Tag: ginger

Brandy snaps

Makes 12

50g butter
50g caster sugar
30ml golden syrup
50g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1tsp brandy
150ml double cream – whipped for filling

Preheat the oven to 180˚c + line 2-3 baking sheets (ptfe sheets are best – these things can get sticky)

Heat the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan until mixed. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour and ginger.

put small spoonfuls of the mix onto baking sheets, 10cm apart (they spread). Bake for 7 mins until bubbling. Take them out of the oven, and roll the soft disc around a wooden spoon handle to make the tubes. Once they’re a little firmer, slide off the spoon and onto a cooling rack.

Fill with the whipped cream when they’re cool. yum.

Gingerbread

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C
Line baking trays with baking parchment. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Dip biscuit cutters into flour before cutting the dough, or cut around templates, which you can find at waitrose.com/christmas. Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.

While still warm, and using a skewer or chopstick, make any holes that you will need to hang up the biscuits with ribbon or to make a yuletide garland. If you are decorating your Christmas cake with gingerbread people, make the holes in their arms so that ribbon can be threaded through at a later stage.

When they’re cool, decorate with the icing.

Ginger Muffins

Again, this is an American style muffin that is less fatty and a little bready. I was trying to find a recipe a bit like Starbucks’ Skinny Ginger Muffins, and this isn’t too far off.

2 cups plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2-4 tsp ginger powder (depending on how gingery you like it. I go for 4 for me, but 2 for the kids)
1/2 cup crystalised ginger
3 Tbsp golden syrup
100g melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Stem ginger pieces to add to the mix

Topping
1 cup Icing sugar, water (or ginger syrup) to mix

Combine the dry ingredients.

Melt the butter and warm the golden syrup in the microwave. Add the milk and eggs and mix. Add to the dry ingredients. Beat well. Combine mixtures and lightly mix.Add the ginger pieces.

Put into large muffin cases and cook for 15mins at 200c.

Once cooled a little, ice the top.

Ginger Beer

450g (1lb) Sugar
4.5lt (8 pints) Water
1 Lemon
40g (1½oz) Root Ginger
25g (1 oz) Cream of Tartar
25g (1 oz) Brewers or Wine Yeast

Bruise the ginger (wrap in a clean cloth – hit with hammer) to release flavour.
Finely peel the lemon, removing only the outer waxy layer and squeeze the juice.
Place the ginger, lemon rind and cream of tartar into a bucket or large bowl.
Pour over the boiling water, add the lemon juice and stir well.
Allow to cool to about 21°C (70°F), remove a little of the liquid and mix with the yeast, stir the yeast mixture into the liquid.
Cover the container with a clean cloth (ensuring that the cloth cannot come into contact with the liquid) and secure with string or elastic.
Leave in a warm place 21°C (70°F) for 24 hours.
Strain the liquid through a fine cloth or skim off the froth and use a jug to bale out the liquid (being careful not to disturb the sediment).
Pour the ginger beer into strong bottles and cork.
Secure the corks with wire, leaving a little play (for possible expansion)
Store the bottle in a cool dark place.
If the corks begin to rise, release the wire slightly and re-secure.
The beer should be ready to drink after 2 – 3 days.

Chinese Red Pork Stew

This is a strongly aromatic main course, and is really good with just some plain rice. Deird doesn’t like me cooking this because the house smells of star anise for a couple of days. You have to cook it for a long time (2-3 hours) to get the pork to be tender and fall-aparty. 

The weird thing about this recipe is that you marinade the pork in soy sauce, then when you fry off the pork before stewing, it turns a dark red. Some of the pork juices and marinade will probably stick to the pan- which is good, because that makes the stock look good later on. If the pork has a bit of fat in it, then this adds to the flavour. Don’t use too lean a meat.

Once it’s all cooked up, you need to sieve the sauce because it can be bitty from the bits of garlic, ginger and star anise floating round in it. The sauce should be thick, rich and sticky, and well condensed down.

Diced pork, about 1lb (1 fillet)
Dark Soy sauce (enough to marinade pork)
1 Onion, sliced into ½ rings
Ginger root- size of thumb
2 garlic cloves
2 star anise
Orange peel- potato peeled from ½ an orange (or mandarin, for authenticity.) Any spare peel- dry it for use later)
2-3 tablespoons of honey
Corn flour to thicken

In a frying pan, Fry pork and pour off juices
Add onion and soften
Add soy sauce from marinade and water to cover.
Add garlic (crushed) orange peel, star anise, peeled crushed ginger and honey
Stew for 60-90 mins
Remove pork, sieve sauce, and thicken with corn flour. Reintroduce pork and serve.

Brandy Snaps (or Bosworth Jumbles)

2oz Butter
2oz castor Sugar
2oz golden syrup
2oz Plain Flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1tsp lemon juice

put butter sugar & syrup in a pan- melt and mix- but don’t get too hot.
Mix in remaining ingredients

put teaspoons onto a baking tray

bake at 180c for 8 minutes. Once cooked, roll round a wooden spoon handle. Only make 2-3 at a time, they cool too quickly to curl. (If they get too cool, reheat for a minute before rolling.)

Makes 22-ish

Gingernuts

50g/2oz Butter

4 tbsp Golden Syrup

50g/2oz Soft Brown Sugar

175g/6oz Self Raising Flour

1 teasp Ground Ginger

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C, 375F, Gas Mark 5 and lightly grease two baking sheets

2. Melt the butter, syrup and sugar together in a large saucepan, cool slightly then sift flour and ginger into the sugar mixture.  Mix well.

3. Place walnut size balls of the mixture well apart onto the baking sheet, flatten with the palm of your hand, then bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.