume your entire home while in the oven and even after cooled down. It is, in fact, a loaf cake, but the one I used was a bit smaller and I ended up with a loaf + a small round cake (I used a 1-cup capacity pan). Since the mini cake looked so adorable that was the one I used for the photo – I hope the cake’s cuteness entices you to bake it, too, and you can thank me later. ;)

Gingerbread honey cake
slightly adapted from the beautiful Home Baked: More Than 150 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Goodies

85g crystallized ginger
50g crystallized orange peel
220g (1 ½ cups + 1 tablespoon) all purpose flour
½ cup (50g) almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
100g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 ¼ cups (300ml) whole milk, room temperature
100g light brown sugar
150ml honey
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon Cointreau (optional)
¼ teaspoon Amaretto (optional)
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 6-cup capacity loaf pan, line it with baking paper leaving an overhang in two opposite sides and butter it as well.

Chop the crystallized ginger and crystallized peel, place in a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the flour. Set aside.
Combine remaining flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt and spices in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the butter and on low speed mix the ingredients together until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in crystallized ginger and orange peel. In the meantime, heat together over low heat milk, brown sugar and honey until honey and sugar are dissolved (mixture should not get too hot, otherwise it might cook the eggs). Pour over the flour mixture and stir until just combined – do not overmix. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla, Cointreau and Amaretto.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully unmold and cool completely over the rack before peeling off the paper.
Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Serves 8-10

Lime, ginger and coconut drizzle cake + the Golden Globes

I was up till 2 am this morning watching the Golden Globe Awards but it was worth it: some of my favorites won (The Affair, Ruth Wilson, Kevin Spacey), some of my favorites did not win (Steve Carell, Rosamund Pike), but overall I though the winners really deserved the awards (unlike previous years).

I did not understand, though, Fargo and Billy Bob taking the Globe home for I strongly believed that True Detective and Matthew were impossible to beat (I haven’t seen Fargo for I really don’t like the movie).

When it comes to award shows surprises can be a good thing, but when I’m in the kitchen I prefer to stick to what I trust – in this case, the Good Food magazine. Everything I’ve made from it turned out great, and this cake is no exception: the limes and the ginger add a refreshing touch to the good old lemon drizzle cake, and it turned out so tender it was hard to slice.

And to make things even better, there’s coconut in the batter as well – yum!

Lime, ginger and coconut drizzle cake
slightly adapted from Good Food magazine

Cake:
175g granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 3 limes
200g unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
200g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 rounded teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of salt
50g desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 tablespoons milk
juice of 1 ½ limes

Drizzle:
juice of 1 ½ limes
1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20x10cm (8x4in) loaf pan, line it with baking paper and butter the paper as well.

Place sugar and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and rub them together with your fingertips until sugar is fragrant. Add butter and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, mixing well between each addition.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger and salt in a medium bowl. Using a spatula, fold into the cake mixture with the coconut and chopped ginger. Add the milk and lime juice and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

Bake for 60-70 minutes or until risen and golden brown – a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes.
Use a wooden skewer to make holes all over the cake. Mix the drizzle ingredients and slowly spoon the sugary mixture over the top of the warm cake and leave in the pan until completely cold.

Serves 8

Crystallized ginger millet cookies with orange icing

One of the many things I loved about New York – I can pretty much say I loved everything about the city, both times I visited it – was going to the Whole Foods: there was so much variety, everything looked so good, so delicious, that I felt like bringing each and every ingredient home with me (too bad I couldn’t). :)

[if you ask me about the clothing stores on Fifth Avenue I probably won’t be of much help]. :)

There were tons of types of fruits, vegetables, chocolates, nuts – you name it. I was impressed by all the different varieties of flours: there were so many I stared at them for a good while (so I’m told by my husband). :D I did not think it was a good idea to stash pounds and pounds of flour in my luggage, so I brought home only a package of hazelnut meal, leaving all those amazing products behind. :(

Cut to a year after that and I was surprised to find Bob’s Red Mill’s products in a supermarket here in Sao Paulo – there aren’t as many different flours as I saw in NY, but there are some interesting ones available, and I brought home a package of millet flour, which I have used twice so far: timidly in the orange rosemary shortbread and more boldly in these ginger cookies.

The cookies turned out great, delicious and I cannot wait to use the millet flour in other baked goods – maybe in a cake next time?

Crystallized ginger millet cookies with orange icing
slightly adapted from the wonderful Supergrains: Cook Your Way to Great Health

Cookies:
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (115g) light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup honey
1 cup (140g) millet flour
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
75g crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Icing:
½ cup (70g) icing sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and honey until pale and creamy. Sift the millet flour, all purpose flour, salt, ground ginger and cinnamon together, add to the butter mixture with the crystallized ginger and stir until well combined.
Roll 1 leveled tablespoon of dough into balls and place on prepare sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Flatten the balls slightly. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are golden. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

Glaze: sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Gradually add the juice and stir until you get a drizzable consistency (add water if necessary). Drizzle over cooled cookies and let it set for 15-20 minutes.

Makes about 35

Gingerbread popsicles

I always complain about the weather here during the holidays: it’s too hot – last year it was really uncomfortable with 39°C (102°F) days –, it’s hard to bake (one can certainly forget about cut out cookies, for example), and all I can think of is to do nothing all day long with a nice cold beer or a glass of sparkling wine beside me.

So it hit me: instead of complaining, why not take advantage of the heat and incorporate it into my Christmas cooking? Popsicles are delicious and great for summer days – these are packed with spices, with a hint of honey and brown sugar and very creamy.

I will be honest with you and admit that it crossed my mind to dip these in melted chocolate to make them even more decadent, but the day was beautiful and I went for a ride with my bike instead – I haven’t told you, but I learned how to ride a bicycle right after I turned 36. \0/

Gingerbread popsicles
slightly adapted from the always great Delicious Australia

185ml whole milk
185ml heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup (58g) light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat milk and cream in a small saucepan until it just starts to bubble around the edges. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, honey, spices, salt and vanilla until well combined. Gradually pour the milk mixture over the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (do not let boil).

Strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Cool to room temperature, then pour into six 1/3-cup capacity popsicle molds - this is the one I use. Freeze for 40 minutes, insert a popsicle stick into each mould, then freeze for at least another 4 hours or overnight until firm.

Makes 6

Choc chip gingerbread cookies to kick off the holiday season

My favorite time of the year is here already – time does fly, as I wrote a year ago. And, same as last December, this year’s Christmas series start with cookies: they are delicious, easy to make, everyone I know loves them and they’re the perfect homemade gift, that is why I chose this recipe to kick off the holiday celebrations around here.

The recipe comes from Donna Hay, who never disappoints, and chocolate chip cookies are another thing I am grateful to this blog for, learning how to make them myself after watching the cookies being devoured in cartoons and movies for years – a touch of molasses and spices and they’re turned into Christmas cookies in no time.

When I opened the tin a day after baking the cookies to take the photos for this post the smell was to wonderful I had to eat a couple of them before grabbing the camera. ;)

For more holiday posts, click here.

Choc chip gingerbread cookies
slightly adapted from the gorgeous Donna Hay mag

2 ½ cups (350g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
125g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (88g) light brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup molasses
100g dark chocolate, chopped – I used one with 70% cocoa solids

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy and light. Add the molasses and dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until the mixture comes together. Stir in the chocolate.

Using 2 leveled tablespoons of dough for each cookie, roll mixture into balls and place onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Flatten slightly. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 25

Lime and ginger cream cake - a good recipe after a really bad one

Possets are desserts I adore, not only because they taste delicious but also because they’re really easy to make – there’s little cooking involved and the citrus juices and the fridge do all the work.

I had an eye on a grapefruit posset for a really long time, a recipe I’d seen on Delicious Australia and after making the grapefruit bars the other day I thought a posset would be equally nice – I was wrong. :(

It was too bitter and too greasy. It did not set properly.

It was probably the first recipe from the magazine I got disappointed with – it was a bit of a shock, since I cook and bake from it regularly, always with wonderful results. I’m glad I halved the posset recipe – less food in the trash is always a good thing – but for that reason I ended up with some heavy cream left in the fridge and needed to use it quickly before it went bad.

Deborah Madison’s cream cake came to my rescue (Eat Your Books being really useful, as usual), but instead of brown sugar and ginger, I baked it with granulated sugar, ginger and added lime – the result was a delicious cake with the perfect amount of spice and citrus, and so tender it was tricky to slice it neatly (just like the Port cake I baked weeks ago).

The grapefruit posset might have been a waste of good cream, but this cake was the perfect way to use it up.

Lime and ginger cream cake
slightly adapted from Seasonal Fruit Desserts: From Orchard, Farm, and Market

105g all-purpose flour
95g cake flour – homemade: 80g all purpose flour + 15g corn starch
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
175g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 2 limes
1 tablespoon lime juice
icing sugar, for serving

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20cm (8in) round cake pan with a removable bottom, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter the paper as well.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ginger and salt.
Using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until foamy, then add the cream, sugar and vanilla. Beat on high speed until you have what looks like soft whipped cream. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Add the lime zest, juice and the dry ingredients and beat on low speed just until incorporated and smooth. Pour into prepared pan and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the outer ring and let the cake cool completely. Remove the pan bottom, peel off the paper, transfer cake to a plate and dust with icing sugar.

Serves 8

Ginger and milk chocolate cookies and choosing recipes

To me, choosing a recipe might be hard sometimes, but it basically involves: a) if I want something sweet or savory, b) the ingredients I have at home, c) the amount of time I have at that moment, d) if I have someone in mind and/or e) there is something new/unusual about the recipe I really want to try.

Libbie Summers’ ginger cookies caught my eye because I absolutely loved her idea of rolling the cookies in minced crystallized ginger before baking them – it was genius! I had to try that. Then I remembered I had the ingredient in my pantry, with some molasses that had to be used within a month, and the choice was made – this time I had no one in mind but myself, for the only person I know that loves crystallized ginger as much as I do lives on the other side of the Atlantic. :)

These cookies pack a strong ginger punch, which is cooled down a bit by the milk chocolate (my addition), and the rolling in the ginger is indeed a great idea. They could have been a wonderful addition to my Christmas series, but if I couldn’t even wait for the cookies to cool to eat a couple of them how on earth would I be able to wait till December to share them with you? :D

Ginger and milk chocolate cookies
slightly adapted from the oh, so beautiful Sweet and Vicious: Baking with Attitude

2 ¼ cups (315g) all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks/170g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (175g) packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup minced crystallized ginger, divided use
200g milk chocolate, in chips or chunks
½ cup (100g) demerara sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, molasses and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour mixture. Mix in half the crystallized ginger, then the chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a small mixing bowl, stir together the demerara sugar and the remaining crystallized ginger. Using 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie, shape the dough into balls and roll them in the demerara sugar mixture. Place them 5cm (2in) apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Slide the paper to a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 35