TWD: Ginger Snaps (and the annual Amnesty Cookies)

The dough for these Ginger Snaps is definitely on the sticky side and it is a bit tricky to cut them out and place them on the sheets. Therefore, a thicker rolled out dough is no bad idea.
Baking time was longer than the recipe says (about 10 mins). Like that, they quickly turned out very cracky. But otherwise it would not have been possible to transfer them on a cooling rack.

I made stars and flowers, but the figure "ran out". So, as so often, they don't look pretty at all. I sprinkled them with some anis flavoured pearls in pink and white and like that liked still liked the look. Taste was fine (I used some more ginger) and I am pretty ok with them. They don't look like Ginger Snaps I know from american food stores - next time I would make thicker figures, definietly.

Usually I do Amnesty Cookies (or Composte Cookies or Kitchen Sink Cookies, whatever you like to call them) around New Years Eve. But this year I will be in Hamburg for some days, so I had to do them now. I do this since I started baking four years ago because I like the idea of "pardoning" everything you find in the closet left over. I stole the idea from David Lebovitz (who links to Amateur Gourmets blog entry on Momofukus Composte Cookies . This year I used "Mikado" (chocolate coated biscuit-sticks, I used white chocolate), gummy bears and for the salted treat chips flavoured with pumpkin-seed oil (a very dark, almost black but still green oil with a very special tastem not at all like pumpkin itself - very common in some parts of Austria). The chips do not taste a lot like the oil but are green. All together, these turned out pretty good, I liked this years version a lot and so tdid my colleagues!

TWD: Gingerbread Baby Cakes

I am moving - so this is my last post from my old kitchen.  I am used to cooking with gas what is not possible in the new house. No idea if I will ever get used to the induction cooker. I love the gas stove :o[
I'm going to miss it, as my whole apartment. However, the new one is wonderful. And I am going to get used to my new kitchen, too.
And: The new baking oven comes with pyrolysis (self)cleaning - so much looking forward!

Anyhow, the real topic today are Gingerbread Baby Cakes. I had to make some changes and adaption for this:

First, I have no baby-cake mold. And the flour-leftover I had was not enough for a whole recipe. So I made about 60% and filled the batter in pretty paper molds, more like for baby-pound cakes, but that was what I had (still) at hand. Calculating baking time was very difficult due to the different form and amount of batter in each mold. In the end it took about 45mins.

Than I had to sub the molasse as it is very uncommon in Austria. I used 3/4 maple syrup and 1/4 corn syrup, just what I had at hand. Hope it comes near what it should be.

I switched to ordinary sugar so I didn't have to open a new bag of brown sugar four days befor I move. I guess brown sugar is better, but the ordinary sugar did no harm.

I topped the cakes with "schudde buikjes" - a bread topping I recently buyed in Amsterdam. They come with speculos taste at this time of the year. Perfect match!

These cakes are very easy to make. The coffee taste is a bit more dominant than I am used to, maybe because there is no chocolate in it and most receipes I know use the coffee to support chocolate taste. The second unusual experience is that it is a bit spicy due to the black pepper and fresh ginger.

It is a bit uncommon, but really good and very seasonal.

For the recipe, have a look at Dorie Greenspan's book on pp. 247/248or head over to our host's blog Karen: Karen’s Kitchen Stories.

TWD: Gingered Carrot Cookies (and TWD-catch-up: Chewy Chunky Blondies)

It's the last day of my holidays. I spent some days in Riga and some in Frankfurt, visiting a friend, and today I had a final day off back in Vienna, which I love, because it gives you the possibility to come back, wash your cloths, have a final day of relaxation. And to do your baking "duties".

So I am going to make it short and simple, what is even the easier, as the Gingered Carrot Cookies, chosen by Natalia of gatti fili e farina where really easy to make (find the recipe at her page in case you don't have Dorie's book). They came together faster than fast, they baked much faster than the recipe said (about 10 mins for the first rack and the later batches even faster). And they are oh-my-gosh-good!


Natalia is one of the few Europeans partcipating in TWD and I got some helpful and great tips and hints from her about how to adapt the recipes to European conditions - thanks a lot! I am always wondering how other Europeans made it their way to TWD and I am always curipus to see what my "fellows" are choosing.

Carrots and ginger might not sound like a summer recipe, but they are indeed! Now that I tasted them I even think they are a pretty good pick for summer, because they have no chocolate and are a mix between sweet and savory.
Love them!

I will make an even quicker catch up for last week's recipe, the Chewy Chunky Blondies. I was on the road last week but I pre-made them, not at least because I adore Blondies - I even like them more than Brownies. Can you believe that you can't get Blondies round here? I have so far never seen them in Austria, Germany or France where I spent most of the last years. And I ate my first Blondie in February in NYC. Really. Not kidding.

Those were just great and I will have do re-do and re-do and re-do them again and again. My collleagues loved them. I adored them. So, thanks a lot to Nicole of Cookies on Friday for chosing them - I didn't post them in time, but I baked along with you!