Turkey and Sweet-Potato Hash

I got this recipe what seems like ages ago (April 2007, apparently!). I had printed it out after seeing it in Martha Stewart Living, and had been stalling on making it because I try to eat lactose-free whenever possible, and this recipe has cream. But now that I’m finally using lactase drops, I decided to go ahead with it, and I was quite pleased with the result. Then again, how wrong can you go with a recipe that starts with cooking an onion in butter and then adds cream? I’m discovering cream all over again! But for one thing, I will cut smaller pieces of food next time. Also, if you are using 15% cream instead of 35% cream (like me, since the thicker cream can’t mix with the lactase properly), you might need to add a little cornstarch mixed with water to the mixture toward the end of the cooking period, to make it thicken up a bit. worry about presentation too much, though – after all, this is hash.

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small wedges (no more than ½-inch thick)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
1 medium onion, halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into ¼-inck thick slices
2 celery stalks, cut into ¼-inck thick slices
½ cup dry white wine
2 cups cooked turkey breast, shredded
½ cup cream
½ cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp freshly-chopped sage
salt and pepper



Place the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until just tender, about 7 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat 2 Tbsp butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add apple; cook until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.



Add the remaining 2 Tbsp butter, onion and celery to the skillet; cook until slightly softened, about 10 minutes.



Add wine and cook until liquid has mostly evaporated. Add turkey, potatoes, cream and stock. Simmer until sauce is creamy and vegetables are tender, about 12 minutes. Stir in sage and apple; season with salt and pepper.

To serve, you can spoon the mixture on whole-wheat toast and drizzle with sauce, or eat it as is.

Mikasa

I... don’t quite know how to write this post. I think it will be easier if I do it not by starting with the most important thing, but by doing it chronologically, because that’s how I experienced it.

The Engineer and I had a favourite sushi place, Masako (on Côte-des-Neiges, near the corner of Queen Mary). Sadly, it closed recently. We’ve been looking for a new place to call “our” sushi place, without much luck for a while. Then, last Saturday, we tried Mikasa (2049 Peel). We pretty much decided this would be it.

The décor was great, and the music wasn’t the prepackaged, stereotypical Japanese music many other places seem to be playing. We were sitting under the glass atrium window, in front. The ambiance was really nice. Price-wise, it was in the mid-range for sushi, but the quality of the food was superb. The showstoppers are really the specialty rolls (well, those are expensive, to be honest, so we limited ourselves to two). We had the Tentation, which contains tuna, avocado, mango and honey (among other things), as well as the Anaconda, which had delicious unagi. They were exquisite, and we kept thinking that we were going to have to come back regularly to sample the rest, as there is a wide variety and they all look so damn good. We also had mini maki (avocado, and a tuna tempura that was wonderful) and regular maki (vegetarian and unakyu). We ate like kings, but without feeling overstuffed. Really, it was like the perfect dinner.

Fast-forward to today, Thursday, at 6pm. A couple barely older than us is having dinner at Mikasa, in the atrium, presumably having just as good a time as we were having. Then, without any warning, a huge slab of concrete falls from the 18th storey of the Marriott Hotel – into the atrium of Mikasa. It kills the woman instantly and injures the man (I believe he lost some fingers). Just like that. And I keep thinking that we were just there. This could easily have happened to us.

There are certain times when one engages in behaviour that is known to be risky. If I decided to go run with the bulls in Pamplona, for example, I could expect a certain likelihood of injury or death. If I became a stunt-woman, it would be the same thing. But if I’m just sitting in a nice restaurant, enjoying a quiet meal with my husband... I assume I’ll be safe. One unlucky couple wasn’t. I can’t even picture what it would be like to suddenly – wham – be dead. Or to suddenly – wham – loose the man I love, and/or – wham – be permanently injured. I DON’T want to think about it. It’s absolutely horrible, what happened to these poor people.

So while I thought I would write a review to recommend the restaurant, it’s turned into something different. I don’t know when I’ll go back to Mikasa, but I know that I will (though there’s no way I’m sitting in the atrium again). In the meantime, I’ll snuggle a little closer to the Engineer and make sure he knows that I love him.

Americana Potato Salad

I based this recipe on one I found on Smitten Kitchen, namely Rosanne Cash’s potato salad (Rosanne being the daughter of the late Johnny Cash). I modified it a bit, because I don’t like pickles and I’m not crazy about dill either, but feel free to make the original if you want. I also didn’t use new potatoes this time, because our Metro grocery store has a pitiful selection and I didn’t have time to go looking elsewhere.

2-3 lbs potatoes, scrubbed, boiled until fork-tender, cooled and cut into pieces
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut into pieces
mayonnaise (eyeball it, to taste; I used homemade mayonnaise leftovers)
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
minced fresh dill, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Mix and serve. It doesn’t get any more simple than that!

Ranch Dressing

I got this great recipe from Gluten-Free Girl, and the reason I like it so much is that it can be made lactose-free! That’s usually not an option with store-bought or restaurant dressings.

You need mayonnaise for this. I decided to make my own. Over the years, I’ve tried two methods: the food processor and the stand mixer. Purists be damned, I say the food processor is easier and more fool-proof, so that’s what I recommend. You can start either with a few egg yolks or with a whole egg, that you process to mix. Then add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard and 1 tsp of salt, and process again. After that, you need to gradually incorporate 2 cups of oil: be especially careful with the first ½ cup, that you should incorporate about 1 tsp at a time with the motor running; you can add the rest in a very slow trickle, also with the motor running. I prefer canola oil, because it doesn’t have much of a taste; olive oil or sunflower seed oil would taste too strong in mayonnaise (though if you want, you can use ½ cup of either and 1 ½ cups of canola oil). Whatever you do, make sure your oil is fresh – this is the last place you want to use rancid oil. Once you use some of the mayonnaise for the dressing, you can always use the rest in potato salad, for example.

1 cup buttermilk (or lactose-free milk with lemon juice)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup plain yogurt (lactose-free, optional)
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste

Just mix all the ingredients and serve however you wish. The tastes really come together after a day in the fridge. Enjoy!

Penne with Five Cheeses

Note that this is the original title of the recipe, but you can pretty much adapt it to suit your taste or according to what you have on hand. This particular time, I made a Cavatappi with Four Cheeses, and it was really good.

You can make it gluten-free if you use gluten-free pasta (in any case, stick with short pasta).

You can also make it lactose-free if you choose your cheeses wisely and if you use lactase drops in the cream. In my personal experience, heavy cream (like 35%) is too thick to mix with the lactase drops, so you should stick with lighter cream (like 15%) if you want to make it lactose-free. If you want to omit the cream altogether, you can; just add a little more tomato sauce. For the cheese, I want to point out that I’ve now found lactose-free goat cheese, called Elite, made by Damafro (it is also low in fat). It’s opened up a world of possibilities for me! I just love goat cheese. With it, I used parmesan, sharp cheddar and Swiss cheese. There is also lactose-free Gouda on the market. Just know that processed cheese is usually not “real” cheese and most definitely contains lactose. The quantities below are those I have written down in my recipe binder, but I rarely follow them, they’re just guidelines.

½ lb pasta
½ cup of cream
½ cup canned crushed tomatoes
¼ cup grated parmesan or Pecorino Romano
¼ cup shredded cheddar or fontina
2 oz shredded mozzarella
2 oz shredded Gorgonzola or Gouda (if you don’t like blue)
3 oz goat cheese or ricotta
fresh basil leaves, chopped (optional, but it tastes better)

Preheat oven to 500 °F and bring two quarts of water to a boil.

Combine the cream, tomatoes, cheeses and basil leaves in a bowl.




Salt the boiling water and drop in the pasta. Boil until al dente, about 4 minutes, then drain well in a colander and add to the ingredients in the bowl, tossing to combine.



Divide the mixture in shallow ceramic gratin dishes or oven-safe bowls (mine are somewhat big, so they contain about two servings each, provided you have a salad on the side). Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until brown and bubbly on top. Serve.

Poppy Seed Cookies

This recipe is adapted from a cookbook called Second Helpings, Please!, which belonged to the Engineer’s Bubbie. There are handwritten notes in the margins of some recipes and food splatters in others; you can tell this book has been well-used (I’m now the third generation to make a recipe from it), and that makes it even more charming to me.

3 eggs, beaten
½ cup canola oil
¼ cup fresh orange juice (about half an orange)
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup poppy seeds
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven at 350 °F.

Blend eggs, oil, juice and sugar. Add poppy seeds. Sift dry ingredients together and add to batter. The dough should be fairly stiff.



Then, the original recipe calls for you to flour a work surface and roll out the dough to ¼” thickness, then use a cookie cutter to make shapes. I did one batch like that, and for the rest, I simply shaped them into discs. It’s less messy, and I think the dough could also be rolled into a log, refrigerated and then sliced into cookies. Bake for about 12 minutes, until the edges are golden. Makes about 4 to 5 dozen cookies.

First Anniversary

The Engineer and I recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary. :)

We spent the afternoon at Ofuro Spa, a wonderful thermotherapy spa in Morin Heights. We had received gift certificates from my cousin and his lovely wife as a wedding gift, so we used them to celebrate. We really loved the place, which we found both relaxing and invigorating. We tried wet and dry saunas (the hottest I remember experiencing), followed by a dip in the river, then hot tubs and cold ones, with lots of lounging around and a couple’s massage in between. What a treat!

We then had dinner at Leméac, which I had been dying to try. I had the panko crusted goat cheese with apple and walnut salad as a starter, while the Engineer had lobster and saffron ravioli in a tarragon bisque sauce. Both were delicious. I then had the roasted duck breast with date chutney. I was a little taken aback by the duck, but I think it’s because I’m used to serving it sweet (I often season it with nutmeg as well as salt and pepper, and the last recipe I tried had pears and honey). It was still good, though, and the chutney was wonderful. Hubby had the grilled Cornish hen with black olive polenta fries. Black olives and polenta, together? Those were the magic words for him. For dessert, I knew I absolutely had to try the pain perdu, then I got distracted by the Valrhona chocolate variations... We ended up ordering both and sharing. Both were truly wonderful desserts, and just for that, it would be worth going back. I was also intrigued by the coconut-basil sorbet, and I’ll have to try a variation of it with my anniversary present – an ice-cream maker attachment for our Kitchen Aid stand mixer. You’ll hear about it here when I do!

Over the course of the weekend (why celebrate only one day when you can have two or three?), we had leftover pieces of our wedding cake, which had been kept in our freezer for this occasion. It was a red velvet cake with white buttercream and an almond paste topping – and it still tasted great! :)

Rhubarb Meringue Tart

I was afraid I’d miss rhubarb season (it seems incredibly short in Montreal, for some reason). So I’d told the Engineer to pick up tons of it when he saw it at the local fruit stand (we can’t count on grocery stores to have any, in this neighbourhood). So look at the bounty he picked up! I’d never seen rhubarb so big in the city. That was 2 ½ pounds, which was used for this recipe as well as the strawberry rhubarb pie. I then bought another 2 ½ pounds and froze it for future use.



This tart is from Orangette. I’m so happy she is also using Martha Stewart’s pâte brisée! It’s validating my preference. Her recipe called for 2 pounds of rhubarb, but I found that was too much (I had leftovers). I’m writing down 1 ½ pounds in my recipe. Also, I don’t have a tart pan, so I used a springform pan.

I made this tart for a friend’s birthday party, and I didn’t have my camera over there, so there are no pictures of the pieces, but be assured that the filling held together quite nicely. Everyone there seemed to like it, too.

For Martha Stewart’s pâte brisée (for one crust)
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
a dash of salt
a dash of sugar
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/8 cup to ¼ cup cold fresh orange juice (substituted for the cold water in this recipe)

For the filling
1 ½ lbs rhubarb, trimmed and chopped into roughly ½-inch chunks
juice of ½ an orange
2 eggs, separated
2/3 cup plus ½ cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
¼ tsp cream of tartar

For the pâte brisée
Pulse the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add the butter and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add cold orange juice through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream until the dough just holds together, no longer than 30 seconds. Then turn the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough to fit into a 9-inch removable-bottom tart pan. Line the pan with the dough, cutting away excess. Press a sheet of aluminum foil gently into the lined pan, and fill the well of the pan with pie weights. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet, and bake until the shell is lightly golden and set, about 20 minutes.



Remove from the oven, discard the foil and weights, and allow the tart shell to cool.

For the filling
Put the rhubarb in a medium saucepan with the orange juice and heat gently until just softened and beginning to fall apart. (As you can see, I left it longer, because it seemed to make more sense for the texture I wanted to achieve.) Remove it from the heat.





In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a fork. In a medium bowl, mix 2/3 cup sugar with the flour and melted butter. Add the yolks, and stir briefly.



Place a sieve over the mouth of the bowl, and pour the cooked rhubarb into the sieve. Press the rhubarb lightly to drain off its juices, allowing them to trickle into the egg-sugar-butter-flour mixture. You should add enough rhubarb liquid to make the mixture into a smooth, runny paste.

Put the sieved rhubarb into the tart shell, spreading it evenly. Pour the egg-sugar-butter-flour mixture over it. Bake until golden and just set, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, and continue beating until the whites form soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining ½ cup sugar, beating until the whites are shiny and opaque. Spoon the meringue over the baked tart to completely cover the fruit.




Bake for 15 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly bronzed.

Allow to cool for 30 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, sliced into wedges.

Tarte aux fraises et à la rhubarbe

Quand j’ai sorti cette tarte-là du four, j’ai pensé : « My God! C’est ma plus belle tarte à vie. » J’ai pris la recette de pâte brisée de Martha Stewart, parce que je ne vois absolument aucune raison de me priver d’une recette à la fois ultrasimple et infaillible. Pour la garniture, j’ai suivi les indications trouvées dans un magazine (elles ne sont malheureusement pas en ligne). Il fallait 3 c. à soupe de tapioca à cuisson rapide, mais j’ai trouvé la garniture encore trop liquide à mon goût. Je donne donc ici les quantités de la recette, mais je vous recommande soit de mettre davantage de tapioca, soit de remplacer avec de la farine ou de la fécule de maïs, ce qui est plus traditionnel.

Pâte brisée de Martha Stewart
2 ½ tasses de farine tout usage
1 c. à thé de sel
1 c. à thé de sucre
1 tasse de beurre froid, coupé en petits morceaux
¼ tasse à ½ tasse d’eau très froide

Garniture
2 ½ tasses de rhubarbe coupée en morceaux de 1 cm
4 ½ tasses de fraises coupées en quatre
1 tasse de sucre
zeste d’une orange, râpé finement (facultatif)
3 c. à soupe de tapioca à cuisson rapide (ou plus)
1 c. à thé de beurre froid, coupé en cubes

Dorure
1 œuf
2 c. à soupe de lait
1 c. à thé de sucre

Pour la pâte brisée
Mélanger la farine, le sel et le sucre au robot. Ajouter le beurre et mélanger jusqu’à ce que la farine ait l’air de chapelure grossière, environ 10 secondes.
Pendant que le robot est en marche, ajouter l’eau en un mince filet jusqu’à ce que la pâte se tienne et forme une boule (pas plus que 30 secondes).

Séparer la pâte en deux et façonner chaque morceau en un disque. L’envelopper d’une pellicule de plastique et réfrigérer 30 minutes.

Sur un plan de travail enfariné, abaisser le premier disque de pâte jusqu’à ce qu’il ait une épaisseur d’environ ½ cm, pour qu’il soit un peu plus grand que votre assiette à tarte. Plier le disque en deux pour le transférer dans l’assiette. Déplier et couper l’excédent au bord.



Préchauffer le four à 425 °F.

Pour la garniture
Dans un grand bol, mélanger les fraises, la rhubarbe, le sucre, le zeste d’orange et le tapioca. Laisser reposer pendant 15 minutes à la température ambiante. Verser la garniture dans l’abaisse de pâte à tarte.



Parsemer de beurre.



Abaisser le deuxième disque de pâte et le mettre sur la garniture. Découper l’excédent de pâte et sceller les deux abaisses ensemble. Faire de petites ouvertures sur le dessus, pour permettre à la vapeur de s’échapper pendant la cuisson.



Pour la dorure
Mélanger dans un petit bol l’œuf, le lait et le sucre. Badigeonner le dessus de la tarte avec ce mélange.



Mettre la tarte dans le tiers inférieur du four préchauffé. Cuire pendant 10 minutes, puis baisser la température à 350 °F et poursuivre la cuisson pendant 40 minutes ou jusqu’à ce que la croûte soit dorée, et la garniture, bouillonnante (si la bordure de votre tarte dore trop rapidement, couvrez-la de papier d’aluminium et poursuivez la cuisson). Laisser refroidir la tarte sur une grille.

Strawberries and Dumplings

I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. To be honest, the dumplings here are not the stuffed kind I usually think of when I hear the word, but “Strawberries and Dumplings” somehow sounds much better than “Strawberries and Dough Balls”. Note that the dumplings do dry out quickly, but if you pour some of the strawberry syrup on top, you can remedy that quite easily. I loved this dessert, but the Engineer does not like desserts served hot, so he preferred this the next day, straight from the fridge.

4 cups strawberries, trimmed and thickly sliced
¼ cup sugar
juice of half a lemon
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
½ cup whole lactose-free milk
2 Tbsp unsalted butter or margarine

Stir together strawberries, sugar and lemon in a heavy saucepan and let stand, stirring occasionally, until juicy, about 15 minutes. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.


Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Heat the milk and butter together just until the butter melts.


Stir this warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth. Gather a golf-ball-sized portion of the dumpling batter onto a small spoon, then push the dumpling onto the stew using a second spoon. (I’ll admit it, I used my hands.) Cover the fruit with the dumplings, leaving about ¼ inch between each.


Tightly cover saucepan and reduce heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until dumpling looks dry on top, about 15 minutes; the dumplings will have doubled in size.


Let stand off heat, uncovered, five minutes, then serve.

Aprons!

Those of you who spend any time in the kitchen know how hard it can be to find an apron. A nice apron, that is. Most of what's offered in stores isn't appealing, and since I can't sew like my grandmother, I can't make one either. Sure, there are some online stores, but I find some of them too cutesy for my taste.

Now, however, I've got a winner. It's Domistyle! This place has some stylish and fun aprons at a reasonable price. These aprons are trully beautiful, and added bonus: they have adjustable neck straps! Also, delivery is very fast - I got mine three days after I ordered it, and one of those days was a holiday. I bought the Wild Orchid, which is black with a white design.


You can also buy Domistyle aprons in certain select stores - there is a list on the website. Unfortunately, there is no men's section yet, but there are aprons for children. There are also oven mitts and pot holders. I recommend you check out Domistyle!

Cheese Soufflé

I can’t help but start this with a warning. Not because it’s hard, but precisely because it’s not. I’m not sure when or why soufflé got a reputation for being so difficult. Then again, when I was taking my class at l’Académie culinaire, I was surprised at how many people not only had never made soufflé, but at how many people had actually never eaten it – and at the misconceptions they had about it. One woman thought that when you take a soufflé out of the oven, you must have absolute silence, otherwise the soufflé will collapse. I mean, can you imagine what would happen in restaurant kitchens when diners order a soufflé, if that were true? I can just picture the head chef going, “Alright everybody, SSHHHHH!!!” before opening the oven door. That would never work! Anyway, my point is that you really should not be intimidated by a soufflé, because making one is really quite easy.

Note that even though I used butter for this dish, I did not need Lactaid and did not get sick from eating the soufflé. That’s why I used the lactose-free tag here. I recently read an interesting article (two, actually) about the fact that there is very little lactose in butter, and yet some lactose-intolerant people still get quite sick from it. More funding needed. ;)

Once again, I got this version of the recipe from Orangette.

2 Tbsp finely grated parmesan or other hard cheese (which are usually lactose-free)
2 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for buttering dish
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup milk, hot
½ tsp paprika
a pinch of nutmeg
½ tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
4 egg yolks (from large eggs)
5 egg whites (from large eggs)
1 cup (3 ½ oz) coarsely grated cheese, such as gruyère or sharp cheddar (again, usually lactose-free)


Generously butter a 7 ½- to 8-inch diameter soufflé dish. Roll the grated parmesan in the buttered baking dish to cover the bottom and side.


Set the oven rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat to 400 °F.

To make the béchamel:
Over moderate heat, melt 2 ½ Tbsp butter in a 2 ½-quart saucepan; then blend in the flour with a wooden spoon to make a smooth but somewhat loose paste. Stir until the butter and flour foam together for two minutes without coloring to more than a buttery yellow. (In the picture, you’ll notice that my mixture is darker than a buttery yellow. It looks like I ended up making a roux. It’s possible that there was a bit too much heat. But I also want to point out that I normally use Nutri flour, which is a whole-wheat flour that tastes like white flour. It is blonde in color, not brown, so in most cakes, you can’t tell the difference, but here, you can.)


Remove from heat. When the bubbling stops, pour in the hot milk all at once, whisking vigorously to blend. Place the saucepan over moderately high heat, whisking rather slowly, reaching all over the bottom and sides of the pan, until the sauce comes to the simmer. Simmer two to three minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the sauce is very thick and coats a spoon nicely.


Whisk in the seasonings, and remove from heat.


Whisk the egg yolks into the hot sauce one by one, and set it aside.



To finish:
In a clean bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg whites to stiff shining peaks. Scoop a quarter of the egg whites into the sauce, and stir together with a wooden spoon. Turn the rest of the egg whites on top; rapidly and delicately, fold them in with a rubber spatula, alternating scoops of the spatula with sprinkles of the coarsely grated cheese.


Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and use your spatula to trace a circle in the top of the batter, just inside the rim of the dish. This will help the soufflé to rise freely. (I forgot this step, so my soufflé was a little lopsided, but it still rose. This just goes to show how easy it is to make, really, you can forget a few little things and still make it relatively successfully.)


Place the soufflé in the oven, and turn the oven temperature down to 375 °F. Bake about 25 to 30 minutes (without opening the oven – this is really the golden rule), until the soufflé has puffed 1 to 3 inches over the rim of the baking dish and the top has browned nicely. Serve immediately, because yes, it will deflate within a few minutes (though it is still perfectly edible deflated).

Chocolate Chip Ginger-Molasses Cookies

This is another recipe found on Orangette. I loved the bite from the ginger in these cookies! I used lactose-free margarine instead of shortening, so my cookies spread out a bit more than hers, but they were very good nonetheless. And I rolled them in granulated white sugar instead of Demerara, because I made them on a whim and did not have any in the pantry. It’s not the same, of course, but it’s still a nice touch. Of course, if you have demerara (or have time to go buy some), that’s what you should use.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
2 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
¾ cup margarine or butter (at room temperature)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup molasses
½ cup demerara sugar, for rolling

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, baking soda, and salt. Whisk well. Add the chocolate chips and crystallized ginger, and whisk to blend. Set aside.


In a large bowl – preferably, a stand mixer – beat the margarine briefly to soften it. Add the sugars, and beat until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the egg and the molasses, and beat to blend well, scraping down the sides as needed.


Add the flour mixture in two doses, beating briefly after each until the flour is just absorbed. Do not overmix. Use a rubber spatula to give the dough a final stir if necessary; it will be quite firm and stiff. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate for 1 or 2 hours.


Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Pour the demerara sugar into a small bowl.

Using damp hands, pinch off blobs of dough and roll them into 1 ¼- to 1 ½-inch balls. Roll each ball in sugar to coat. Place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.

Bake the cookies until they are cracked on top but still soft to the touch, about 12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Cool on the sheets for 1 minute; then carefully transfer the cookies – still on the parchment or silicone liner – to wire racks to cool completely. When they are cool, remove them from the parchment or silicone liner.