Spicy Ginger-Pear Bread

I made a bunch of quick breads this week.  Banana-pecan, lemon poppyseed, and ginger-pear.  Pears are everywhere right now, and ginger seemed like the perfect thing to go with them.  Sweet, spicy, warming.  Actually, I think ginger goes with everything--and in my cooking, it often does.  So to the pear bread recipe, I added a hefty dose of fresh ginger, with crystallized ginger on top.  I keep the ginger in the freezer, peeled and wrapped up tight, and when I need some, all I have to do is grate off a bit with a microplane.

Ginger-Pear Bread
(based on a recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2-4 Tbs freshly grated ginger (I used closer to 4 Tbs, but adjust to taste)
3/4 c softened butter
3 eggs
2 c sugar
2 c grated pear (3-4 pears, peeled, cored and grated)
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbs crystallized ginger, chopped fine (I used this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and fresh ginger.  In another bowl, combine the grated pear, butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.  Add the pear mixture to the dry mixture, and mix until just blended.

Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared pans, and sprinkle the tops with the crystallized ginger.  Bake for about an hour, til the tops are browned and a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10-15 min., and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Christmasy Cookies

Every year I say the same thing--that I'm not going to go overboard--and every year I end up making a ton of cookies. It's not that I don't like baking cookies--clearly--but there's only so many hours in a day, nor is there a need for bazillions of cookies and candies.  This year my list kept growing and growing, but I was finally able to narrow it down to a mere 10 items.  After I baked the first eight all in one day, and I had trouble locating not-uncommon ingredients for the last two, I decided it was a sign and called it a day.  Starting at the bottom of this picture, there are triple peanut cookies with peanut m&ms, salty caramel oat caramelitas, chocolate-dipped toasted coconut macaroons, coal cookies with white chocolate chips, chewy ginger spice cookies (hiding at the very top), almond buttercrunch, and avalanche bars.  Not pictured are the peanut butter-oat dog biscuits I made, but the dog has tested them and declared them very tasty.  She didn't even bother trying to hide these--as is her usual with a treat--and just ate them right up.

Cranberry-Orange Streusel Muffins

This recipe is adapted from a blueberry muffin recipe and then topped with the streusel from another. It's not too sweet, and I added fresh ginger to the streusel for a little kick.

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Christmas Cookies 2010

The holidays are here, and I am done with my baking! Well, at least the immediate baking -- I've been told I missed a few key kinds of cookies and that we're at risk of running out. Not likely. This year I made, triple peanut butter cookies, gingersnaps, chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons, pecan divines, and almond buttercrunch, which is pictured above.

                                                                    Spicy gingersnaps


                                                           Chewy, nutty pecan divines


                                                    Chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons


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Apple-y Apple Cake

There are a lot of apple cake recipes out there, and pretty much everyone you ask says their recipe is the best. I found this recipe in a cooking forum where people were just falling all over themselves saying how good this is. And they were right -- it really is that good.  I added a few more spices to the cake, but all the flavors really shine together.  This cake is full of apples, but you taste the butter, pecans, and spices, too.

Apple Cake
(based on the recipe in Ronald Johnson's An American Table)

4 c apples peeled and cut into a small dice
1 c chopped pecans
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 tsp cinnamon, heaping 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice, big pinch of cloves, and 1-2 tsp chopped crystallized ginger)
2 eggs
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Mix in the vanilla and then the spices.  Add the eggs one at a time.

Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Then add the dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the chopped apples and pecans.  The batter will be very stiff.

Spoon into a thoroughly buttered Bundt pan (I used two mini Bundts and the six-inch heart above), and bake at 350 degrees for about one hour (til golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean ... smaller cakes will take less time.)

Cool briefly in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

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Grilled Vietnamese Meatballs with Ginger-Lime Dipping Sauce

I saw this recipe in the Boston Globe this morning and, when wandering, somewhat aimlessly around the grocery store, decided to try it tonight. The recipe calls for ground pork, but I'd planned to use chicken. Due to an apparent shortage or run on chicken today, however, I ended up using pork as directed. And it was good, really good. I also made tofu non-meatballs, using black soy instead of fish sauce, for the vegetarians. We wrapped all this up in lettuce leaves with thinly sliced carrots, cilantro and a fantastic ginger-lime sauce. I served this with rice, though I think the wraps themselves are filling enough on their own. ETA: I made this a few days later, by special teenage-request, as the leftover tofu meatballs made a good lunch the next day. This time I made the meatballs with ground chicken, a combination of breast and thigh meat, and they turned out very well, too. Golden and delicious grilled meatballs Flare-ups were not uncommon Tofu meatballs - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone