I always think of ginger when it comes to holiday baking, so I decided to make two types of ginger cookies for our holiday party. Both are from Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie: Triple-Ginger Pecan Biscotti and Ginger Bites.
The three types of ginger in the biscotti are ground ginger, fresh grated ginger, and chopped crystallized ginger; the recipe headnote says that "These are the gingery-est ginger biscotti you'll ever find." To make the dough, you beat softened butter with sugar; add eggs; beat in the fresh grated ginger and vanilla; add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, ground ginger, salt, and black pepper); and stir in the chopped crystallized ginger and pecans.
You form the dough into logs, bake them until lightly browned, and then slice the logs and bake the cookies again until they're toasted and dry. The biscotti were visibly chock full of nuts and crystallized ginger. I was expecting them to be quite spicy, especially because the recipe calls for so much fresh ginger, but the strong ginger flavor was not harsh at all. I thought that the biscotti were very good but I also thought they had too many pecans -- the nuts were a little distracting and threatened to overshadow the ginger. But the biscotti were a big hit with our party guests, so I consider them a success.
Boyle's Ginger Bites are slice-and-bake shortbread cookies. The dough is a mixture of softened butter, sugar, brown sugar, crystallized ginger, lemon zest, flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. You form the dough into a log, chill it until firm, and then slice and bake. I thought that these cookies were pretty, with translucent pieces of crystallized ginger dotting each one.
These shortbreads were rich and buttery, with a good amount of ginger flavor. I preferred the shortbreads to the biscotti because they were richer and more decandent. But both of these cookies were terrific additions to our holiday party menu.
Recipes: "Triple-Ginger Pecan Biscotti" and "Ginger Bites" from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle.
Previous Post: "Aloha, Delicious!: Gingery Macadamia Biscotti," January 7, 2014.
The three types of ginger in the biscotti are ground ginger, fresh grated ginger, and chopped crystallized ginger; the recipe headnote says that "These are the gingery-est ginger biscotti you'll ever find." To make the dough, you beat softened butter with sugar; add eggs; beat in the fresh grated ginger and vanilla; add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, ground ginger, salt, and black pepper); and stir in the chopped crystallized ginger and pecans.
You form the dough into logs, bake them until lightly browned, and then slice the logs and bake the cookies again until they're toasted and dry. The biscotti were visibly chock full of nuts and crystallized ginger. I was expecting them to be quite spicy, especially because the recipe calls for so much fresh ginger, but the strong ginger flavor was not harsh at all. I thought that the biscotti were very good but I also thought they had too many pecans -- the nuts were a little distracting and threatened to overshadow the ginger. But the biscotti were a big hit with our party guests, so I consider them a success.
Recipes: "Triple-Ginger Pecan Biscotti" and "Ginger Bites" from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle.
Previous Post: "Aloha, Delicious!: Gingery Macadamia Biscotti," January 7, 2014.
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