Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
When I first stumbled across the recipe for these delicious chewy ginger cookies, I had no idea they would become my favorite Christmas cookie of all time. At the time, I was working as the blog editor for a stationery and paper goods company in Portland, and I was looking for a recipe idea that would pair well with the holly tags that were eventually featured in this post. I loved the idea of creating white space on a ginger cookie for decorating, but it never occurred to me how well the flavors of rich, earthy ginger and molasses would pair with the creaminess of the white chocolate.
Don’t get me wrong: you can eat these cookies in their plain form. They make for a delicious ginger-molasses cookie experience, but please do try them with the white chocolate if you feel so inclined. I promise, it’s worth the extra effort.
A word about white chocolate chips: I’ve tried several brands, but certainly not all. The brand I keep coming back to in terms of flavor is Ghirardelli. They’re not sponsoring this post or anything - don’t worry. They just have a good, true flavor without any weird aftertastes, and they melt perfectly.
Chewy Ginger Cookies Dipped in White Chocolate
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour1 tsp baking soda½ tsp salt2 tsp ground ginger1 tsp ground cinnamon¼ tsp ground cloves¼ tsp ground nutmeg¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened½ cup sugar½ cup packed light-brown sugar1 large egg¼ cup molasses2 tsp vanilla extract½ cup sugar in the raw (or regular sugar)3 cups white chocolate chipsWax paper or parchment
Instructions
Notes
Optional: after the white chocolate has hardened, decorate your cookies using royal icing/frosting
P.S. I always double this recipe. And although I usually always dip them in white chocolate, I only bother to frost them with royal icing if I’m feeling fancy.
Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy.
Zucchini Bread
Our zucchini harvest season is winding down, but we still have a few large specimens awaiting their fate on the kitchen counter. If the zucchini is small and tender, I’ll usually eat it without much ado: lightly sautéed and seasoned with salt and pepper. The larger ones, however, have a tougher skin, larger seeds and not as delicate of flavor, so those are usually reserved for batch after batch of zucchini bread which I’ll freeze and eat, or give away to friends and family throughout the year.
My zucchini bread recipe stems from a recipe given to my husband by his family. I’ve experimented and tweaked some things here and there, and have come up with my own well-worn and loved variation. Every kitchen witch has their own method, after all.
For me, the chopped dates are essential. The original recipe calls for chopped nuts, which are also delicious, but I reduce the sugar from its original 2 ¼ cup down to 1 ½ (or less), so the dates give it a little added sweetness. The real magic in the dates, however, is in their texture. They almost melt into the bread while it’s baking.
Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cup sugar (I usually only use 1 cup) OR 1 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup honey
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped dates
Instructions
Notes
My personal preference with regard to sweetener is 1 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup honey. Sugar works too, but maple and honey will give you a really lovely flavor that's more complex and interesting.
Roasted Tomato Soup
Hello and good morning! Last month, I posted this image on Instagram with a short rundown of the recipe somewhere in the comments section, and it seems to have piqued everyone's tomato soup-loving interest, so I thought I'd go ahead and formally publish the recipe here for you on the blog. We make this soup several times per year, especially in August and September when we're up to our ears in tomatoes. I highly recommend the best, most flavorful tomatoes you can get your hands on for this recipe because it really lets the flavor shine. Enjoy!
(P.S. This really isn't a food blog, but you wouldn't know by looking at it.)
Roasted Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 3lbs (8-10 medium sized) tomatoes, rinsed and sliced in half
- 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, left in skins, with rough ends sliced off
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cups stock or water
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Sprigs of fresh herbs, like thyme or rosemary
- Cream (optional)
Instructions
Notes
Optional Ideas:
-Add a bell pepper or two, seeded and sliced in half, to the cookie sheet for roasted tomato soup with bell peppers.
-Add herbs like thyme, rosemary, or basil to the simmering pot for additional flavor.
Naturally Sweetened Granola
This recipe for granola has evolved so much over time. A little less honey, a little more maple syrup. A little more cinnamon and salt. More nut varieties, but less dried fruit. Better yet, no dried fruit at all. A tweak here and there documented over time in the Notes app on my phone. It’s a simple enough recipe that I could make it without referencing my notes, except I’ve changed it so much from where it originally was that I want to make sure I follow my own instructions exactly to make the perfect batch. We take our granola very seriously around here.
Matt eats this stuff every morning with a little yogurt. I tend to eat it two or three times per week. He’s a creature of habit, but I like variety. As a result, I don’t often notice right away when the granola is gone, and he’s too polite to say anything until we’ve gone a week or two with an empty jar.
I’m posting this up, my love, so you can make your own batch next time I fail to notice. I’m also posting this because who knows when my phone will fail and I’ll lose the recipe forever. The more copies that are out there, the better.
And speaking of copying recipes, I’ve decided to go ahead and transfer (and update) all of the well-worn and well-loved recipes from my blogspot address to this space. I reference my old blog for those recipes constantly, so I want to make sure I have them here too. I imagine many of them have changed in various ways throughout the years, just as this one has.
Naturally Sweetened Granola Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped nuts (raw)1 cup chopped seeds3 cups rolled oats1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste1/3 cup maple syrup1/4 cup honey3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
Instructions
Notes
Optional add-ins: roasted flax seeds or other roasted seeds, dried coconut, dried fruit, chocolate.
Chocolate Nut Butter
This three-ingredient chocolate-hazelnut spread is an indulgent, yet healthy(ish) staple in our kitchen. We make it all the time, usually with hazelnuts, but sometimes we’ll change it up and use almonds or peanuts instead. No matter which variety of nut you go with, the technique is basically the same, but the flavor is different. We also play around with the chocolate. I usually go for a higher quality dark, but it’s delicious made with milk chocolate too.
Chocolate Nut Butter
Ingredients
- 16 oz raw, unsalted nuts
- 8 oz chocolate, chopped
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Notes
Delicious ways to use this chocolate-hazelnut spread:
- on toast
- in a smoothie
- in crepes with berries or bananas
- with granola
- in baked goods, like muffins or quick breads
- with fruit on crackers
- stirred in oatmeal
- on a spoon
Spiced Chai Concentrate
I’ve been thinking a lot about the kinds of posts I’d like to share with you on my blog now that I’ve started up again. I’ve never been one to stick to a single topic, though I know I’d probably get more “engagement” that way, but I have to think about why I’m sharing what I’m sharing, and my strongest motivations are personal. I post because I want to remember moments in time, favorite recipes, garden projects, house projects, adventures we take as a family… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reference my own blog to pull up an old standby recipe, or to try and figure out which plants did well in the garden in previous years. I mean, when it comes down to it, maybe I just blog because I have a really bad memory, and this helps me keep track of the things I’ve done in my life.
In any case, I know for sure that I want to share all the recipes I turn to again and again, and especially those that are seasonally inspired. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what I like to do with the food we harvest when I’ve got baskets and baskets of it staring me right in the face. It can get pretty overwhelming in those moments, so it helps to have a list of favorite recipes in a centralized location I can turn to.
Some of the recipes I’ll be sharing, like this recipe for spiced chai concentrate, are recipes I’ve already posted on my old blog, but I want to bring them here and perhaps talk about how they have evolved over time or how they’ve been used in our household.
For instance, this chai concentrate recipe is one I’ve made every year since discovering and posting about it back in 2011. I usually make it in fall when the weather turns cool because the transition between summer's heat and autumn's wind and rain can be abrupt here, so it’s nice to cup your hands around a cozy beverage for warmth. Plus, the warm spices that flavor the tea are very autumnal.
Over the years, I’ve tapered off my use of refined sugars, so I tend to use honey exclusively as my sweetener rather than a combination of honey and brown sugar. If I make this for guests, I still use the brown sugar, though, because I know most people aren’t as accustomed to the strong flavor that the honey gives off when it’s used on its own.
I also play around with different milks. You really need a rich, thick milk to cut the flavor of the concentrated tea to make this beverage really work, so I tend to stick with goat or cows milk, or I’ll use homemade almond milk because I can ensure that it’s nice and creamy. Soy milk would probably work, too, though I’ve never tried it.
Spiced Chai Concentrate
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 1 stick cinnamon, broken in pieces
- 1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
- 7 whole cardamom pods
- 2 whole star anise pods
- 10 whole cloves
- 10 peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (or a couple strips of orange peel)
- 10 teabags or 3 tablespoons loose black tea
- 1/2 cup brown sugar or honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla (optional)