When talk turns to holiday parties and cookie exchanges this December, we know one ingredient we'll be stocking on our pantry shelf: ginger. This quintessential cold-weather staple reigns over the baking kingdom each winter, appearing in everything from moist, tender cakes to those beloved gingerbread men.
Used together or separately in recipes, ground, fresh and crystallized ginger give wintry baked goods a bold backbone, a hint of heat and a faintly exotic appeal. "Ginger is warm and aromatic — it's a cozy spice. And it works well with rich, dark flavors because it is so assertive," says Grand Central Bakery's co-owner and cuisine director, Piper Davis.
At Grand Central, Davis puts ginger into play in gingerbread, Christmas kugel cake and three types of cookies: ginger molasses cookies, crisp gingerbread people and sandy ginger oat shortbread. To partner with Davis' shortbread (see accompanying recipe), we scoured the latest crop of baking books for gingery recipes to add to our repertoire.
The search yielded a selection of recipes that riff on classics to cater to modern tastes. But traditionalists needn't worry — we wouldn't dare neglect all our old favorites. After all, you can't go wrong gifting gingerbread men this time of year.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Oregonian (Portland, OR).
