Archive | Winter 2012

This recipe is adapted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax (Chapters, 1994), a treasury of wonderful recipes. Lebkuchen can be labor-intensive and elaborate, but his version, containing honey rather than molasses, is quite manageable. It is dense, rich, redolent with spices and gilded here with bittersweet chocolate—so cut the servings small.

Makes 5 or 6 dozen servings.

For the cake:

Reprinted from The Perfect Finish by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark (c) 2010 by Bill Yosses

Bill Yosses, who lectured again this fall in Harvard University’s Science and Cooking series, is the executive pastry chef at the White House. He has the distinction of being hired by the Bush Administration and staying on with the Obamas. His gingerbread has the distinction of freshly ground whole spices including star anise and cardamom, which impart an intoxicating aroma. The directions call for an electric mixer, but hand mixing works fine. Unsalted butter, for the pan All-purpose flour, for dusting

Gingerbread:
3 green … Read More

This recipe, from my friend Margaret McCormick, makes a traditional homemade gingersnap cookie with real snap both in texture and spice. For extra zing from your Zingiber officinale, consider tripling the ginger quotient by using ground dried ginger, minced preserved ginger and grated fresh ginger root all together. These cookies keep well in a tin with an airtight top.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

¾ cup unsalted butter or shortening, softened
1 cup sugar + more “sand sugar” for rolling the cookie
dough (about ½ cup)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup molasses
2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon … Read More

In the first edition of Fanny Merritt Farmer’s The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896) she gives eight different recipes for gingerbread, the first suggesting clarified chicken fat instead of butter, plus several ginger cookies.
Ginger was clearly a favorite! In this close adaptation for a dark, moist, molasses-rich cake, I’ve kept her wording where possible.

Makes 12–16 servings.

1 cup molasses
1/3 cup unsalted butter (5 1/3 tablespoons) + more for pan
1¾ teaspoons soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups flour, sifted
2 teaspoons dried ground ginger, sifted
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. … Read More

As publisher of Edible Boston I have the pleasure of being part of the local Boston food scene but I am also part of a bigger, national group: Edible Communities. We meet yearly, we talk occasionally and we communicate daily on a listserv. Through this I am able to get a view of what is happening throughout the country, through the eyes of other writers and publishers.

This fall, for about a week we had many e-mail exchanges about organic versus natural versus local. How do we cover these issues? Do we write about a farm that is not certified … Read More