Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Wonderful! Congrats to all.

Amy

Pete,

That is a direct quote from Yvette, our local daughter-in-law. She should know, she helps lib with gum past figures and painted fondant.

Tim

ps: I better not let Lib read these responses....

Whoa! How great!
Jes, any chance I can wrangle the ginger biscotti recipe out of you?

Phoenix - Sure, but keep in mind I just made it up today.

Triple Ginger Biscotti


2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons molasses
1 ½ tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
½ cup crystallized ginger, minced

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment, then oil.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground ginger together into a small bowl.

3. Whisk sugar and eggs to a light lemon color; stir in molasses, fresh ginger, and crystallized ginger. Sift the dry ingredients over egg mixture and fold in until dough is just combined.

4. Halve dough and turn each portion onto prepared cookie sheet. Using flour hands, quickly stretch each portion of dough into a 13x2-inch log, placing them about 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Pat each dough shape to smooth it. Bake, turning pan once, until loaves are golden and just beginning to crack on top, about 35 minutes.

5. Cool the loaves for 10 minutes; lower the oven temperature to 325°. Cut each loaf diagonally into 3/8-inch slices with a serrated knife. Lay the slices about ½-inch apart on the cookie sheet, cut side up, and return them to the oven. Bake, turning over each cookie halfway through baking, until crisp and golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes. Transfer biscotti to wire rack and cool completely.


This was based on some biscotti recipes from the January '94 issue of CI (Steve Johnson - author) and various Triple Ginger Cookie recipes from around the web. It was too liquidy; I had to add about 1/3 cup of flour to make it workable. I think next time I try it, I will use 2 eggs and 1 yolk. If that is still too sloppy, I'll try it with 2 eggs. Basically, I mean to try this recipe many times, because it turned out pretty dang good. I just ate more biscotti than I care to mention dipped in a cup of Trader Joe's Vanilla Cinnamon Tea. Yum.

Oh, and of course the egg-sugar mixture will not get "lemony" in color, nor will the finished biscotti be golden brown. Just look for the cracks (They will be very little.), but be careful; they burn easily. I think it might be the molasses.

Wow, very nice. Gonna do the competition this year?

No Fuzzy,

Our Festival of Trees supports a local hospital by auctioning the donated trees and gingerbread houses. Sadly, her houses were being sold for $100 - $200. Sometimes the materials cost over $100. She also donated a small house to her PEO sisterhood that would generate $700 in raffle tickets for college scholarships.

Lib decided to develop a downtown gingerbread house raffle in conjunction with a series of Downtown Springfield Holiday Walks. The houses will be displayed in a number of shops and restaurants with a ballot box raffel. $5 per ticket and all proceeds will go the the Springfield Area Arts Council. Most of the funds will provide artists in residence programs at local schools.

She is making 10 houses and two friends are each donating houses. Their goal is $4.000.

The other quality gingerbread house builders have moved their houses from the Festival of Trees to Belleville, IL for a downtown competition with $500 prizes. This competition is kind of silly since they permit houses constructed of wood, foam board and aluminum foil with frosting painted over the exterior. Kind of a sham.

Tim

Awesome job!

Lu

Thanks Jes. Looks great!

Very Nice!

Beautiful....I wish I had the patience to do that!
Ilene