Finale of Cooking The Breakfast Book, Chapter 12: Soft Gingerbread

With the close of a year, so too ends my Cook the Book adventure. Thank you so much to my fellow chefs and blog pals: Emily, Natasha, Rachel and Claudie and Sammy. Through a chance meeting at an event, we continued to bond over German sausage, Spanish tapas, drinks, lots of recipes and a love of breakfast! It's wonderful to count five new friends through a shared experience, even if we have yet to cook together. I still want to have a group gathering where we each cook or bring our favorite recipe from the book and indulge together. Who knows, 2013 is a brand new year and full of promise...

Appropriately, I feel like I am going out with a bang on this project. The Soft Gingerbread is perhaps my favorite recipe so far; mouth-watering and wholly satisfying. This dark, spicy, perfumed deliciousness is dense but airy, nicely sticky and not-too-sweet.

I know this will become a go-to recipe for me and have already touted its worth to multiple friends.

The key ingredient

Spices + molasses = magic

Bubbles begin to emerge from the start

After blending

Mixing in the dry ingredients

Air pockets galore

Freshly baked gingerbread smells really really good

Show me your best side

A born crowd pleaser

Soft Gingerbread
Makes one eight-inch square gingerbread (and then some)
Adapted from from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham  

1 cup sugar
1 cup dark molasses
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and lightly flour your baking pan. I actually ended up with enough batter for an eight-inch square plus a small loaf, so be prepared for extra.

Add the sugar, molasses, oil, and eggs into a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. From the start you will notice a lot of bubbling, which makes this project extra fun in my book.

In another bowl, combine the salt, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, flour, and baking soda and stir with a fork until well mixed. Stir into the first mixture and add boiling water. Beat briskly until smooth. Note this is a thin batter and will rise.

Pour into the pan(s) and bake 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm. For the record, it also pairs magnificently with ice cream (I suggest mint chip).

Lastly, in my opinion this is a recipe for all seasons, and many occasions. Enjoy it! 

Holiday Swap Recap

Festive swap decor (thanks Patricia!)

For me the December food swap was truly like the kick-off to the holidays. And it delivered some serious good times and cheer! Plus with everyone's delightfully decorated and presented goodies, it was even more than usual like taking home a storeful of presents.

Held once again at the lovely Patricia's Foodscaping space, we had both a great turnout and excellent diversity of foods.

The potluck tables quickly separated themselves into the sweet and savory categories, with lots of holiday cookies, breads and candies on the former and everything from lasagna to kale chips to fresh salsa and bean spread on the latter.

Talkin' swap

The swap tables filled up with a mouth-watering array too, which everyone ogled and sampled while sipping wine and chatting.

Here's the complete list:

Vanilla extract, pie dough, simple syrups, LOTS of yummy spiced nuts and mulling/toddy spices, lavender facial scrub, Christmas matzo, pulled pork, fresh salsa, marinara pasta sauce, vareniki (Ukranian dumplings), roasted red peppers, mini lentil pies and mini pumpkin pies, assorted preserves, cordials and mustards, fresh sushi, gingerbread bundt cakes, beef jerky, dried persimmons, spicy candied ginger, togarashi, salty sweet granola, flavored salts, Earth food nuggets, arugula pesto, pickled green tomatoes and pickled ginger, Meyer lemons, herbs and greens from the garden, and whew, ...did I miss anything?

Vanilla extract & lavender facial scrub by Cathy

Preserves & pickled green tomatoes by Robin

Pie dough, spiced walnuts & ginger simple syrup by Christina

Arugula pesto by Stephanie

Spiced nuts & red hot toddy spices by Jaemin

Fresh marinara sauce, salsa and pulled pork by Herb

Mulling spices by Jaemin

Spiced nuts by Shannon

Gingerbread bundts by Seri

Cordials & lemoncello by Kari

Sushi by Toshi

Earth Food Nuggets by Jessica

Vareniki (Ukranian dumplings) by Olga

Roasted red peppers by Jim

Pickled ginger by me

Host Patricia with garden fresh produce & pies

While some of the fresh stuff got devoured immediately (meaning as early as later that evening), I've also still been enjoying lots of stuff into the new year. For example the remnant roasted red pepper oil, garlic and spices became a great salad dressing base the other evening, I've been using a dash of the ginger simple syrup in bubbly water to wean myself off the holiday cocktail over indulgences, and may I recommend the candied ginger in oatmeal, cooked with raisins, and topped with a small pat of butter and some maple syrup? I'd love to hear some of the creations you've all made, so please comment below or share recipes etc. with everyone on Facebook.

I have even turned some of the swap goods into my own preserved items, like Meyer lemon curd, dried lemon verbena tea and tarragon pickled eggs {stay tuned for those write-ups soon}, so the food swap really is the gift that keeps on giving.

The next swap will be held in mid to late February, we'll announce the date the week of January 23rd, so stay tuned.

Swap on!

Puttin' on the Ritz: Decorating Tips for Food Swap Goods

We're a week out from our first Holiday Food Swap...and that's got me thinking about crafty ways to decorate our foodstuffs without breaking the bank.

If you're thinking about that too, let me offer some suggestions and ideas.

Who needs wrapping?

Jars:

While personally I think the true beauty of a jar of preserves (or any kind of food) is what's inside, sometimes a little dash of pizzazz can go a long way.

First up, labels. This may sound simple, but this can truly run the gamut.

#1 - Our lowest investment option is simply using a Sharpie and writing right on the jar or lid. And Sharpie ink comes off of glass with a little rubbing alcohol, so you can always clean your jar up at a later date if gifting it.

A simple label is nice

#2 - A step up from there is busting out some of the printer labels you probably have at home or at work. Cut 'em in fancy shapes or use them as they come.

Or, you could buy some canning-specific labels. Some jar cases come with labels but your local hardware store is sure to have a few different types as well. I personally like these ones which ACE Hardware sells for about the same price.

Maybe a trip to OfficeMax is the thing for you? Shipping tags can readily be repurposed into simple and attractive gift tags. I especially like these simple types that have an appealingly retro look and feel.

And while I've never even been inside a Michael's store, I know you can go label and gift tag crazy there. (C'mon Martha's got her own line of "embellishments" for the chain!)

#3 - There are a ton of free canning label templates out there to choose from. A simple Google search could get you lost amid the cyber craft world for a good long time. To save you some of that effort, I've selected a few from the community at large that I thought were the best.

1. The Kitchn rounded up 5 fabulously different templates
2. Sweet Local Farm has a very cute selection on their blog
3. Garden Therapy has various modern, decorative patterns
4. And while there's some duplication within Tipnut.com's collection, I especially liked the marmalade templates

So, if labels is the first category, the second one to think about is *bling*.

If you follow any of the preserving blogs and foodie community sites, you'll know that right now there's a lot of talk about decking out your homemade edibles.

One of the most well-known and entertaining is Well Preserved's Pimp that Preserve contest currently underway. Tune in for some creative and unique takes on the theme.

I also loved the jar toppers featured on You Are My Fave. I could even see filling these with other seasonal items like ornaments or pinecones and using them as holiday decor.

Bottles & Other Containers:

Patterned glassine bags for baked goods

1. Bag it up - Glassine bags lend themselves very well to baked goods and come in all sizes. You can also find cute patterned ones. May I suggest the stationery annex of Kinokuniya in Japantown? That's where I scored the ones I used for the biscotti at the last swap. Those bags, by the way, I had bought some time back and was just waiting for the chance to use them. Since the biscotti was a last minute addition to my swap lineup, voila enter delightful floral bags. These colored organza bags are also perfect for a no-frills, but more importantly no-fuss presentation.
2. When in doubt, apply ribbon! - You can go for the gold, or use red + white baker's twine, but ribbon almost always makes a package feel more like a special gift. Want to get all fancy on it? Check out this video on how to tie a bow. (I have a number of years at a florist in my work past, so bows like this come second nature to me. It was still kind of fun to watch the how-to video...) 
3. Stars Upon Thars - Make like the Sneetches and put a star on it! Easy to draw or cut out, I say a star makes things instantly festive. 
4. Go Green - Look to Mother Nature and garnish your goods with things from the garden. From a small bunch of herbs to a cluster of dried flowers to a pretty fall leaf...all of them are sure to please this crowd.
5. Sparkle Time - Now glitter may not be exactly what we're looking for, though I am certainly a believer that it can be used tastefully, but what about sequins? Lamé? Gilded paper? Even tin foil can be a winner.  
6. Scrap It - I confess that I keep all kinds of scraps of papers. Bits of leftover wrapping paper I really like, decorative paper bags and more; I've got a drawer full of it. And then some. But really, it does come in handy. (For example, check out the advent calendar I made this week out of scrap paper.) There are no limits to how you can get creative with paper. And you're recycling at the same time so it feels good too. 

Cone advent calendar, see here for how-to

Got more ideas? I'd love to hear them. And will hopefully see them at the swap next week. 

Speaking of which, is this going to be your first time coming to the swap? Check out our Swapping How-To page for some of the basics including a new request on how to label your jars. As always, shoot us an email at sfswappers@gmail.com if you have a question, or tap the valuable resource of other swappers and share your thoughts or questions on the Facebook page.

Hope this has stoked your creative fires a bit, but most importantly have fun and just do what you can. This is a busy time of year and food swapping is not supposed to be stressful. See you next week!