ginger crunch with stem ginger

It's that time of year again, where most of the things I bake start including spices. So here is one of my favourite NZ recipes; Ginger Crunch(with my little twist).

 

 

If you like ginger then this recipe is definitely for you. I recommend using fresh ground ginger because other wise you will have to add a lot more than needed.

If you like something really gingery then I recommend adding stem ginger, cut up finely and a little bit of the syrup to the icing. I used two pieces of stem ginger and about a tablespoon of the liquid. Personally after baking with the stem ginger in, I won't go back to the original recipe, without the stem ginger.

I like a firm but not crisp base with this, but if you wanted you could cook it for longer on a gentle heat, to get a crisper base. If you wanted it even crisper try adding cornflakes to the base.

 

Ingredients

 

125g butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. golden syrup

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground ginger

 

1. Preheat oven to 180° c.

2. cream butter, sugar and golden syrup together until, light and fluffy.

3.sift flour, baking powder and ginger together and add to the creamed mixture.

4.press into slice tin and bake for 20 mins or until golden brown.

 

ice while hot with icing below.

 

Ingredients

 

85g butter

1 1/2 cups of icing sugar

2 T golden syrup

1 tsp. ground ginger

(x2 pieces of stem ginger with syrup, optional)

 

1. melt all ingredients in a saucepan and spread over base while hot.

2. leave to cool and set.

3. enjoy

Halloween cupcakes: Salted caramel spiderweb cupcakes

I love Halloween. Correction i used to.

No longer a kid, means that unfortunately i can't dress up as a witch, with itchy purple hair and long black gloves with red fingernails stuck on. Instead i have to stay at home, moping. while my sister gets to go out 'trick or treating'.

But fear not, to all those people who aren't kids or live in America. These bad boys certainly make up for the free sweets and taste even better.

Salted caramel cupcakes with salted caramel icing. Trust me this icing is just like heaven on a spoon, try to ice all of the cupcakes before tasting the icing because ... once tried you will want to gobble it all up.

The cupcakes are made with dark sugar to give the caramel flavor, though because of the dark sugar they are denser than most other cupcakes. I used salted butter so added only a tiny bit of extra salt but if you want caramel cupcakes use un-salted butter and don't add any salt. 

The icing....A bowl full of heaven. Salted caramel sauce but in icing form!If you want to create the spider web effect, just reserve some of the caramel sauce before adding the icing sugar. Then ice the cupcakes but don't pile the icing up to high.Then create a swirl pattern on top with the sauce then with a toothpick or a skewer draw a line from the centre outwards, then repeat until you have created a spider web design.see below.

ingredients

-190 g plain flour

-3/4 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt 

-200 g dark brown sugar

-100 g caster sugar

- 115 g unsalted butter, softened 

-2 large eggs

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-120 ml whole milk 

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line tin with cupcake cases.
2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and vanilla. sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, until no flour remains. Slowly stir in the milk.
3. divide the mixture between the 12 cases.Bake cupcakes for 22-23 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. cool before icing.

Icing

Ingredients

- 115 g salted butter

-200 g dark brown sugar

-80 ml double cream

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-240g icing sugar, sifted

melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add brown sugar and double cream. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved. Add salt. Allow to bubble for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Do not place in the fridge to cool. Beat in icing sugar. If wished create spiderweb design.

Caramel centred cookies

As so as I saw these, I knew I just had to bake them. With oozing nutella and caramel, with a touch of sea salt making it liked salted caramel(which is probably the my most favourite food, in the whole wide world). 

The salt is of course optional: Both of my sisters, to my annoyance took the salt off. You could easily change the chocolate spread inside with a nut free spread if you have allergies, or one with a different nut. 

For the caramel I used a square of Cadburys chocolate with caramel, but there are plenty of other caramel centred chocolates or you could try a salted caramel/caramel sauce: Make sure its a thick sauce or you seal the edges really well.

Ingredients

110g butter

350g light brown sugar

55g cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

260g all-purpose flour

100g milk or dark chocolate chips

good quality salt, for sprinkling

1/2 per biscuit of nutella 

1 caramel-filled chocolates per biscuit

 

1.Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C)

2.In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Take off the heat and stir in the brown sugar and eggs.

3.  add the cocoa, salt and baking powder and stir until well combined.

4.Add the flour and stir until no floury patches are left.

5. stir in the chocolate chips.

6.Take 1 heaped tbsp of dough, use your finger make a large indentation the centre of the dough.

 7.fill the indentation with a small blob of nutella and square of caramel-filled chocolate. Top with a flattened tablespoon of dough, and seal the edges.

8.Sprinkle with salt and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Recipe from 'Topped with cinnamon'.