The rain is pouring down outside the window and in my thoughts I’m back in the cabin where we spent a couple of warm summer days a week ago. I think about the silence when I sneaked out in the morning to have my first cup of coffee on the front porch. I think about how easily the words came when I wrote texts for blog posts and upcoming projects. And I think about the wonderful smell of ginger and caramel in the tiny kitchen when I test baked cookies one morning.
There’s one thing I don’t understand. In a kitchen, where you have nothing compared to what you’re used to, the smallest oven you can imagine (only 30 cm wide) and only one tiny kitchen counter where the coffee machine, the fruit bowl, the cutting board and your cookie dough are supposed to fit in. In a tiny kitchen like that, how come your recipes always turn out better than at home? I really don’t get this.
Take these cookies for example. Baking glutenfree cookies is no piece of cake (pun intended). They often fall apart, sometimes just because you look at them. It’s super hard to make them crunchy without ending up with something that’s more like crisp bread than cookies. Ok, you probably understand where I’m getting at. Glutenfree baking is not easy. Period.
Somehow, these cookies turned out perfect. On my first trial. It never happens! I don’t understand how, but it happened and maybe we should just leave it there. Maybe we should just focus on how delicious these cookies are with a cup of coffee (or tea for that matter), especially on a warm summer day. You know, when you just grab a book and sit down in the shade to read and enjoy the day? Imagine that. Then add a cup of coffee and a few of these ginger caramel cookies to your imagination and you’re done. You need no more. Because, these cookies are everything you could ask for - the sweet caramel taste combined with spicy candied ginger.
The candied ginger is perfect for adding some softness to your otherwise crispy cookies. Also, they add that perfect spiciness to the cookies. Thanks to the muscovado sugar, the cookies get a sweet caramel taste. I do however prefer cookies not being too sweet, so that’s why I added ginger to the recipe. The result is a perfect combination of sweet and spicy and I love it. I hope you’ll do too. Oh, and I must also tell you that this recipe originally comes from my mum, who got it from her mum. I just changed it a little to make the cookies glutenfree and a little spicy.
Caramel cookies with spicy ginger
3 dl glutenfree flour mix*
1,75 dl light muscovado sugar
2-3 tbsp candied ginger (recipe below)**
1 tsp bicarbonate
1/3 tsp sea salt
100 g vegan margarine
1 tbsp syrup
*you can buy a glutenfree flour mix at the grocery store, or you can easily make your own by mixing together 7 dl rice flour, 5 dl oat flour, 2 dl corn flour and 2 dl potato starch.
** I like my cookies a little spicy so I prefer to use candied ginger, but it works just fine to use ground ginger too. If you use ground ginger, add about 2 tsp of it.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
In a baking bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the syrup and mix.
Cut the room tempered butter in small cubes and add to the bowl. Use your hands to form a dough.
Cut the dough in two and turn each half into a ball. Then, roll them out so that you have 2 strips (about 20-25 cm long). Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and move the strips onto the sheet. Use your fingers to flatten the strips, so that they become about 5 cm wide.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes.
While the cookie strips are still warm, cut them (diagonally) in 2 cm thick cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet (ofc you’re allowed to try one or two, but let the rest of them cool).
Candied ginger
200 g raw ginger
Water
1,5 dl raw sugar + extra for coating
Directions
Peel the ginger and cut it into the thinnest possible slices. Place the slices in a saucepan and cover with water.
Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down. Cover the pan and let cook over medium-heat for about 30-35 minutes, or until tender.
Save about 0,5 dl of the cooking liquid, then drain the ginger.
Return the ginger to the sauce pan.
Add the reserved cooking liquid and the sugar.
Cook over medium heat until the ginger reaches the temperature of about 100°C (use a termometer in this step). Then, remove the ginger slices from the pan.
Add some sugar on a plate and coat the ginger slices in it.
Place the ginger slices on a wire rack and let dry, preferably overnight. Store the candied ginger in an air-tight container.
