Ginger Molasses Cookies

So there's this place in Athens, Georgia called Big City Bread Cafe that makes (among other things) really and truly delicious ginger molasses cookies. When I'm able to visit, I always try to stock up on a few. But since the delicious cookies live thousands of miles away from me right now, I'm trying to perfect my own recipe. This recipe makes chewy, not too sweet cookies with a little ginger kick. Yum!

What you'll need: (Makes 3 dozen cookies)

• 140g butter
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 180ml molasses (black treacle)
• 160g chopped crystallized ginger
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 270g flour (I used a GF blend)

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 170C/325F.

Add the light brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla together in a mixing bowl. Blend with a handheld mixer on low/medium for about a minute.

Set this wet mixture aside and roughly chop the crystallized ginger. Don't worry about being too uniform, but do aim for smallish pieces. The pieces should be not much larger than a chocolate chip morsel or M&M. (Or you could use The Ginger People's crystallized ginger chips, which are already the perfect size.) Once you've chopped the ginger, set it aside for a moment.

In a separate, smaller bowl combine the dry ingredients - the baking soda, powdered ginger, and flour. Then gradually blend this into the wet mixture. Finally, mix in the molasses. Once the molasses is thoroughly blended, fold in the crystallized ginger pieces.

Evenly space rounded spoonfuls of the cookie dough (which will be on the sticky side) onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. You can also lightly sprinkle the tops of the cookie mounds with caster sugar.

Bake for about 9 minutes and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before removing from the tray if you want the cookies to remain in one piece!

Enjoy as a warming (both inside and out!) snack on a cold January afternoon!

Are you a ginger fan? I definitely am - I always bring these ginger candies with me when I travel (ginger is supposed to help with motion sickness!).

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Happy (belated) New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays! It's been far too long since I've posted anything here, but I've been away having family time and eating way too much - I hope that sounds familiar to some of you...

Since it's freezing almost everywhere (apparently) and I'm sure you've all been just sitting at home pondering over what to do with your leftover pumpkin and cranberries, may I suggest using this bread recipe? It's extra tasty warm.

What you'll need:

• 140g plain flour (I used a GF blend here)
• 90g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 40 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 120ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 200g pumpkin puree
• 300g cranberries
• 200ml orange juice

What to do for the cranberry sauce:

Rinse off the cranberries and then dump them into a saucepan with the orange juice. Bring just to a boil, then simmer until the cranberries pop. Set aside to cool while you prep the rest of the batter.

What to do for the bread:

Preheat your oven to 170C/325F.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a large mix bowl and stir together.

Next blend in the milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla with a handheld mixer on low/medium.

Once the batter is well blended, gently fold in the cranberry sauce.

Lightly butter a bundt tin and pour the batter in. Level off the top with a spatula or spoon.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until an inserted fork comes out clean. 

Loosen the edges of the loaf away from the tin using a spoon, and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes before attempting to remove from the bundt tin. 

Pumpkin cranberry bread morning snack, anyone?

Mini Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

Munchkin pumpkin and Mini Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts.

Bite sized doughnuts, what? Maybe more like "two bites" sized, if we're adhering to accuracy here. Consider "bite sized" a challenge, if you will. On another tangent, yes, I did spend a considerable amount of time debating "doughnuts" vs "donuts". The Google-machine has informed me that the use of the spelling "doughnuts" predates "donuts", so that swayed me. Your baking trivia for the day!

And now, on to the more salient issue of how to make these little guys in your own home:

What you'll need:

• 125g flour (any all purpose variety, GF blends included)
• 110g caster sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can be a bit generous with this)
• 25g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 120ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 250g pumpkin puree 

What to do:

Preheat oven to 170F/325C.

In a large bowl, combine the caster sugar, unsalted butter,vanilla extract, eggs, and buttermilk. I used a hand crank egg beater for this step, but if your electric handheld mixer has a very low setting, that would work too. It's just quite a liquid-y mixture at this stage, and anything high powered will send ingredients flying out of your mixing bowl and onto your wall. Don't ask me how I know this.

The next step is to add the pumpkin puree and keep mixing until it's delightfully orange.

Happy autumnal orange color!

In a small separate bowl, mix together the flour (I used a gluten free blend for these), baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and pinch of salt - you can simply use a fork to do so. Then gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, mixing as you go.

Once the batter has a smooth texture, you can set it aside for a moment and lightly butter the mini doughnut tin. You can, of course, use a tin that makes larger doughnuts, just remember to increase the baking time if you do so!

If you have an pastry/piping/icing bag, it will come in handy for the next step, particularly if you are actually using a mini doughnut tin. You can fashion a makeshift pastry bag from a sandwich bag or by rolling parchment paper into a funnel. Scoop the batter (it should hold together well and feel fluffy and not at all runny) into your pastry bag and pipe the batter into the doughnut rings. Fill about 2/3s of the way up.

I have no photos of the piping process because I was alone in the kitchen and maybe had doughnut batter all over my hands from an overflow incident with my parchment piping "bag". Maybe.

Pop the mini doughnut tray into the preheated oven for about 8 minutes. The doughnuts will puff up quite a bit, and an inserted fork/toothpick should come out fairly clean when you test. After cooling for about two minutes, gently loosen the doughnuts from the tray with a spoon. If they come out with little resistance, excellent! They are ready to cool on a rack or plate for another couple of minutes before eating. DO eat this warm if at all possible.

Cooling in the doughnut pan...

About to be devoured!

See? I told you these doughnuts were tiny! They are also very light and fluffy, thanks to the buttermilk. And they have an orange vegetable as the main ingredient, so you they can feel slightly superior to other fried, non-veggie containing doughnuts out there. Not that they would be smug about it.

 Doughnuts, anyone?

Maple Pecan Swirls

These are excellent dunking cookies. So much so that they really fall into, at least as I see it, the English biscuit category. They have almost a shortbread cookie consistency. They do take a bit of time, but mostly because the dough needs to be chilled for at least 6 hours (or overnight) in order to preserve the structural integrity of the pecan swirls. Fancy, right?

What you'll need for the cookie dough (makes 2 dozen cookies):

• 330g flour (GF blend or any all-purpose flour)
• 120ml maple syrup
• 120g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 20g light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

What you'll need for the filling:

• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 50g chopped pecans
• 50g light brown sugar

What to do:

Blend the maple syrup, butter, 20g light brown sugar, vanilla, and egg together in a mixing bowl with a handheld mixer. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.

Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, and continue to use the handheld mixer as you do so. The finished cookie dough will be quite thick - very like what you would expect for sugar cookies. Once the dough has been blended thoroughly, you should be able to shape one large dough ball out of it.

Next comes the fun rolling pin part. Lightly flour a working surface and roll the dough ball into a rectangular shape. You may want to split the ball in two and do this twice.

In a small bowl, mix together the filling ingredients - the pecans, 50g light brown sugar, and the remaining ground cinnamon and ginger. Then evenly spread this filling mixture onto the dough rectangle, leaving a bit of space free at the edges, as you can see below:

Lightly pat the pecan filling mixture down on the dough, to help it stay in place. Then very slowly and carefully begin rolling the dough onto itself - as you would when making cinnamon rolls. Start from the longer side of the rectangle.

Once you have rolled the dough into a log shape, pinch the ends together a bit so no filling leaks out, then wrap the dough log in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

When the dough is finished with its refrigeration process, slice approximately 1 centimeter wide from the dough log using a sharp knife. Evenly space the cookies slices on a baking tray (I used parchment paper, but that's not necessary if you're working with a non-stick cookie sheet.). 

Allow your oven to 180C/350F, then bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for about 5 minutes once out of the oven.  These are not super sweet cookies, but have more of a gentle maple-y sweetness that I think is well suited to a nice afternoon treat. These Maple Pecan Swirls are also excellent edible companions for your next cup of tea, hot cocoa, or coffee.

Hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake

The season of the Great Pumpkin is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than with cake? Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake to be exact. No, there is no coffee in this cake. Rather, it is to be enjoyed with coffee. Or tea. Or hot apple cider. With the beverage of your choice, basically. Or, heck, even ice cream if you want to go wild.

What you'll need for the cake:

• 120g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 75g dark brown sugar
• 60g caster sugar
• 300g flour (I used a GF blend)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 225g pumpkin puree
• 170ml buttermilk
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

What you'll need for the filling:

• 120g dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

What you'll need for the streusel topping:

• 85g brown sugar
• 80g flour
• 40g pecans
• 60g unsalted butter (melted)

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

We'll start with the cake batter.  In a large mixing bowl blend together the room temperature butter, the caster sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. I recommend using a handheld electric mixer, but you can get fancier if you'd like!

Once the butter and sugar are thoroughly creamed, add the eggs, buttermilk, and pumpkin puree.

'

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice. Then gradually add this dry mixture to the wet mixture.

Once combined, pour (or spoon/spatula! - this is a pretty thick batter!) half of the cake batter into a buttered cake tin. 

Mix the filling ingredients - the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice - together and sprinkle over this first cake batter layer, covering thoroughly. Then spatula the remaining cake batter over the filling layer, smoothing the top down when finished.

Finally, mix together the topping ingredients - brown sugar, flour, chopped pecans, and melted butter. You can do this with a fork or by hand, until the topping mixture starts to clump together.

Finally, spoon the topping mixture onto the top layer of cake batter, and lightly pat it down to ensure even covering.

Tiny cake waiting to go in the oven...

Big cake all ready for the oven...

Yes, I made two cakes here. A normal sized cake and a mini cake. This recipe will make one large (20cm/8in tin) cake. If possible, use a springform cake tin so that you can see the pretty sides of the finished product!

Once the topping is all set, pop the cake into the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. When it's finished, an inserted fork or toothpick should come out clean and the topping should be a nice golden brown color.

Let cool for at least 10-15 minutes before removing the side of the springform tin, and another few minutes before slicing, if you at all value cake slices that hold their shape!

Eat warm and enjoy with coffee; pumpkin decoration optional!

Or have a slice with your morning coffee the next day - it's full of pumpkin, which is a vegetable, so it's almost good for you, right? Sounds like (cake) logic to me!

Pumpkin Muffins

It's September, and do you know what that means? At least according to elementary/primary school students it is now fall/autumn. Which, to me, means pumpkins! Okay, who am I kidding? I'd eat pumpkins year round. But apparently autumn and winter are the socially acceptable pumpkin eating seasons. 

So to kick off September in proper pumpkin style, I'm sharing one of my many Pumpkin Muffin recipes. They're also gluten and dairy free (although you can adjust this recipe if you like gluten and/or dairy)!

What you'll need: (makes 12 muffins)

• 150g pumpkin (canned or cooked - I used Libby's)
• 1 egg
• 120ml unsweetened almond milk (I like Blue Diamond)
• 20g melted coconut oil
• 1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 200g self-raising flour (I used Dove's Farm GF blend again - does that make me predictable?)
• 40g light brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• pecans (optional)

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180C/360F.

Combine the pumpkin, egg, coconut oil, vanilla, and almond milk. I used a handheld beater for this, you could use a whisk though. Definitely don't go high powered on this stage, as it is mostly liquid and will go everywhere!

Next add the flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice directly to this mixture.

Blend thoroughly. It should look like this:

Finally, blend in the light brown sugar, continuing to mix until you achieve this consistency:

Next, lightly grease a 12 muffin tin with a bit of coconut oil. I know in my pictures I've used paper muffin liners. But unless you want to be picking bits of paper off your muffins before you eat them (Mmm, fibre. Haha!) I would highly recommend just using coconut oil instead.

Finally, if you'd like to, top each muffin with a pecan half. Another option with the pecans would be to chop a decent sized handful and blend into the batter. I've tried it this way too, and it's tasty!

Pop into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until you can insert a toothpick or fork and it comes out clean.

I've been eating these bad boys with my coffee for the last two days. Nom nom nom. Pumpkin.

Ed: These are best eaten within 24 hours of baking!

Granola Cluster Cookies

I made these reasonably healthy Granola Cluster Cookies for a hike up Snowdon this weekend - more on that later. They're fluffy and filling and full of good stuff. How's that for alliteration? The big secret - wait for it - is that I use all natural applesauce instead of butter! You could eat these for breakfast and feel pretty good about it.

All ready for Welsh mountains

What you'll need (makes 3-4 dozen cookies):

• 240g natural applesauce
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 320g self-raising flour (I used Dove's Farm GF blend, you can use any variety you'd like!)
• 320g granola

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 170C/340F.

Combine the natural applesauce, eggs, vanilla extract and sugars (caster and light brown) in a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer to blend thoroughly.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Then gradually add this to the wet mixture.

Next comes the fun part - add in 400g of the granola of your choice. I'm sort of obsessed with this pumpkin granola. Like the sort of obsessed that means I really should eliminate the temptation and ban it for life. But I digress. I actually used a granola without raisins this time though, as some of my group are dried fruit averse.

Fold the granola into the cookie batter using a handheld mixer on low or a heavy duty spoon and some arm strength.

Once you've added the granola, the mixture should look chunky, but still have enough non-granola batter to it to hold things together. The consistency will be sticky, and somewhere between traditional cookie dough that you can roll into balls and cake batter. (You will not be able to shape these cookies, nor should you be able to pour the dough out of the mixing bowl.)

You can also add raisins or chocolate chips (Or both! Go crazy!) to taste if you'd like. I made about half of this batch with raisins and half without.

Drop heaping spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet (as above), leaving space in between each cookie mound because these do tend to spread out just a bit.

Golden brown on top and waiting to be scooped into a travel bag!

Bake for 10 minutes, then allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing. Eat these at home, or pack them up and go exploring!


(Thanks A Cup of Joe for alerting me to the concept of banned for life - hilariously applicable to my own kitchen!)