Cakes & Bakes: Chocolate ginger cookies

Over the years of making my own cookies, I have hit on a basic recipe that I simply tweak depending on what we like and what we have in the store cupboard. This week, after a short rummage through food storage baskets, I decided to experiment with making chocolate and ginger cookies.

These cookies have a double dose of warming ginger; a spoonful of ground ginger and a handful of crystallised ginger. The chocolate hit come courtesy pure cocoa powder; however, 50 grams of dark or milk chocolate chips on top of this would be a great idea.

As the recipe makes a couple of dozen cookies (way too much for 2 people), I cook off half the dough and store the rest in a reusable ziplock bag either in the fridge or freezer.

Click here or on the image below to save my chocolate ginger cookies recipe to Pinterest

Chocolate ginger cookies

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Cook Time 15

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Servings 24

Ingredients

135 g/4¾oz salted butter softened
150 g/5¼oz soft brown sugar
1 egg
150 g/5¼oz plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tbsps cocoa powder
1 tsp ground ginger
50 g/1¾oz crystallised ginger

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl and using a wire whisk, cream the softened butter and soft brown sugar
Whisk in the egg until completely mixed in
Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and ground ginger. Fold in using a spatula or wooden spoon until fully combined
Stir in the crystallised ginger
Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/ Gas mark 3
Grease & line a large baking sheet with baking parchment
Scoop out about a dessert spoon of the cold dough at a time, roll it between your palms to form a ball
Put the ball on the prepared baking sheet (only put 4 or 5 balls on the sheet at a time, leaving lots of space between each ball, as the cookies spread a fair amount during cooking)
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until they turn lightly golden around the edges
Allow to cool and firm up for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring them to a wire rack for at least a further 10 minutes
Repeat stages 8-11 until all the cookie dough has been used

Keyword biscuits, chocolate, cookies, ginger

Lime and ginger cheesecake

For the past few weeks, we’ve been referring to this delicious, no-bake lime and ginger cheesecake as ‘Diane’s Cheesecake’.

It’s actually a BBC Good Food recipe, but on our last visit to our good friends Diane & Doon, it was served as dessert after a lovely meal… so now it’s always going to be Diane’s Cheesecake! We told them at the time that it would have to feature in our weekly Cakes & Bakes slot – so here it is… and, “Hi guys!”.

It’s a straightforward recipe which can be prepared well in advance, so perfect for dinner parties and the like. A perfect end to all types of meal from spicy curries & noodles to rich pasta dishes & roasts.

It’s clean, light and zingy – and despite containing no added sugar, the cheesecake is plenty sweet enough from the stem ginger syrup. The flavours combine beautifully – and it’s a very attractive dish too with bright, fresh colours.

It comes very highly recommended… so give it a go!

Click here to save the recipe on Pinterest!

Lime and ginger cheesecake

2020-03-19 12:53:39

Serves 8

Ingredients

225g/8oz ginger biscuits, ground
115g/4oz unsalted butter, melted
300g/10½oz full fat soft cheese
250ml/8¾fl oz double cream
2 limes, juice and zest
4 tbsp ginger syrup
8 pieces stem ginger, chopped
a few pieces of crystallised ginger

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Instructions

Mix the ground biscuits with the melted butter and press into the base of a 20cm/8" loose-base or spring-form cake tin using the back of a spoon
Chill in the fridge for about an hour
Lightly whip the cream and then mix in the cream cheese, ginger syrup and lime juice
Add the chopped stem ginger and lime zest and mix in thoroughly
Spoon onto the biscuit base and spread evenly over the surface. Knock the tin on the worktop a couple of times to remove air bubbles
Cover and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours until firm
Carefully remove the cheesecake from the mould on to a serving plate
Sprinkle a small amount of lime zest and crystallised ginger over the top
Slice and serve

Adapted from BBC Good Food

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Shortbread rounds, three ways

Whenever the biscuit stash in our store cupboard reaches critical levels there are normally two obvious options to remedy the situation. Firstly, I can whip out a pre-made refrigerator cookie dough roll from the freezer. Alternatively, if the frozen stock is depleted, I can whip up a quick batch of shortbread.

Justin bought me this vintage wooden biscuit mould a few weeks ago, so it was a great opportunity to use it for the first time to make some shortbread rounds.

We think the mould might be Indian so we’ve added a few spices in homage – cardamom, ginger and vanilla.

The swirl pattern it makes is just beautiful – I needed to sprinkle some polenta into the mould so the dough didn’t stick and it also helped with the definition.

We liked all three flavours. And it has to be said that, if we hadn’t been trying to think of suitable Indian spices for biscuits, we probably would never have tried cardamom shortbread – yet we both thought that it was very successful. I’ll definitely be making these again soon!

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Shortbread rounds, three ways

2017-03-10 18:10:33

Ingredients

175g/6oz/¾ cup plain flour
50g/2oz/½ cup cornflour
50g/2oz/¼ caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
115g/4oz/½ cup butter, chopped
1 cardamom seed, removed from the pod and ground
¼ tsp vanilla essence
¼ tsp ground ginger

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Lightly flour the mould with semolina (or plain flour if you don't have it) and line a baking sheet with non-stick parchment paper
Sift the flour, cornflour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour & sugar mixture until it binds together and you can knead it into a soft dough
Divide the dough into thirds (130g/4½oz each) and gently knead the ground cardamom into one, vanilla into the next and ground ginger into the last
One by one, place each ⅓ of dough into the mould and press to fit neatly and evenly. Invert the mould on to the baking sheet using your fingers if necessary to gently to release the dough shape
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until pale golden in colour
Sprinkle the top of the shortbread with a little caster sugar and cool on a baking sheet
Cut the rounds into 'petticoat tails' whilst still warm

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Ginger loaf

This week’s Cakes & Bakes recipe is a low effort to high reward ginger loaf cake. There are quite a few ingredients, but its a simple case of combining the dry, the wet, then mixing them together – and popping it in the oven.

The aromas emanating from the kitchen as it baked were amazing.

And after less than an hour a moist, very flavoursome loaf cake emerged.

It’s a perfect afternoon cake. A cup of tea and slice of this will satisfy the most extreme 4 o’clock peckishness. And it keeps very well too, so there’ll be plenty of days to enjoy it – unless you actually let someone else have some too!

Ginger loaf

The Great British Book of Baking: 120 Best-loved Recipes from Teatime Treats to Pies and Pasties

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Cook Time 50

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 8

Ingredients

225 g/8oz self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground mixed spice
115 g/4oz butter chilled & diced
115 g/4oz black treacle
115 g/4oz golden syrup
115 g/4oz dark brown Muscovado sugar
275 ml/9½fl oz milk
1 egg
75 g/2½oz crystalised or stem ginger in syrup finely sliced

Instructions

Pre heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 and line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice
Add the diced butter and lightly rub into the dry mixture
Pour the treacle and golden syrup into a small saucepan and warm gently until melted and runny but not hot. Set aside until lukewarm
In another larger saucepan, add the sugar and milk and heat gently, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Set aside until lukewarm
Whisk the milk into the flour mixture, quickly followed by the treacle mixture and the egg
Add the ginger pieces and stir through before pouring the mixture into the prepared loaf tin
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean
Allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack before turning out. Serve warm or cold within 1 week

Keyword cake, ginger, loaf cake, tea loaf