Wholesome Ginger Crunch

I LOVE Ginger Crunch! In fact I posted a Ginger Crunch recipe back in 2010 but earlier this year I tried my favourite slice with a a delicious base of oats and coconut which in my opinion makes it even better.

Ingredients:
150 g butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
¾ cup brown sugar (I used Billingtons Light Muscovado)
1 cup coconut
1½ cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Icing
150g butter
2 - 2 ½ cups of icing sugar (add 2 cups and continue to add by the tablespoon until you have the desired colour/consistency)
2 tablespoons  golden syrup
1½ tablespoons ground ginger

Method:
Preheat oven to 180˚C and line a 20x30cm tin or dish with baking paper.
Melt butter, golden syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan, stirring occasionally. Once the butter is melted and all ingredients combined remove from heat.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour your melted mix into it. Stir with a large wooden spoon and mix thoroughly.
Press mixture into your prepared pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes .
Mark into square while still warm. When cool, ice with hot ginger icing.
To make icing combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until the butter is melted while stirring constantly.

Ginger Kisses

To say Ginger Kisses were a favourite in my family growing up would probably be an understatement! I don’t have them all that much these days, a few times a year maybe, the other day I had a hankering for some so thought I’d give it making them a go. I’d never had a home made one before, I was pretty happy with my first attempt and will definitely make them again as Shane demolished them and has already asked for a repeat.

Ingredients:
Kisses (cakes)
1 cup self raising flour
¼ cup cornflour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ground ginger
125 grams butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon golden syrup

Mock Cream
50 grams butter, softened
½ cup icing sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
4-5 tablespoons boiling water

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180C and line two baking trays with wax baking paper.
Sift flour, cornflour and ginger and set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Once the second egg has combined with the butter mixture add the golden syrup and mix again.
Fold in your dry ingredients, be careful not to over fold you want your wet and dry ingredients to be just combined.
Drop tablespoonfuls of mix onto your lined baking trays.
Bake in your pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes or until your kisses are golden and firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once your kisses are cooled make your mock cream. To do this you will need to beat butter and sugar in a bowl until it is very light, add vanilla then boiling water, gradually. Beat for 2-3 minutes or until you have a mixture you are happy will spread nicely onto your kisses.
Join kisses together using mock cream, you can either spoon some into the middle of one kiss and then press the two together so it spreads a little or pipe it on like I did (this ensures a nice even distribution), using a small star tip.

Ginger Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

 
I saw Tamara Jane of Tempt Cupcakes on Good Morning make some ginger cupcakes with lemon icing a month or so ago and have been meaning to trial them, I did a quick scan of the ingredients list and thought I had everything I needed but I didn’t so I ended up adapting the recipe (quite a bit) and am incredibly pleased with the results.  Shane has become a cupcake connoisseur in recent years and ranked these up there with the red velvet cupcakes.  I think they have the perfect amount of spice and the lemon frosting sets them off perfectly.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ tablespoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon
150g butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
125 grams sour cream

Method
Preheat oven to 170˚C.  Line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes.  Add the sugar slowly while continuing to mix, beating for 2 minutes after each addition.  Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add half the sifted dry ingredients and half of the sour cream.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake papers and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cakes springs back when touched in the centre.
Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.  Ice with lemon frosting.

Lemon Frosting
200 grams butter
4-5 cups icing sugar (depending on how stiff you want your frosting)
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

Cream the butter and icing sugar together.  Add the rind and juice and continue to beat until light and fluffy.  If you have added to much icing sugar and it has become too stiff add a tablespoon of milk.

Ginger Loaf With Lime Glaze

 
Being a stay at home Mum means the joys of early morning TV (not)!  However this week there was a recipe on Good Morning that caught my eye so I thought I’d give it a go.

125g butter
125g brown sugar
1 cup golden syrup
1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon mixed spice
250mL milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plain flour

Combine butter, sugar, syrup and spices in a saucepan on a medium heat element until melted together.
In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Add milk and baking soda.  Add to saucepan and mix together.
In another bowl, place the flour.  Pour wet ingredients over and mix well.  The mixture will be very wet (basically liquid). Use a whisk to eliminate any lumps if you need. * THE MIXTURE IS A LIQUID MIX SO DO NOT BE ALARMED OR FEEL THE NEED TO ADD MORE FLOUR.
Spray your mini loaf pans/loaf pan with non-stick spray.  Fill each one with the mixture to ¾ full.
Bake at 170˚C for 35 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack, and ice when cool.

Lime Glaze:
Sift one cup of icing sugar into a bowl.  Add the juice of 1 lime and 1 tablespoon of hot water.  Stir together until you get a thick paste, adding more icing sugar if necessary.  Once gingerbread/s are cool, spread glaze over with a knife.

Now on the show and the TVNZ website where I got the recipe the mix was poured in mini loaf tins but it was clearly stated on the show that you could use the mix to make a single large loaf – which is what I did.  However, even though I cooked it for an extra 15-20 minutes, the loaf sprung back when touched and the skewer removed clean, I found that the loaf was starting to overcook on the outside but when cut into it is undercooked on the inside (just).  I think next time I will bake it for the same amount of time but at 180˚C.  The glaze by the way is delicious!

Ginger Crunch

 
I hadn’t attempted to make ginger crunch for a good ten years when the other day I got a craving for it and decided to whip up a batch! It was delish and easy to make.

To start with you will need to make the base, it requires:
125g butter
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in flour, baking powder and ginger and mix with the creamed mixture. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured flat surface  and knead well. Press the dough into a 20x30cm baking tin lined with baking paper and bake at 190˚C for 20 minutes or until it is a light golden brown.

I recommend making up the icing while the base is cooking, for the icing you will need:
75g Butter
1 - 1 ½ cups of icing sugar (add 1 cup and continue to add by the tablespoon until you have the desired colour/consistency)
2 tablespoons  golden syrup
3 teaspoons ground ginger

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until the butter is melted while stirring constantly. Pour the hot ginger icing over the hot base and cut into 24 squares before it gets cold.

Enjoy!