What I've made this week:
Pomegranate chicken(Gluten-Free Girl's recipe), roasted garlic mashed potatoes, honey mustard glazed brussel sprouts.
Beef stew, balsamic glazed brussel sprouts
Steak tacos with homemade salsa (I'm a salsa snob. I refuse to eat the jarred junk)
Gingersnaps (these were fantastic! Spicy and chewy. Perfect for fall)
I might post the recipes for all of these things at some point but right now, I'm going just going to do the gingersnaps because they are pretty great.
I took the recipe that David Lebovitz's post on Chez Panisse Gingersnaps and made some changes. Yeah, I messed with Alice Water's cookies. Shame on me. In my defense, they are some rockin cookies! I had bought the pomegranate molasses at the store for the above mentioned pomegranate chicken and I was so excited about it, I had to use it right away. I threw in quite a bit more spice, too.
Here's my recipe.
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
11 tablespoons butter, salted or unsalted, at room temperature
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 large egg, at room temperature
Granulated sugar to dip prior to baking.
1. Stir together the dry ingredients.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter just until soft and fluffy. Add the sugars and continue to beat until smooth, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides of the bowl.
3. Stir in the vanilla, both types of molasses and egg.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients gradually until the dough is smooth.
5. Divide the dough in two equal portions and roll each on a lightly-floured surface until each is a not so odd shaped log. Make sure they aren't too thin otherwise you'll have tiny cookies.
6. Wrap each in plastic wrap then roll them lightly on the counter to smooth them out. Refrigerate, or freeze the dough until firm.
7. To bake, preheat the oven to 350F. I pull out my trusty Pampered Chef pizza stone. I haven't burned a cookie since I started using this thing. I am looking to get another at some point to expedite my cooking baking process. (Christmas, hint hint).
8. Slice cookie dough into rounds a little larger than 1/4-inch rounds with a knife. Dip one side and press firmly in a bowl of sugar if you want, and place on the baking sheet, evenly-spaced apart. Leave a couple of inches en cookies since they'll spread while baking.9. Bake for 10-14 minutes, until deep-golden brown. The cookies will puff up a bit while baking, then settle down when they're done. Bake on the lower end of the range for softer cookies, and more for snappier ones, depending on your oven. I like mine chewy!
10. Let the cookies cool two minutes, then remove them with a spatula and transfer them to a cooling rack.
