Baking Class - Introduction to Nutmeg and Mace

This is a little bit of an odd Top Ten list, but I thought I'd take you through my baking cupboard (yes, I have an entire cupboard dedicated solely to baking supplies...um, and another cupboard...and a 4-tier rolling rack...but I digress). Since a Top Ten list would make this blog post too long, I'm splitting the posts up into several individual posts, showcasing one spice at a time.

Next up: NUTMEG AND MACE!

The nutmeg tree is an evergreen tree that is native to both the Spice Islands of Indonesia, and Kerala, India, and is important for two spices from the same fruit; nutmeg and mace. 
 

Nutmeg is the seed of the tree, and mace is the dried, lacy, waxy red covering around the nutmeg seed, commonly known as the aril.  They both have similar, yet distinctly different flavour profiles; nutmeg is described as slightly sweeter, whereas mace has a more delicate, sweet-spicy, peppery flavour.

Like most spices, nutmeg is recommended to be purchased whole, then ground or grated with a fine-holed grater as needed. Whole dried mace is referred to as a blade, and is preferred for fine cooking and baking but is not readily available whole. However ground mace is still very fragrant and worth buying.  Mace is often used for dishes to impart a bright mustard yellow hue, and nutmeg is used in many sweet and savoury dishes; nutmeg is a traditional ingredient in mulled wine, mulled cider, and eggnog. Both spices are even main ingredients in Scottish haggis! (*blergh*)

"If it's no' Scottish, it's CRRRAP!"

Many people have heard that nutmeg can be a drug; however, in low doses, nutmeg has no drug-like effects. In its raw form, large doses of freshly grated nutmeg can induce a psychoactive response, such as delirium, hallucinations, visual distortions, euphoria, and paranoia. However, before anyone starts injecting or snorting heroic amounts of nutmeg on the strength of my breathless prose (/sarcasm), the downside to a nutmeg "high" can include dizziness, nausea, convulsions, palpitations, dehydration, dry mouth, bloodshot eyes, and memory disturbances.

Woo, good times...

Ok, enough about that! Let's get some recipes on this post so you too can experience the (totally legal) joys of nutmeg and mace!

Spicy Gingerbread Cake

Yield: One 9-inch square cake (12 to 14 servings) 

Original recipe courtesy of Stephanie Jaworski at joyofbaking.com

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes 

*Note: All ingredients (except whipping cream) are presumed to be at room temperature*

• 2 1/4 cups cake & pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground mace
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• Zest of 1 lemon (outer yellow skin of lemon)
• 1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
• 1 cup (240 ml) milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.  Butter and flour a 9 inch cake pan with 2 inch sides. 
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and all the spices.
3. In bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the lemon zest and molasses and beat to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the dry ingredients and milk, alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Beat just until incorporated.
   
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing cake from pan.  Let cool completely.
5. To serve, whip cream with vanilla until thickened, then sprinkle icing sugar over cream in steady motion until cream is at a medium to stiff peak. Serve squares of gingerbread cake with dollops of sweetened whipped cream.

Baking Class: Introduction to Ginger

This is a little bit of an odd Top Ten list, but I thought I'd take you through my baking cupboard (yes, I have an entire cupboard dedicated solely to baking supplies...um, and another cupboard...and a 4-tier rolling rack...but I digress). Since a Top Ten list would make this blog post too long, I'm splitting the posts up into several individual posts, showcasing one spice at a time.

Next up: GINGER!

Ginger is fantastic; used for centuries to relieve all sorts of ills, ginger has been an ancient and revered medicine in Indian and Asian cultures for thousands of years. This knobbly rhizome (commonly referred to as ginger root, though it is not actually a root) is available in several forms and preparations, and is used in millions of medicinals, tinctures, and both savoury and sweet recipes. It is inexpensive in most parts of the world compared to many other spices, and a little goes a long way.

Ginger is considered an herb when used for medicinal purposes, but its fresh, dried, ground/powdered, preserved, pickled. and crystallized forms are considered spices when they are used for flavouring.  For the purposes of this post, I will not be writing about dried, pickled, or preserved ginger, as they are used mainly for either savoury recipes (dried), sushi (pickled) or Asian confections and baking (preserved).

The flavour profile of ginger is peppery and slightly sweet, with a pungent and spicy aroma. Fresh ginger and ground ginger have significantly different flavour profiles, however, and are not usually interchangeable with one another in a recipe, although they can be used together.

As for its medicinal preparations, ginger combats several types of inflammation very effectively, and most popularly has been used to relieve the symptoms of gastric upset since time immemorial; ginger ale (especially flat) calms down an irritated stomach lining and soothes heartburn. For more information on the health benefits of ginger, you can check out this article.

Ginger root is the original plant form, and as mentioned above, it is the rhizome, or underground stem of the plant as opposed to seeds or pods like most spices. Fresh ginger should be firm to the touch, have no darkened, dried out or icky-looking nodules, and be fairly weighty in your hand. Discard any ginger that doesn't conform to this, as it is either old or diseased.   

Fresh ginger is very fibrous and quite intensely spicy to the tongue; when deciding whether to use fresh ginger in a new recipe, use discretion in how you prepare it. Nobody wants a huge chunk of spicy ginger fibers stuck in their teeth or tickling their trachea!  A good rule of thumb to go by is if it's to be strained out of the final preparation (for example a tea or an infusion), then sliced or diced is fine, but if using directly in any other good, sweet or savoury, finely grating the root with a Microplane-style fine grater is always best to remove or break down as much of that fiber as possible.

Ground ginger is very common in many baking recipes and Asian cooking, though I'll only be speaking about baking recipes (so nyeah). I've noticed that ground ginger seems to make its most memorable appearances during North American Thanksgiving and European Christmas holiday seasons, starring in such classic favourites as gingerbread men and pumpkin pie. Commercially ground ginger is usually quite good, and it's worth having some in your cupboards; as always, store in a cool, dry place (not the fridge or freezer!), and use up your stash within 6 months to a year, before the flavour fades.

Crystallized or candied ginger is delicious on its own as a snack, a "natural" breath enhancer, or an alternative to Tums or Pepto Bismol. It's also great to bake with, as you can imagine! The candying process "softens" the fibrous rhizome slices, and preserves them from drying out or going bad for months.

You can easily make your own candied ginger with little more than a basic kitchen set-up and a couple of hours of your time; here's a link to a great recipe for Candied Ginger by one of my culinary heroes, Alton Brown. However, if you prefer to purchase your ginger pre-candied, then there are some stores that sell good quality candied ginger.  Try to find an unsulphured version if you can; although it's not as shelf stable as sulphured ginger, I find it does taste better.  In the US, I believe you can find the unsulphured version at Trader Joes, and in Canada, Bulk Barn sometimes has an unsulphured candied ginger available. For online sources, I would check Penzey's Spices in the US, and Vanilla Food Company in Canada.

And now for a true ginger recipe that showcases all THREE types of baking ginger; fresh, ground, and crystallized.  I present to you my own creation, Triple Ginger Fruitsations Cookies!

...ok, the name still needs work.  I'm still quite proud of them, however; I created them for a cookie contest back in 2008 and I won 3rd prize, so not bad, eh? *beaming smile* Sadly, the photo of these marvels has been lost to the sands of time, but if I get around to making these again, I'll be sure to post a pic and update this post!

Triple Ginger Fruitsations Cookies

Original recipe by A.J. York, Owner, Sweet Surrender Desserts

Yield: 36 cookies

• 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda, dissolved in 4 tbsp boiling water
• 2 cups + 2 tbsp cake flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp finely grated fresh ginger root
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup crystallized ginger, finely diced
• ½ cup dried fruit, finely diced (ex. cranberries, apricots, mangoes, cherries, and/or raisins)
• Extra dried fruit for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare pans by covering with parchment paper or non-stick silicone sheet (Silpat).
2. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Add dissolved baking soda and mix until combined, then flour, salt, ground and fresh ginger.  Mix until thoroughly combined.  Add vanilla, crystallized ginger and dried fruit mix to dough and mix briefly to combine.
3. Form dough into 1 tsp. sized balls and place about 3" apart on prepared pans (they spread).  Press each ball down with a flat-bottom glass dipped in granulated sugar; decorate each flattened cookie with a small amount of reserved dried fruit and crystallized ginger.
4. Refrigerate for ½ hour while on pans, or until firm.
5. Bake for about 15-18 minutes; rotate pans halfway through baking time.  These cookies brown quickly, so keep an eye on them in the last minutes of baking.
6. The cookies will be very soft when straight out of the oven; let cool on sheet on baking rack for 5 minutes, then transfer gently to rack until completely cool.  Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks. 

Top Ten List: Favourite Food Bloggers

When I started this list, I didn't realize that my favourite food bloggers were virtually all women, but there you go.  (Apologies to David Liebowitz; for the record, Not A Woman).

Bakerella (Angie Dudley) - This woman's passion for cakepops and making the most adorable little edible characters using nothing but her imagination and incredibly vast collection of decorating candies always gives me hope!

The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) - Ree, the mastermind behind the Confessions of a Pioneer Woman website, will always be one of my very favourite writers whose site I visit when I'm feeling down or uninspired. Her food, people, and landscape photography, her friendly and approachable writing about her family and friends, and especially her amazing recipes(!!!) always feel like comfort to me.  And of course, there's always Charlie, the doe-eyed Basset Hound.

Sprinkle Bakes (Heather Baird) - I just started following this website last year when I picked up her new book, and was completely wowed by her talent!  Ms. Baird started out as an artist, and then segued into food artistry, with amazing results.
Her recipe book, SprinkleBakes, is excellent and so beautifully designed and photographed; in fact, her Colourful Swirl Cookies were so lovely, I even made them for my wedding dessert table!  I strongly recommend her book to anyone who's looking for great recipes that are a little different.

Cookies and Cups (Shelly) - I started following C&C via Facebook a month or two ago, and I have been impressed by her ever since!  Her recipes make me want to raid my cupboards and start baking in the middle of the night.

Love and Olive Oil (Lindsay and Taylor Landis) - I joined the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap last year and came into contact with the Love and Olive Oil blog (who co-hosts the event) for the first time. I highly recommend reading this addictive and beautifully laid-out blog!






 

Tartelette (Helene Dujardin) - Helene's food photography, presentation, and recipes are some of the most beautiful and modern I've seen. I try to gain inspiration from her writing when I'm feeling blah and like I'll never amount to anything in this blogosphere.

David Lebovitz - One of the great food writers, Mr. Lebovitz has a great sense of what people like, for lack of a better term. From age 16, he worked his way up the culinary ladder as both a professional Chef and Pastry Chef; he worked with the famous Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, a super swanky restaurant in Berkley, California for nearly 13 years. He has been living and writing from Paris (one of my most favourite cities in the world) on a full-time basis since 1999, so he has a wealth of experience to share in his writing and numerous cookbooks.

The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle (Callye Alvarado) - Oh, what can I say about Sweet Sugar Belle???  Callye's cookie designs are SIMPLY AMAZING and I fall at her feet in awe at her talent.  I just started following this blog through Facebook, and I can guarantee you that I drool over each and every one of her creations!  So incredibly talented!

Sally's Baking Addiction (Sally McKenney) - Another blog I have started following through Facebook (notice a trend?), I really enjoy her writing and that she develops most of her own delicious recipes; she even has her own book! I'm also hugely impressed that she gave up a career in Finance to pursue her blogging full-time! There *is* hope!

Confessions of a Cookbook Queen (Kristan Roland) - Lastly, but not least, I fell into this blog through Facebook (there I go again) and came to really enjoy the writing style and the recipes!  While the writer may not have a fancy Pastry degree, she knows her sweets, and her food photos look scrumptious.