Apologies :)

[bjcotton]

Whenever any of you have discovered you were out of "something" I've always chortled and teased you about it. Well, today I was going to make Triple Ginger Cookies and discovered that I only had 1/2 tsp of ground ginger and it dated from 1988. I was horrified, I never keep any spice more than a year at the outside. I rushed down to the store to get some fresh stuff and tossed that old (read ancient) odorless stuff in the trash. Somebody MUST have come in and stole my fresh ground ginger


* Exported from MasterCook *

Triple the Ginger Cookies

Recipe By :Laria Tabul - Allrecipes
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : A List Cakes-Pies-Cookies-Tarts

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3/4 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and molasses. Combine the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt; stir into the molasses mixture using a wooden spoon. Mix in the fresh and crystallized gingers. Cover, and refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Shape dough into 1 inch balls, and place about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

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[Harborwitch]

These sound really good - may have to make them for Bob. He loves ginger (so do I).

Don't feel too bad sweetie - I think I'm out of ancho chile powder, have to go search the freezer today.

[bjcotton]

I made the batter for the cookies yesterday and baked them off today. I was kind of disappointed. The ginger flavor was there, but not extra gingery, and they said to bake them at 350°F for 10 minutes...they weren't done in the middle, so I baked them an extra 3 minutes and they still weren't quite done. I was looking for a "knock-your-socks-off" ginger flavor. Oh well, they're still good.

[labradors]

That settles it. With all this talk about ginger, and the ginger I've been using in other things, lately, it's time for me to make some more ginger ale again!

[bjcotton]

I love homemade Ginger Ale...there was a company over at Florence, Oregon that was making "Free Willie" ginger ale when we did a fair there. It was $6.00 a six pack and I bought a case. They used honey in it and it was superb...they're out of business now.

[labradors]

Sorry to hear they're out of business. I just use a recipe I found on the Web. What I like about this one is the relatively small amount of yeast it uses.

There were two main problems with most of the other recipes I had seen before deciding to use this one:

1. Some "cheated," and used already-carbonated water, or club soda as the base. For me, here, that's just as bad as buying the already-made ginger ale in the first place, since neither the ginger ale nor the club soda are common here, and cost more than other sodas, thus defeating one of the purposes for making homemade to being with (aside from the taste, of course).
   
2. Others DID use yeast to produce the carbonation, but use a lot MORE yeast, and I've had bad experiences with some other people's homemade ginger ale, before, where the taste of the yeast overpowered the soda, itself. In this recipe, the yeast taste was not even noticeable, yet there was plenty of carbonation.

It really is very simple to make, but you do have to play around with the amount of ginger you use. For me, with the VERY fresh ginger we have here, I needed to use no even half of what the recipe mentioned. With the full amount, it was still good, but the ginger was REALLY strong.

Well, it's time to make some more, so I'll probably get to that on the weekend.