TWO GREAT COOKIE RECIPES FROM BON APPETIT!

 

 

CHEWY GINGER COOKIES 

 

If you love ginger, then I guarantee, you’ll love these cookies.  They are made with three kinds of ginger:  fresh grated, dry powdered and candied ginger.  This cookie packs a punch and you can have it thin and crispy or thick and a little more cakey.  It depends on whether you use the batter right away when it’s really soft or chill it for a while so that it’s much easier to handle.  Chilling it results in a puffier cookie that holds its shape better. 

 

I didn’t have the robust blackstrap molasses and used the regular, less strong original molasses with fine results. For the recipe, just click on the CHEWY GINGER COOKIES TITLE.

 

THE NOVEMBER ISSUE OF BON APPETIT ALSO HAD A GREAT COOKIE RECIPE:

 

PEANUT BUTTER PECAN OATMEAL COOKIES 

 

 

 

 

I followed this recipe exactly except for a change that simplified the preparation.  The first step instructs one to puree the peanut butter and pecans in a blender and then add to the rest of the ingredients.  I just added the peanut butter straight to the mixer and saved the clean up of the food processor.  I chopped the pecans ahead of time in a "chop-chop" which works great for this.  It's one of these gadgets where you pull a string that rotates a blade in a small container.  It works well for small quantities of onion, or fresh herbs or nuts.  I also used it to chop the crystalized ginger in the previous recipe.  

FOR THE RECIPE, JUST CLICK ON THE RECIPE TITLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

 I found an amazing blueberry muffin recipe online from allrecipes which needed only a few minor adjustments.  I added lemon peel and vanilla and replaced milk with buttermilk .  I also made 9 muffins with this batch.

 

This recipe also works great for cake.  I make it in a 9 inch square cake pan.

 

Blueberry Muffins, ADAPTED from Allrecipes.com

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 egg

1/3 cup buttermilk Grated rind from one organic lemon 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup fresh blueberries 1/2 cup white sugar 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup butter, cubed 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2.	Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough butter milk to fill the cup and add the lemon and vanilla. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Divide filling between 9 muffin cups, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3.	To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4.	Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

'Tis apple season and we are lucky enough to have such a great selection in Ithaca.  Over the past few weeks we've had so much fun with apples.  We've had two cider pressing parties.  We started having these parties when the kids were young and we'd invite families of their friends.

 I'd make 4 or 5 different soups and serve them with bread and everyone would bring an appetizer or dessert.  This year was a scaled down version since the kids are grown up and I can't get them all home at the same time.  Here is my son Jeffrey with his friend Seth enjoying themselves.

We usually rent a press from the Cayuga Nature Center.  We go to King Town Orchards to buy bulk second hand apples.  Everyone takes a hand at cranking the apples and everyone leaves with a half gallon of freshly pressed cider.  We get a variety of apples and sometimes throw in some pears and this is guaranteed to be the best cider around.

 

 

 

 

 

Other great things to do with apples:  Dried apples.  I invested in a $20 apple corer, peeler and slicer and we already had a dehydrator.  Making a batch of apples using the Back To Basics apple corer/slicer  takes only a few minutes, once you get the hang of it.  It's an amazingly simple and efficient design and it works.

 Don't add anything to the apples.  They get incredibly sweet once they're dry and it takes about 12 hours.  If you don't want to waste the scraps (peels and ends of the apples) you can make applesauce with them.  I just throw everything (minus the cores) into my crock pot and let them cook down.  After putting them through a food mill I taste for seasoning and may add sugar,honey or cinnamon.  

This last batch of applesauce I used to make my spiced applesauce muffins.

 

 APPLES READY FOR DRYING IN THE DEHYDRATOR

 

 

 

 

 APPLE GARLIC CHUTNEY

 

 

Yesterday I made the apple garlic chutney recipe I posted a while back and we started eating it right away even though it's better after a couple of weeks.  I used dried mango, golden raisins, dried apricots and apples.