Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. I haven't made Christmas cookies since discovering I had a gluten sensitivity, a sad, sad situation that many gluten-free folks experience. Learning a new kind of baking is scary, and all it takes is one flop to make sure you never make another attempt.

For me, I just never tried. I figured I could never compete with my grandma's gingerbread recipe that I grew up with, and the idea of duplicating her perfectly tender recipe without using wheat flour threw me for a loop. This year, I got over myself. And guess what? The gingerbread cookies I made were nothing short of incredible.

There's a trick to working with gluten-free dough, since it's much stickier than doughs made with wheat flour. It needs to be kept chilled, and once it's been cut with cookie cutters, moving it from one place to another is nearly impossible because it likes to hang onto to everything it touches. The best way to work with gluten-free cookie doughs is to roll it out between two pieces of parchment and then stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once it's chilled, you can cut out your shapes with cookie cutters.

At this point I recommend removing the excess dough to be re-rolled, and then cutting the parchment around the cookies with a pair of scissors. The cookies can then be moved without contorting into ridiculous shapes, and since they're on parchment, they won't stick to the cookie sheet after they're done baking. Once they're done, I move the baked cookies while they're still secured to the parchment, leaving them on the paper until they're completely cooled and not likely to break into pieces.

Also, I found the funniest cookie cutters I've seen in a long time: Fred & Friends Ninjabread Men Cookie Cutters. While you can buy them online, I got my ninjabread men at a local East Bay gift shop called Nathan & Co. This little shop carries a huge array of culinary gifts, and if you're looking for some last minute presents for the foodie in your life, I can't recommend this place enough. Another place to shop for gifts for the chef in your family is Urban Indigo, in Oakland.

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookies

Makes: About 2 dozen 3-inch cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/8 teaspoon guar gum
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sweet rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Icing and sprinkles for decorating

Recipe method:

1. With a stand mixer or electric hand beater, beat shortening, sugar, xanthan gum, and guar gum until well mixed. Add in egg yolks and beat for 1 minute, then add vanilla and molasses and mix until well incorporated.

2. Add gluten-free flour mix, sweet rice flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and salt. Beat until you've got a smooth dough. Roll dough out between two pieces of parchment until it is 1/2-inch thick and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Remove dough from fridge and cut with cookie cutters. Remove the excess dough from between the shapes and cut the parchment around the cookies with a pair of scissors. Gently move the cookies with their attached parchment to a cookie sheet and place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to keep the cookies chilled. Repeat until you've used up all the dough.

4. Once all the dough has been cut with cookie cutters and the shapes are arranged on a baking sheet, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350° while they are chilling.

5. Bake cookies for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving the cookies, with their attached piece of parchment, to a cooling rack. Allow to cool fully before decorating.

6. Decorate cookies by piping with your favorite decorating icing and then sprinkling with colorful sprinkles. The sky's the limit!

Looking for more gluten-free holiday cookies?
Gluten-Free Linzer Cookies
Gluten Free Gingerbread House
Gluten-Free Christmas Stars
Last-Minute Christmas Treats – Toffee and Ginger Chip Teff Cookies

Photo by Keelin Czellecz

100 pounds of sugar, 390 pounds of flour, 60 pounds of eggs, and 100 pounds of candy are among the ingredients for a ten foot tall gingerbread house at The Claremont Hotel Club and Spa. Last night at the Resort’s annual Holiday Open House, over 200 guests showed up to see the unveiling of the big gingerbread house. Also on the bill: Santa, carolers, snow, a 1967 Oakland Fire Department Parade engine (with holiday music), servings of hot cocoa, cider, candy canes, ginger cookies, and more. Charity was a part of the event: bins for toy and canned food donations were set up. Guests could also select ornaments from a Giving Tree to make a wish come true for a child in need.

Caroling in front of the Claremont's Gingerbread House

Executive Chef Josh Thomsen oversaw the construction of the gingerbread house, and Pastry Chef Janine Fong was responsible for the baking details. Thomsen said, "The structure takes a day to build. The rest is five days. We changed it up from last year." Thomsen was exuberant about a "homecoming" dinner (Thomsen is an East Coast native) he and his staff prepared recently for the James Beard Foundation in New York City. Thomsen has worked under Thomas Keller at The French Laundry, and was a StarChefs Rising Star Chef this year. Thomsen made sure to pay his respects during the NYC trip, and ate a twenty-three course Per Se dinner that lasted six and a half hours, "longer than the flight!" Thomsen joked. Full disclosure: This writer's brother Josh Ladd was a part of the Beard House crew.

One difficulty Thomsen and Fong ran into is how to replicate the Claremont, since it's "white all over," as Thomsen noted. The gingerbread house was brown in keeping with the gingerbread's natural color. White was used for the windows and surrounding clouds and snow. Claremont Marketing Manager Mickey Khangsengsing said the house's frame was stored with other decorations while Fong and her crew "baked and baked and baked."

Elisabeth Blackburn, age 7, and Ann Smulka admire the gingerbread goodness together.

Small gingerbread houses were created by Claremont club members, and were judged and displayed throughout the lobby. Elisabeth Blackburn, age seven, and Ann Smulka are club members and live nearby. The two were on hand admiring the varied gingerbread creations. Smulka said, "Some of our neighbors were in the competition."

Khangsengsing and other Claremont managers were the judges of the gingerbread houses. Khangsengsing looked for attention to detail. Citing one of her favorite gingerbread houses, she paused and said, "Look at that roof!" made of what appeared to be Necco wafers. "That took a long time to do.' Don't count on eating the results of any of these gingerbread houses, though; it's best to look, but not touch gingerbread that has been sitting uncovered for days.

Full Disclosure: Mary Ladd’s brother Josh Ladd is the Claremont's Executive Sous Chef.

Butternut Squash Soup with Gingerbread and Brown Butter

I recently revisited one of my favorite cozy neighborhood gems, Firefly, and was just smitten with their Fairy Tale Pumpkin Soup with Gingerbread Crouton, Golden Sage and Brown Butter. The flavors were spot on. Roasted butternut squash pureed to a luxurious, velvety texture, seasoned with brown butter and caressed by warm sage notes. It reminded me right away of a soup I discovered awhile back in Thomas Keller's Bouchon.

BOUCHON by THOMAS KELLER (Artisan Books) Copyright 2004. (Photo Credit: Deborah Jones)

TK's Butternut Squash Soup with Brown Butter, Sage and Nutmeg Crème Fraîche had a similar weak-in-the-knees-good effect on me with its layers of rich, harmonious flavors and that ethereal silkiness. (I connected the dots when I learned that Keller influence wasn't incidental. Firefly's new chef, Henry Zamora, previously trained at the French Laundry.)

With hot soup and butternut squash season upon us, I was inspired to recreate Firefly's fanciful rendition with homemade gingerbread. The gingerbread "crouton" was less of a typical crunchy crouton and more of a deep, dark, sticky square of dense bread, so my first step was to find a great recipe for gingerbread.

Black Sticky Gingerbread

I struck spicy sweet gold with Regan Daley's (In the Sweet Kitchen) Black Sticky Gingerbread recipe.

Ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice

The fragrance of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves filled the house as the bread baked up, instantly elating my mood and prematurely transporting me to Christmas time and fireplaces.

Grandma's Molasses

Plus, the combination of dark unsulphered molasses, local sage honey, brown sugar, and plenty of butter resulted in just the kind of gingerbread I looking for. Tall, dark, and handsome (minus the tall…and ok, the handsome…but definitely deep, dark, and rich). I'm for sure tucking this recipe away for the holidays – little mini loaves would make a pretty homemade gift.

With the gingerbread under my belt, I turned to my tried and true recipe for butternut squash soup from Bouchon. My one minor change: the gingerbread was so good I wanted it to shine on its own as the only accompaniment, so I omitted Keller's nutmeg-spiked crème fraiche and fried sage leaves garnish. I did, however, definitely keep in the finishing drizzle of brown butter. Giddy-up.

Butternut Squash Soup with Gingerbread and Brown Butter

Butternut Squash Soup with Gingerbread and Brown Butter

The soup portion of this recipe is excerpted from BOUCHON by THOMAS KELLER (Artisan Books). Copyright 2004.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:
One 3- to 3 1/2-pound butternut squash
2 tablespoons canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 sage sprigs
1 cup thinly sliced (1/8 inch thick) leeks, white and light green parts only
1/2 cup thinly sliced (1/8 inch thick) carrots
1/2 cup thinly sliced (1/8 inch thick) shallots
1/2 cup thinly sliced (1/8 inch thick) onions
6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 tablespoons honey
6 cups Vegetable Stock, plus extra if necessary
Bouquet Garni
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter
Black Sticky Gingerbread

Preparation:

For the soup:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2. Cut the neck off the squash and set it aside. Cut the bulb in half and scoop out and discard the seeds. Brush each half inside and out with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of the canola oil. Sprinkle the cavities with salt and pepper and tuck a sprig of sage into each. Place cut side down on the baking sheet and roast for about 1 hour, or until completely tender.

3. Remove the squash from the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle, then scoop out and reserve the flesh (discard the sage).

4. Meanwhile, using a paring knife or sharp vegetable peeler, peel away the skin from the neck of the squash until you reach the bright orange flesh. Cut the flesh into 1/2-inch pieces (these will be pureed, so don't be concerned if the pieces are irregularly shaped). (You should have approximately 4 cups diced squash.)

5. Put the remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat, add the leeks, carrots, shallots, and onions, and cook, stirring often, for about 6 minutes. Add the diced squash, garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook gently for 3 minutes, reducing the heat as necessary to keep the garlic and squash from coloring. Stir in the honey and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the stock and bouquet garni, bring to a simmer, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the squash is tender.

6. Add the roasted squash and simmer gently for about 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Remove from the heat and discard the bouquet garni.

7. Transfer the soup to a blender, in batches, and puree. Strain the soup through a fine strainer into a bowl or other container, tapping the side of the strainer so the soup passes through. (Do not skip this step. Straining it is what gives this soup its incredible texture.) Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning. Let the soup cool, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

To complete:
1. Reheat the soup. If it is too thick, add a little more vegetable stock.

2. Heat a medium skillet over high heat. When it is very hot, add the butter and rotate the skillet over the heat as necessary to brown the butter evenly, scraping up any bits that settle in the bottom. As soon as the foaming has subsided and the butter is a hazelnut brown, pour it into the pot of soup, reserving some to drizzle on top of the soup as a garnish. (Be careful not to leave the butter over the heat too long, as it can change from rich brown to black in seconds.)

3. Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Top each with a piece of gingerbread. Drizzle the remaining brown butter over the top of each bowl.

Gingerbread men from Noe Valley Bakery

According to The Journal of Antiques, Gingerbread has been around for centuries, first appearing when the Medieval Crusaders returned from the Middle East bringing back spices, sugar, and citrus fruits. Then, Catholic monks started adapting the ingredients into themed cakes and carved cookie boards. Today, the ingredients and method are much the same, although the shape and presentation obviously differ. For this post, I visited many of my favorite local bakeries to check in and see how they'll be adapting the seasonal favorite this year. From the standard to the standout, here are a few treats that I'm pretty sure will warm your spirits in the weeks to come.

Noe Valley Bakery: A Simple Man

If you're looking for a good, standard gingerbread man, Noe Valley Bakery has you covered. Since 1995, they've been supplying Noe Valley and environs with holiday treats including housemade pies, profiteroles and their unbelievable stollen. And of course, those gingerbread cookies. What I love about their gingerbread men is the flavor and size. They don't shy away from the spice: the clove and molasses flavors shine through immediately and they're a mere couple of inches--perfect for a cup of tea in the afternoon. The men are simply decorated with a few white buttons and a smiley face--and even better, they're affordable at $1.50/each.

Welcoming storefront of Noe Valley Bakery

Noe Valley Bakery
4073 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 550-1405
Hours: Weekdays 7am-7pm, Weekends 7am-6pm

Citizen Cake: The Maverick Men

Elizabeth Falkner and team don't disappoint when it comes to less-than-traditional desserts. And the holiday season is no exception. They're offering Bikini Gingerbread Joes and Janes (they were sold out of Joe's both times I went, so I settled on a tasty Jane) handpainted in festive bikini attire. The guys and gals are larger in size than others I sampled and they're certainly pricier at $4/each. But they're nice in that they feel light--often gingerbread cookies can seem more like dressed up bricks rather than edible delights. So Citizen Cake offers a fun, refreshing take on a holiday classic. If that's your thing, go grab a few (they go fast).

Gingerbread Jane from Citizen Cake

Citizen Cake Patisserie

Citizen Cake
399 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 861-2228
Hours: Tues.-Fri. 8am-10pm, Sat. 10am-10pm, Sun. 10am-6pm.

Tartine: Old World Tiles

Glazed gingerbread tiles ($3.50) are a favorite at this much-beloved Mission bakery. The tiles are a bit more cake than cookie, rolled out with a decorative rolling pin, and lightly iced. Aesthetically, there's something very traditional and old-fashioned about them until you take a bite: that's when you're hit with notes of cocoa and even black pepper. The tiles are beautiful, substantial, and have an interesting taste composition making them one of my new favorite holiday treats. I do recommend having them warm if you can--this allows the crumb to relax a bit and the flavors to really come through. If you don't have time to enjoy your gingerbread tile inside the bustling café, take a few home. They travel incredibly well (and freeze nicely, too).

Tartine Frosted Gingerbread Tile

Tartine
600 Guerrero Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Cafe Hours: Mon. 8am-7pm, Tues.-Wed. 7:30am-7pm, Thurs.-Fri. 7:30am-8pm, Sat. 8am-8pm, Sun. 9am-8pm

Sweet Things: The Traditional Cake

Bikini-clad men and tiles aside, gingerbread really originated in cake form and no one's doing a nicer one this year than Sweet Things Bakery in Tiburon (they also have a location inside Cal-Mart at 3585 California St. in San Francisco). The cake to ask for is the seasonal Gingerbread Star Cake. It's a dense bundt ginger cake made with the usual suspects: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and molasses. It's topped with a modest glaze and then sprinkled with crystallized ginger. I've long been a fan of the cakes at Sweet Things (have you tried their lemon cake?!), and this is a truly authentic representation of a holiday favorite. You can pick up a whole cake or just a slice ($2.75)

Spiced Gingerbread Star Cake at Sweet Things

Sweet Things
1 Blackfield Drive
Tiburon, CA 94920
(415) 388-8583
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 7:30am-6pm, Sat. 8:30am-6pm, Sun. 9:30am-5pm

Miette: An Update...with Frosting

If you haven't yet heard, Miette is closing two of their retail locations at the end of this month. The utterly delightful, original candy shop in Hayes Valley will soon be no more. I always loved how the confections seemed like delicate jewels on display--like objects worthy of spending a little extra money on and savoring. Thankfully, the shop in the Ferry Building and their new space in Oakland will remain open. Once I heard the news, I decided I must visit the Octavia St. location often, while I still could. Good excuse, right? So I've had three of their gingerbread cupcakes this past week. In my humble opinion, it's one of the more perfect cupcakes I've had in a very long time. They're incredibly light and moist while still relaying that dark molasses flavor balanced with the subtle sweetness of the cream cheese icing: genuine gingerbread with a modern twist.

Hayes Valley's Miette sweetshop & the lovely Gingerbread Cupcake

Miette
449 Octavia Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 626-6221
Hours: Mon.-Sun. 11am-7pm

Honestly, does anyone really like honeycake? I mean the old-fashioned kind, brown and frumpy, made with honey and coffee and served in damp slices after the roast chicken and brisket, or with tea and paper cups of Manischevitz after Rosh Hashanah services? It's traditional, sure. Honey is, after all, as important on the table for the Jewish new year as hoppin' john and greens are on New Year's Day down south, one promising sweetness, the other prosperity. Every newspaper food section trots out a recipe at this time of year, all promising moistness! nostalgia! as good as Bubbe's!

And yet I've never met anyone who really likes it. I love honey enough to have written a whole book about it, but even the recipe in my own book didn't thrill me. It wasn't until I started my own tradition of Rosh Hashanah dinners that I realized, with great liberation, that as an adult with her own kitchen I never had to serve, or eat, honey cake again. Instead, good honey would be enjoyed as a appetizer at my table, slathered on homemade challah or scooped up with slices of apple.

But still, it seemed necessary to end the meal with something sweet and spicy, with the festivity that only cake can provide. Not chocolate, not cheesecake (that's for Shavuot, when dairy foods are mandated). Something autumnal with apples would be nice, or pears, even poached quinces. For the cake itself, well, what could be better than gingerbread? Now that's something that everybody likes, and rarely gets anymore, muscled out of the homemade-dessert pantheon by the hegemony of brownies and oatmeal cookies. For a dark, strong gingerbread, use molasses; for a lighter one, use a full-flavored dark honey or cane or sorghum syrup.

The idea for turning the gingerbread upside-down over a caramelly topping of brown-sugared apples came from a wonderful cooking class up at The Apple Farm in Philo, halfway to Mendocino in the Anderson Valley. A nicer way to spend a weekend, especially in the fall when all their organic apples are ripe and ready for picking, I can't imagine, and I still use many of the recipes that Sally Schmidt taught us over those 3 days. I've tinkered with the original recipe since then, but the concept is hers, and I never make it without thinking of walking through the orchards or watching the ducks pick their splay-footed way through the herb garden. Sweet abundance, rich harvest: what better to invoke at the beginning of a new year? L'shanah Tovah!

(Better than Honeycake) Upside Down Apple Gingerbread

Using a one-two-three punch of ginger gives this cake complexity and depth. But it will still be delicious with just the powdered spices, as long as your spices are fresh and flavorful. If the same jars have been sitting over the stove since last Rosh Hashanah, chuck them. Or even better, empty the jars, wash them out, and refill them with bulk spices from Rainbow Grocery or Bombay Bazaar. Store them in a cool, dry, dark place, like a pantry or kitchen drawer.

Topping
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2-3 apples or pears, peeled, cored, and sliced

Cake
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
4 tbsp butter
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup molasses or dark, full-flavored honey, such as buckwheat
2 tsp grated fresh ginger (optional)
1 tbsp chopped candied ginger (optional)
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9” cake pan or 8 x 8 baking dish. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter and brown sugar together, stirring until smooth and gooey. Pour into greased pan. Arrange apple slices in concentric rings over sugar mixture, squeezing them together closely since they will shrink during baking. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine boiling water and baking soda; set aside. Sift or whisk together dry ingredients; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter until soft. Add brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in molasses and fresh and candied ginger, if using. Beat in egg. Gently fold in flour mixture. Stir in baking soda and water.

4. Pour batter over apple slices in prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

5. Let cool on wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife along the sides to loosen. Invert on a large plate. (It’s a good idea to invert it while still warm, otherwise the caramel hardens and it can be hard to get out of the pan). Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

About a month ago I came home to this intriguing note:

"OK Eggbeater, your food blog kept me interested for hours. But the recipe that the world REALLY needs is for your gingerbread...so when can I look forward to that? sd"

I laughed out loud. SD is Stephen Durfee, pastry chef from my time at The French Laundry. A wild and wacky fellow with energetic ideas and a personality riding just this side of mayhem. Suffice to say we were at times near opposite ends of the wall containing our illustrious department. I learned to take chances working for Stephen. He taught me to verbally "grade" my work so that we could both track my improvement. And he pushed the envelope of "shoulds," supporting and nurturing in me my own "what ifs" and "why nots." We created desserts with bacon, dressed fruit and nuts with virgin oils and worked dark to dark sometimes months in a row without a day off.

The day Stephen learned he had been nominated for the James Beard award for best pastry chef he called to thank me. I was puzzled. "For what?" I inquired. "For supporting me. I didn't win this nomination on my own," he explained generously.

Stephen was the last pastry chef I worked for. It was his nest I was pushed out of, propelled just down the road to Bouchon. Stephen was who I leaned against when I couldn't figure out how to make something work. He gently and almost inperceptibly transitioned out of being my boss and singular mentor to becoming a fan of my desserts, asking me for my recipes. Here in lies one of the differences between a chef who can share and a chef who needs to maintain her/his egotistical, maniacal power over their cooks. For are we not comprised of where we came from, the gifts others give us and that which we pass on? We keep what we have by giving it away.

My professional cooking started out as foreplay; sensual descriptive romantic words tempted, lured and seduced me into hot searing kitchens. Laurie Colwin held me rapt at attention, first with her novels, later with real life stories of cooking and entertaining in her first Greenwich Village apartment, a space so tiny it had neither dining room nor kitchen! Down to earth and hysterically funny, Colwin spoiled me with extremely well-written prose about an ecclectic and eccentric mix of edible subjects. In the foreward of her first book she reminds us we are never alone whilst cooking. In citing which authors kept her company at her own stoves, I was cordially introduced to Jane Grigson's Fruit Book, which remains, to this day, my favorite book, my go-to location for inspiring, elegant fruit ideas and beautiful anecdotes.

Edward Behr let me in on his secret: be not afraid of obsessively and passionately uncovering every detail about one ingredient. Research apples, cream or eggs to their very point of origin and then live in the library to learn more. Ronni Lundy wrapped me in her warm Southern arms, shared stories from old-timey hollers, presented family recipes and photographs, beguiling my modern mind with comforting foods. Biscuits so simple I learned early on that a recipe is nothing without learned hands. Hands timid and reverant enough to honor simple is not simplistic.

Yes, baking is about paying close attention. But it's also about taking chances. Making the pie dough you fear. Sharing tiny tasty whimsical cookies. Becoming crazy with happiness and delight at the sight of a souffle rising.

In a repetoire of hundreds of recipes I've made, tweaked, learned, and taught, I am very very proud of a small handful. Ones I brought from belly crawl to walk. Recipes which crept into dreams quietly whispering, or came wafting through dusty old library stacks, never settling, souls in limbo, teasingly, like the one you can never catch during hide & seek. Taste memories.

My gingerbread is one of these such recipes. In both Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin's two books of compiled Gourmet Magazine essays, Ms. Colwin dedicates a chapter each to gingerbread. A sweet considered old world, the gingerbread, she sadly notes, has gone out of fashion.

"...gingerbread made from scratch takes very little time and gives back tenfold what you put into it. Baking gingerbread perfumes a house as nothing else. It is good eaten warm or cool, iced or plain. It improves with age, should you be lucky or restrained enough to keep any around." Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking.

Every word of her two odes to gingerbread is true. Make the following recipe if you don't believe me. Shuna's Famous Gingerbread can be made in any baking vessel, metal or ceramic. It sits proudly on the fence between sweet and savoury. In one mood I eat it toasted with runny cheese, another with chocolate ice cream. It can be haughty beside creme fraiche, will bed a poached pear or get in the ring confidently with a perfectly ripe August Stilton. A strong restaurant plated dessert component, this gingerbread keeps and strengthens in character over the course of a week. And you don't need a Kitchen-Aid!

I will reiterate that recipes are guides. Over many years of making gingerbread from various sources I took all my favorite traits and their corresponding results, combining them into one recipe. Please don't let the amount of ingredients scare you. Although it's a tall order, many substitutions can be made, and in the end it can just be an excuse to make too much. Friends and co-workers of mine rarely complain that, yet again, I have made more than what my own small household can decently consume.

SHUNA'S FAMOUS GINGERBREAD

18 ounces All Purpose Flour
6 ounces Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
3 Tablespoons + Ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Ground Cardamon
1 teaspoon + Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 teaspoon *optional: Ground Coriander*

8 ounces Unsalted Butter
3 1/2 ounces Blackstrap Molasses
6 ounces Simple Syrup **recipe in instructions** you may substitute Lyle's golden syrup or light corn syrup

3 each Large Egg Yolks
2 each Large Eggs
8 ounces buttermilk you may substitute sour cream or use a mixture of them both to create the eight ounces

Suggestions: Use the freshest, organic if possible, ground spices. Rainbow Grocery is a fantastic source for buying small amounts in bulk. Keep spices away from light and heat in your kitchen and try to use them up within 6 months of purchase date.

**To make simple syrup place equal parts sugar and cold water in saucepan and bring to a boil until mixture is clear. For a thicker syrup boil for at least 10 minutes or increase the amount of sugar. For this recipe 1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 cup water will be sufficient.**

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Butter desired baking vessels. {Sometimes I coat with raw or white sugar inside as you would flour for a cake.}
3. Sift all dry ingredients except salt and pepper into a large bowl
4. Whisk in salt and pepper until mixture is uniform and create a "well" in center
5. In a medium non-reactive saucepan bring butter, molasses and simple syrup to a boil slowly {this mixture is feisty and will boil over if the heat is on too high or your saucepan is crowding it}
6. In another bowl whisk together egg yolks, eggs and dairy
7. When mixture on stove comes to a boil, shut off heat and let rest for a moment
8. Pour this hot mixture all at once into the center of your bowl of dry ingredients
9. Using a whisk, mix dry ingredients into liquid, from center out, carefully
10. When batter begins to seize, pour in second bowl of wet ingredients
11. Whisk batter until smooth and uniform. Batter is loose
12. Pour batter a little over halfway into buttered baking tins
13. I set my first timer for about 15 minutes, {unless you are making muffin-size or smaller}, so that I can turn the pan around for a more even bake
14. Gingerbread is done when sides pull away from the pan, middle bounces back to the touch and/or a cake-tester inserted in the center comes out clean
{From this recipe I made one cake pan, one loaf, and it took about 35 minutes}
15. Cool at least until warm before slicing.

And now for the fantastic final detail/hint. You may turn this recipe into a "mix"! Assemble one recipe of just the dry ingredients. Weigh mixture and jot it down. You can keep mix in the cupboard for a rainy day and bake any fraction of it which suits you. This gingerbread is spicy and warming. A perfect, not-too-sweet confection for the coldest month of the year. Happy 2006!