Brown Butter Ginger Chews

It seems like brown butter is featured in every recipe that catches my eye these days. I've always been a fan, but I think I'm still realizing just how many flavors can be complimented by the nutty flavor of brown butter. It is especially wonderful in fall recipes with apples, pears, or spices. In these soft and chewy ginger cookies, the butter unfolds another dimension to the flavors, giving it a subtle complexity - that je ne sais quoi. And with a bit of sea salt on top, yum!

This was also the perfect way for me to put to use my new melon-ball sized scoop, which greatly simplified the process of forming the cookies. I'm always put off by a recipe if it involves rolling each cookie individually by hand, but with the scoop it was much quicker to portion out equal amounts of dough. Since I didn't roll each ball carefully to make them perfectly identical, they had a rougher finished quality to them, but they did maintain their height because of the scoop shape - which left them chewy.

Brown Butter Ginger Chews

from Desserts for Breakfast

Don't forget to leave time for this dough to chill in the freezer!

5 C flour*

4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 T ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 C butter, room temperature

1/2 C brown butter

2 C brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C + 1 T molasses

1 C chopped crystallized ginger (optional, plenty spicy without)

coarse sea salt to sprinkle on top

Brown the 1/2 C butter and set aside (see here for instructions with photos).

In a large bowl, combine the flour(s), baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the butters and brown sugar until fluffy (it's okay if the brown butter is still a bit warm).

Stir the eggs and molasses into the butter and sugar mixture.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet in two additions, mixing until combined. Fold in the crystallized ginger if desired.

Let the dough rest, covered tightly in plastic wrap, in the freezer for 20-30 minutes (I ended up leaving it there for more like an hour, not a problem).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Take the dough out of the freezer and form it into 1 1/2-inch balls.

Place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart, slightly flattening the bottom so they don't roll (not necessary if you're using the leveled scoops of dough).

Press a few flakes of coarse sea salt on each ball of dough.

Bake for 9-12 minutes until firm (less time for more chewy cookies).

Makes about 5 dozen!

I bet these would be great for ice cream sandwiches...with caramel or cinnamon ice cream? Or butter pecan?

*I used 2 C whole wheat flour and 3 C all-purpose flour.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream: Blackberry Lemon

So, the good news is that I've found a great coconut milk-based ice cream recipe that's easy to make, experiment with, and render low-fat. The other good news is that you will want to sit down and eat it all at once, which could make this bad news for some of you.

It all started when I was forwarded this link to the best vegan ice cream recipes out there. I don't normally keep ice cream in the freezer, since I'm lactose intolerant, so this vegan ice cream thing is tempting me into a life of constant freezer goodness.

I first made the Caramel-Cinnamon Ice Cream with Black Gingerbread Chunks in a version that involved homemade spiced marshmallows, fleur de sel caramel sauce, Vietnamese cinnamon, dark chocolate chunks, and toasted pecans. I meant it to be a spicy caramely version of Rocky Road, but I'm really at a loss for what to call it. Whatever it was, it was tasty, and the homemade marshmallows really turned into wonderful chewiness in the frozen dessert.

I successfully substituted so many ingredients from the original recipe that I knew I could mess with it even more. This time I wouldn't make the mistake of adding more than a cup of mix-ins, since that made for super chunky ice cream, but I would replace the caramel sauce with blackberry jam and lemon curd, the cinnamon with a touch of ginger, add a bit of agave to sweeten it, and swirl in a ribbon of berry syrup.

The ice cream itself ended up incredibly creamy; next time I would probably leave out the berry syrup and just add it as a topping, since the water content of the uncooked berries froze very hard - or I would make the syrup break the berries down more before swirling it in to the ice cream. The lemon curd really made this flavor, so don't back away if berries and lemon sound strange to you.

Here's my take on this super easy, fabulously adaptable recipe:

Blackberry Lemon Coconut Ice Cream

1 C light coconut milk

2 C lactose-free, vanilla soy, or coconut creamer

1/4 C no sugar added seedless blackberry jam (strain to remove seeds)

1/4 C lemon curd (I love TJ's)

3 T agave syrup

1/4 tsp ground ginger

pinch salt

2 T corn starch

2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the coconut milk and creamer in a medium sauce pan, along with the jam, lemon curd, agave, ginger, salt, and corn starch. Whisk vigorously to combine and beat out any lumps. Turn on the heat to medium, and whisk occasionally until it just comes up to a boil and has thickened significantly. Cool completely and add the vanilla. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator. Before churning the ice cream, prepare any add-ins (berry syrup, chocolate chunks, etc.). Once the ice cream base is chilled, churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (mine took 20 minutes total), adding any add-in in the last 5 minutes of churning. Transfer to an air-tight container, and freeze solidly for at least 4 hours before serving.

Blackberry Syrup

1/3 C water

3 T agave syrup

1/4 tsp lemon zest

12 oz. blackberries

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and simmer for 8 minutes. Watch to make sure it doesn't boil over, stirring from time to time. After the 8 minutes, remove from heat. Optional: add up to 2 tsp liquor (brandy, framboise, etc.) and another 12 oz. of berries to add texture to the syrup. Let cool before mixing into the ice cream, or serve warm/room temperature as a topping on the finished ice cream.

How to adapt this recipe:

• Replace the liquid sweeteners (jam, lemon curd, agave) with up to a total of 1 C of another liquid sweetener (the caramel Rocky Road version had 1 C of fleur de sel caramel sauce from Trader Joe's).
• Replace the ground spice (ginger) with up to 1 tsp of another ground spice (the original had 1 tsp of cinnamon). Take care to not overwhelm the flavor you're trying to achieve - start with 1/4 tsp, taste, add more if you prefer.
• Add up to 1 C of chunky/chewy add-ins: marshmallows, chocolate chunks, nuts, berries, cookies, cake crumbs, etc. Adding more than 1 C will mean you are chewing your ice cream rather than licking it.

SaucyScheming: Sesame Peanut Sauce

One of the things I most enjoy about developing cooking skills is having the ability to tailor good foods to various needs and preferences. I've got lactose-free alternatives for myself, low-saturated-fat options for those watching cholesterol, vegetarian recipes and locales, sugar-free opportunities, gluten-free baking, kosher dishes - and I'm sure the list will continue to grow. I'm on a long-term quest to understand how foods work so that I can create tasty and visually pleasing food experiences that hopefully remain faithful to the qualities of the natural foods AND permit my friends to forget that they are having to eat carefully. Not everything I make is healthy, of course, but I'm shooting for a good mix of healthy and decadent!

This sesame peanut sauce is one that I see fitting all the categories above: no dairy, no gluten, no sugar if desired, vegetarian (vegan, even!), low-fat - and VERY tasty! It is versatile; I put it on a noodle dish and on a stir fry, but it could be thinned or thickened to be a dipping sauce for tofu, a marinade for chicken, or whatever else you want it to be. It's easy to halve or double, and once you have the ingredients on hand you may want to make it regularly (as I did this past week). I discovered this recipe in The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, a much-loved book full of quality basic recipes and cooking techniques, including reviews of food brands and cookwares that go along with the recipes. Costco is a great source for these cookbooks, so keep an eye out for them whenever you're there.

All you need is a food processor or blender and you're set to go:

Sesame Peanut Sauce (from Cold Sesame Noodles recipe in ATKFC, p. 78)

5 T sesame seeds
5 T soy sauce (sub. light soy sauce to reduce sodium)
1/4 C chunky or creamy peanut butter (sub. Better than Peanut Butter to reduce fat)
2 T rice vinegar
2 T light brown sugar or Splenda brown sugar
1 T grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Tabasco
1/2 C hot water

Toast the sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring, until golden and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Purée the sesame seeds with the soy sauce, peanut butter, vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic, and Tabasco in blender or food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the hot water, 1 T at a time, until the sauce has the consistency you desire (you may not need all the water).

Flourless Orange Ginger Cake Edged in Chocolate

For some reason this Flourless Orange Ginger Cake recipe jumped out at me this week; I was just scanning the dessert recipes on my favorite food blog, and remembered how it once appealed to me at a time when I did not have 2 hours to boil oranges. I've enjoyed baking other flourless cakes this year, including a chocolate almond cake that was marvelous with raspberries and crème fraîche, so I was eager to see how this would go.

Unlike some flourless chocolate cakes whose content is mostly eggs, this (and the previously mentioned chocolate almond cake) is built with ground almonds. A friend pointed out to me that this makes for an expensive cake, but I will point out that is also makes a fabulous cake texture in the right recipe. Trader Joe's ground almond packages are probably the most affordable and easily accessible option for this; I stock up whenever I can, since sometimes the stores are out of them. Some recipes that call for almond meal or ground almonds need a fairly fine grind, so TJ's ground almonds would need to be passed through a food processor prior to using them in those recipes, but for these cakes the rougher grind has been fine. On the same note of pricey-ness, these cakes also tend to be denser and richer than traditional American cakes, so a smaller amount can serve more people since you will want to cut smaller pieces to serve.

After finding an occasion that would serve as an excuse for baking, I followed Chocolate and Zucchini's recipe pretty closely (but not perfectly, of course!). When it came to the icing, I didn't have a whole lemon, nor pearl sugar. I did have some frozen lemon juice, so I stirred some raw sugar into the defrosted juice and spooned it over the finished cake while it was still warm. I added some extra orange zest on top, which was in big enough pieces to add a bit of texture to the top surface. The last change I made was add dark chocolate edging to the cake; to be completely truthful, I was afraid the edge of the cake was a little too browned, so I cut the browned edge off all the way around and then painted the open edge with chocolate. Since I had already planned on pairing chocolate in some way with the cake, this worked out well! This was a good proportion of chocolate to orange, so that the orange/ginger was not overwhelmed by chocolate.

The result received very good reviews from the tasters, and I myself very much enjoyed eating the cake. It was incredibly moist due to the whole puréed cooked oranges that were mixed in, the fresh and candied ginger bits were a great compliment to the orange, and the chocolate was wonderful with the things I added to it (see below). It also traveled quite well - another benefit of smaller cakes without damage-able icing. It should be stored in the refrigerator wrapped tightly in plastic to preserve the moistness.

Chocolate Edging
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, broken into bits if bar chocolate
2 tsp. orange zest
1 T butter
optional: 1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger

Microwave on high for 30 seconds in a bowl; stir well, and return to microwave for another 30 seconds if necessary to melt completely. Spoon mixture onto the edge of the cake and let solidify either at room temperature or in the refrigerator if in a hurry. May also be used to decorate the top surface of the cake.