Chewy Ginger Cookies

Can you guys tell that I have a baking problem yet? I really do. After not having a kitchen to really use for over a year I tell myself that I'm making up for it now. Anyway, this will be a short and not-too-sweet post about some delicious ginger cookies. They stay chewy and aren't overly sweet. I'd recommend them for the holidays... or if you're a spiced cookie fiend.

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Chewy Ginger Cookies

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Preheat oven to 350°F 3/4 C butter, softened 1/4 C granulated white sugar 1 large egg 1/2 C molasses 2 1/4 C flour 2-3 Tbsp ground ginger 2-3 Tbsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp cracked black pepper 1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter with the sugar in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and then the molasses. Sift the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. I would taste the dough at this point and probably add more spice than I listed here because I actually like spicy cookies. Note that you can also add more granulated sugar into the butter. I don't like overly sweet cookies and I felt like the molasses did the trick. Everyone agreed they were perfect but it's up to you! :) In your palms, roll balls just smaller than a ping pong and slightly flatten (about 1/2 to 1/3 inch thickness) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. You can sprinkle the cookies with coconut or even roll in sugar and cinnamon like a snickerdoodle. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes and consume hot with milk or the next day with whipped cream and ice cream. I'm already salivating.

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If you want to try rolling these cookies out and using cookie cutters, I suggest you chill the dough for an hour or so because it's quite soft.

Quick Apple Turnovers

I bet you guys are tired of seeing recipes for triangle shaped carbohydrates at this point but I swear this one is stupidly fast, cheap, and amazing with all things considered. It's just a little bit past 1 AM as a write this and a big plate of apple turnover dumpling things are hovering in my vision just over the laptop screen. This will ultimately mean disaster, but presently means I've been good enough to resist eating all of them already. I'm so ready to pop one of those babies in the toaster tomorrow morning. Sinful.

Earlier this evening I came home craving apple pie. Pies are sort of messy to make, plus I didn't want to be tempted to eat the whole pie so I reluctantly vetoed that idea and moved onto apple dumplings. Apple dumplings are awesome but as I started rummaging through the fridge looking for ingredients I spotted a roll of crescent rolls. Yep, that's right, those delicious, fattening, fake doughy air things. Bingo! The light went off in my head, instead of making full on apple dumpling dough, I'd wrap the apples in crescent roll dough. Wrong.

What I ultimately ended up doing was going to be way faster to bake: dice an apple, add some stuff, make a crescent roll dumpling sandwich thing. Bake. Amazing. I might be a genius... or I might just be a gigantic food whore.

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Quick Apple Turnovers

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Yields 4 turnovers Preheat oven to 375°F 1 crescent roll package 1 medium apple 1 tsp cinnamon 1 Tbsp honey

Dice apple into 1/4 inch cubes. In a bowl, combine apples, cinnamon, and honey. On an ungreased baking sheet, lay out four of the eight triangles of the crescent roll dough. Scoop the apple mixture onto the triangles, place a remaining triangle on top of each of the prepared triangles. Seal the sides by pressing them together with your fingers and stamping with a fork. Place in the oven on a center rack for 11 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot or toast tomorrow.

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Fun fact: the grand total price of these was about $3. And the time they took to make from start to consumption was about 20 minutes. There's a hash tag for that and it's "#winning".





I'm really still unsure of what to call these apple delights. Maybe just apple delight but I've definitely run though the gamut:

Apple ______

1. Hot Pocket
2. Turnover
3. Ghetto Dumpling
4. Dough Triangle
5. Wedges
6. Poptart Triangle
7. Delight
8. Sandwich

Yeah, I clearly did not stop while I was ahead. Call them what you want.

Single-Pan Apple 'Popover'

I'm used to making popovers in a popover pan, which, for those that are unfamiliar, looks much like a muffin pan but has much deeper wells so the popovers can rise. The popovers I know are much like Yorkshire pudding, or hollow rolls that are muffin shaped and are primarily egg based. They take quite a while to cook and bake at two different temperatures that results in an amazing crisp outside and a doughy yet hollow inside. Yum.

When I saw a recipe for a single popover cooked in a pan I thought to myself, that's too easy! I decided to take the recipe for a spin and of course had to adapt it a bit. The result was something unlike the Yorkshire pudding-like popovers I am used to and are more like a breakfast dish I call German pancakes (which are in fact, not German at all). The single-pan apple popover still rose but was more dense than its traditional counterpart. Don't get me wrong, it's still scrumptious and satisfies a sweet tooth, just completely different than a traditional popover!

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Single-Pan Apple 'Popover'

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Preheat oven to 425°F Fruit Mix 3 medium-large apples 1/2 C blueberries 1 Tbsp butter 1 Tbsp honey 1 tsp cinnamon Egg Mix 3 large eggs 1/2 C milk 2 Tbsp butter, melted 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 Tbsp honey 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Slice the apples into 1/4 inch slices. On a stove top, heat the butter in an 8-9 inch oven-safe pan and add the apples, blueberries, honey, and cinnamon. Mix well and cook until the apples are just soft and remove from heat. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk, butter, vanilla, and honey. Add the flour and mix until completely smooth. Pour over the fruit mixture in the pan and place on a middle rack in the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes. Do not open the oven at any point in baking as the popover may collapse. You should see parts of the egg mixture begin to rise and turn golden. If the fruits are particularly watery, this may not happen, however, the mixture may begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and at this point, your popover will be near done. Remove the pan from the oven and serve immediately. The popover is great with some dusted confectioners sugar, whipped cream, or yogurt. Note: If the butter you use is unsalted, you may choose to add a pinch of salt. You can substitute the honey for sugar or any other sweetener you'd like.

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Whoops! This is totally a camera phone photo. When making a gigantic popover at 10 PM, there really isn't anything left in you to go pull out the DSLR.