The Best Ginger Cookies EVER!! – Sugar Baby Review

Recently, I was sent “Sugar Baby Confections, Candies, Cakes & Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking With Sugar – By Gesine Bullock-Prado” in exchange for a review.   How lucky can one person be?  I was excited to rip open the package and dig this book out, and it does NOT disappoint!   Cooking with sugar can be scary, and while there are a few precautions you need to take, there’s a whole world of sugary confections awaiting you in this book!  This book will guide you through, and open up the world of cooking with sugar.  You’ll find notes from the Sugar Baby throughout the book, with tips on assembly, where to find products, the how’s and why’s and the likes to help you achieve the perfect results.

And, because Sugar Baby couldn’t contain every photo of each of the recipes in the cookbook, or the procedures the author (Gesine) has even set up a companion website to go with the “Sugar Baby” at sugarbabycookbook.com.   Here you will find more help on how to achieve the perfect results in what your making.  I was extremely pleased to know that if I got stuck, there was a place to go for help and guidance!

This is a fun book!  Not only in making the recipes, but in reading them too!  She’ll have you laughing out loud as you read through the book. I love her sense of humor.  She even gives us a recipe for Bubble Sugar that she claims is so much fun, you’ll be inventing excuses just to make it!

There are over one hundred sugary substances to make, organized by cooking temperature and sugar concentration.  While essentially all you need is a pot (a heavy bottomed stainless steel or copper and preferably a thermometer and a stand mixer) and some sugar your ready to rock!  From Rock Candy, (which I’m working on right now) Fudge, Caramels, sauces, candies, pralines, and cakes to puddings, mousses, and the ever so finicky Parisian Macaron’s!  It’s all in here. This is one of those must have books!  If you like sugar (and who doesn’t in one form or another) this is the book to reach for.   She arms us with all the information, not to mention motivation we need to get into that kitchen and transform sugar into delectable works of sweet confections and desserts.

I am a Caramel Fan, and went a little crazy with caramel making.  I made Fleur de Sel Caramels.

I followed the recipe, omitting sprinkling the salt on the top of the caramels, following the requests of family members.  But if you decide to sprinkle the salt on top, it’s heavenly!

I also made the caramel sauce, not only because I like it on Ice Cream, but because I wanted to make “The Jackie, OH! Cake!  This cake is a blast of chocolate.  With bittersweet chocolate in the cake along with a substantial amount of cocoa (1 1/2 Cups) this cake will satisfy any chocolate craving you may have.  The cake is moist and fudge-y and the frosting is to die-for! You make an Italian Buttercream, to which a cup of Caramel sauce is added! I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to frost the cake, my family kept taking a spoonful here, and a spoonful there! Then cake crumbs are adhered to the sides of the cake.  I decided to crumb the top of my cake also, just to savor every last crumb of the cake!

And last, but certainly not least I made: The Best Ginger Cookies EVER!! After making and tasting these I will have to agree, that these very well may be the best Ginger Cookies ever!

The Best Ginger Cookies EVER

This was one of my most popular cookies at my shop in Montpelier – it’s a molasses cookie with ginger aspirations.  The crystallized Ginger is the “chip” in the mix, and it adds a tang and a chew unlike any other ginger cookie.  The cookie itself, without the additional ginger chunks, is crisp around the edges, chewy in the center, and full of exotically spicy flavor. – Gesine Bullock-Prado

From: Sugar Baby

2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

3/4 cup molasses

2 eggs

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 cup chopped crystallized ginger

1 cup sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and molasses until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and six spices.  With the mixer on low-speed, gently add the flour mixture.  Be very careful not to overmix; stop the mixer just as you are positive that the flour is completely incorporated.

Fold in the crystallized ginger and chill the dough, covered, for a few hours or overnight.

Using a large cookie scoop, scoop the cookies and dip them in sanding sugar so that they are completely coated.  Place the cookies on a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches (5cm) apart to allow for spreading.

Bake for about 15 minutes.  The cookies will crack a bit but should still be soft in the middle.  Place on wire racks to cool.

Makes approximately 30 cookies.

You can find the Author (Gesine Bullock-Prado) baking and cooking sugar at her website too!  You’ll find recipes, how to’s, humor, step-by-steps and the link to order her confectionery’s!

What are you waiting for, get in the kitchen and do some sugar cooking! You’ll be glad you did!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Bouquets for Mother’s Day

This weekend, my beautiful nieces came over on Saturday to create something for their Mother for Mother’s Day.  We baked, cooked, cut, shaped, molded, dipped, twisted, poured, split and built our Mother’s Day presents.   The Grand kids had a blast helping and making their mom a present too.  We all agreed that we would do this project again.  This was time consuming, and it was a trial by error, but the end results were worth all the fuss we made.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Vases

Materials needed:

Large Strawberries

Good Quality Chocolate

Wooden Skewers (Or heavy gauged Floral Wire Sticks)

Green Floral Tape

Red & Green Grapes

Plastic (or real) Greenery

Plastic (or real) Roses, assorted colors

1 Glass Vase

1 Roll of Ribbon, to tie around the vases and make a bow

Wash strawberries, and dry completely. (It is really important to make sure strawberries are completely dry. Any water on the strawberries will make the chocolate seize).  Thread Red and Green Grapes (We put 5 on each stick. Six if they were small grapes) on to the heavy floral sticks and refrigerate until needed.  Melt Chocolate (we used Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate) in the top of a double boiler, set over a pan of simmering water.  Add 2 Tbsp. (we used 36 oz. chocolate, dipping 48 strawberries for a dozen in each vase we made) of Vegetable Oil, and stir chocolate until chocolate is completely melted and the chocolate is smooth with no lumps remaining.  Thread Strawberries onto skewers and dip in chocolate. Swirl skewers to remove excess chocolate and stick the skewers into Styrofoam to set. (We used a salad spinner basket for this, using the slots in the basket of it to hold up the skewers, and it worked really well). In the meantime, while the strawberries are drying, put your greenery, roses (or any flowers you might like) in the vase.  If you were unable to find heavy duty floral sticks, you will need to wrap 2 skewers together (that’s what we had to do) with the green floral tape. Add the strawberries and grape sticks. Tie a ribbon around the vase, and their ready for gift giving.  Give to recipient as soon as possible. Strawberries need to be eaten within 48 hours. They will weep if they sit too long. My niece’s added a nice touch and added colored sand and colored glass stones to their vases.  We bought all supplies at Michaels Arts & Crafts.

The vases turned out beautiful and all Mom’s receiving these were very very happy.  I had a Great Mother’s Day. I hope you did too.  Happy Mother’s Day to All Mother’s I hope you all know just how much you are loved and appreciated.  Tomorrow, I will post the Tuxedo Cake we made for Mother’s Day for my sister. It’s a beautiful cake and tastes as good as it looks!

Fleur De Sel Caramel

Smooth, Soft, Silky, Melt in your Mouth, to die for Caramel!! You haven’t lived until you’ve made homemade caramel!! I really have no words to describe it, and it’s addicting!! Very Addicting!!

Fleur De Sel Caramel

slightly adapted from: Foodbeam

360 grams Sugar

140 grams Light Karo Syrup

40 grams Water

6 grams Fleur de Sel (Salt)

140 grams High Quality Salted Butter

400 grams Heavy Cream, scalded

1 Vanilla Bean, Split open and seeds scraped into cream

Line a 9X9 inch pan with aluminum foil, leaving over hangs so you can take the candy out of the pan when cooled and ready to slice. Spray lightly but throughly with non-stick spray and set aside.  Measure out all of your ingredients and set out within easy reach.  Combine Sugar, Karo Syrup, Water and salt in a high sided stainless steel saucepan. Stir briefly to loosen and melt sugars together. Cover with a lid, and over moderate heat, bring to a boil. Meanwhile, pour heavy cream with vanilla seeds in a small saucepan and scald. Keep warm. When the lid on the sugar mixture is nicely covered with condensation, remove the lid and set aside. (This step helps wash any sugar crystals on the side of the pan to be washed down, to help prevent it from crystallizing). Cook, without stirring until the contents of the pan are a light amber color. (DO NOT, STIR FOR ANY REASON!!) Remove from heat and add the scalded cream and the butter. When you add the cream the mixture is going to bubble up, which is why you want a high sided pan. Also, you should have long sleeve shirt on and wear mitts, just to be on the safe side, as sugar burns are extremely painful). Stir until completely incorporated. Put the mixture back on the stove and cook, until it reaches 252 degrees. (Do not turn heat up too high. I used my burner at about 60% which was slightly over the number 4 on my electric range. Your burner could vary. My point is, you shouldn’t really have to stir your mixture, if you are at the right temperature, and heat semi-slowly. I kept a whisk at hand, and checked by stirring, every so often, to make sure nothing was sticking).  Remove from heat, and pour into prepared pan. Let set at room temperature about 3 hours. Remove Caramel from pan, and cut into squares or fingers to serve.

We stored ours in ziplock baggies, cutting the caramel into long chunks to be cut further at the time of serving.) Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

The first time I made this, I cooked the Caramel to 248 degrees, but found it to be too soft. (Really good, but I wanted mine a little firmer).  This time I cooked it to 252 degrees and took it off the burner, and whisked it vigorously to help cool the mixture down a little. The top temperature my caramel reached was 253 degrees. I found this to be perfect consistency for our liking.