Iced Ginger Ring.

Was in need of some comforting food and really taste as well this afternoon. So I made this and boy! did it hit the spot. Ginger is so good for the tummy and the digestive system. Now I should have used all golden syrup but I didn't have enough, so used some treacle, which gave it that lovely dark colour.

Prep time 20 minutes... Cooking time 35 minutes.

Ingredients..
340 g Self Raising Flour.
1 tablesp. Bicarb of Soda.
1 tablesp. Ground Ginger.
1 tablesp. Ground Cinnamon.
170 g Sugar (I used white)
170 g Butter.
110 g Golden Syrup.
110 g Treacle.
2 Eggs.
230 mls Milk.
120 g Glazed Ginger (chopped)

Method...
Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan, stirring the whole time.
Set aside to cool.
When cooled, add the rest of the ingredients, leaving the chopped ginger to last.
Mix well. I used a wooden spoon.
Grease a ring tin (or loaf tin) and bake in the oven at 180c (less for fan-forced) for 35 minutes.
Allow to cool and ice with a runny icing.

I dare you to stop at one slice. Enjoy.

Old Fashioned Gingerbread.

I have made Gingerbread before and put it on this blog, you will find it here.http://pinkbytes.blogspot.com/2009/02/very-dark-sticky-gingerbread.html
Sorry Rita's Mum in Scotland, but I have to try different recipes now don't I?
This one is called Old Fashioned Gingerbread and I have added Ginger in syrup, finely chopped.

You will need....
225g Butter (softened)
1 cup Castor Sugar.
3 Eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup Treacle.
1 cup Milk.
3 cups Plain Flour (sifted)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (ground)
1 tsp. Nutmeg (ground)
2 tsp. Ginger (ground)
2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda.
Ginger in syrup (chopped) add as much or little as you like.

Preheat the oven to 160c. Lightly grease and line a 23 cm square cake tin. (I used a brownie tin)
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add the beaten eggs and combine well. (I used the hand held mixer for this)
Heat the treacle and milk in a saucepan. Remove and allow to cool before adding in to the egg-butter mixture.
Sift the flour, spices and bicarb together and fold in to the wet ingredients. Now fold in the chopped ginger and put the mixture in to the prepared tin. Bake for around 50 minutes, checking with a skewer until it comes out clean.


Allow to cool in the tin before turning the cake out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
I served mine just warm, with vanilla ice-cream.

If you are a gingerbread lover, this is a MUST TRY recipe.

Ginger Crunchies

These actually come from NIGELLA EXPRESS and have been made by Coby from
http://vipantrywedonthaveablogblog.blogspot.com/ So she asked the question about rice malt syrup, which is used in the original recipe. "Yes," was the reply from NIGELLA, "You can use Golden Syrup instead." Yay, that's two people that are happy now down under, as we can't get Rice Malt Syrup. I also left out the quick cook oats as I didn't have any and upped the amount of cornflakes and rice bubbles. And another twist, I added crystallised ginger finely chopped. To give a more adult feel and taste to them. Here is the original recipe..http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?key=L&rid=157
And here is what I used.
50g Milk Chocolate.
150g Golden Syrup.
55g Butter.
80g Rice Bubbles.
50g Cornflakes.
75g Sesame Seeds.
75g Crystallised Ginger.

Method.

Melt the chocolate, syrup and butter gently in a heavy-based saucepan.
Add all the other ingredients, turning to coat everything well.
Using your hands (encased in latex CSI gloves)(I didn't, wanted to lick my hands and the bowl once I had finished), shape the mixture into walnut-sized balls. You should get about 25; you could also make this using 2 x 12-bun muffin tin lined with muffin papers to get 24 cupcakes.
Let them set in the fridge for an hour or so, and they will keep quite happily in there for a week of treats.
As you can see, I made them into little cupcake treats and got 24.
Now, a funny story.
My hubby is a coal miner, each Thursday night shift the men have a little party to celebrate the end of the week. So at *breaktime* there are these fully grown great lumps of men in the *crib* room, all in their very dirty overalls, head gear and lamps on, sitting around a table eating the goodies of the day. Some take in soft drink, or crisps, sausage rolls and chocolates. My hubby is taking in these tonight (Ginger Crunchies) Hope you enjoy them guys.
Please remember I said Coal Miners. So they are underground about a kilometre down. Can you imagine it? Scare the poo out of me!

Very Dark Sticky Gingerbread

This is gingery, spicy and oh so sticky and tasty. Yummyness (I know that is not a word, but it should be) at it's best. A special THANK YOU to Rita's Mum in Scotland, who has been making this for years and has now passed it on to her daughter Rita and then on to me. My! How I would love to get into her recipe collection.You will need..

1/2 pint of Milk.
5 ozs dark soft Brown Sugar.
2 tablesps. Treacle.
2 tablesps. Golden Syrup.
4 ozs Butter.
2 Eggs (beaten)
1/2 lb S.R. Flour. (sifted)
1/2 teasp. Bicarb. Soda.
1 tablesp. Ground Ginger.
1 tablesp. Ground Cinnamon.
1 tablesp. Mixed Spice.
Pinch of Salt.

Method..

Put the first five ingredients in to a saucepan on a low heat and melt the lot together stirring now and then, don't burn it. Now let this cool . When it has cooled, add the beaten eggs and mix. Now add the sifted Flour, Bicarb Soda, Ginger, Cinnamon, Mixed Spice and Salt.
I did this all in one big saucepan to save on washing up and used my hand mixer.
Grease and line your tins. It will make 1 x 2lb and 1 x 1lb loaf. I used something different again as I wanted it to be more of a slice. Oblong tin measuring 8 inches by 12 inches, the mix covered the bottom well and rose beautifully.
Oven temperature 180c/350f. And bake for around an hour, or until cake tester comes out clean.
This is a wonderful recipe and very much a *keeper* in my home. Hope you enjoy it too.

Gingered Flapjacks

There are so many recipes out there for flapjacks. This one I used, is from
http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/ with the addition of ground ginger.
I know they are simple to make, but today I had the need to make some thing quickly, tasty and without much effort. So on went the air conditioning and then the oven.

The ingredients....

75g of Butter.
75g light Brown Sugar.
1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup.
175g of porridge Oats.
2 tablespoons ground Ginger.

Method....

1. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the fat and sugar have melted.
2. Add the ground ginger and porridge oats and blend thoroughly.
3. Press into a well greased 18cm square sandwich tin.
4. Bake in the centre of a moderate oven at 180c for 25 minutes or until evenly golden brown. 5. Mark into fingers whilst warm.
6. Allow to become almost cold in the tin before removing.
7. Enjoy!

Gingered Oat Biscuits

This is a recipe from Violet's mum, Violet being the Violet from Violet's Pantry. A members only forum to which I belong. I thought at first that I would not like these, so I decided to add ground ginger. It did add a nice warmth to the biscuit, but you could leave it out if you wish.

4 oz/100g self raising Flour.

4oz/100g porridge Oats.

½ level teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda.

4oz/100g Butter.

4oz/100g granulated sugar.

1 rounded tablespoon Golden Syrup.

1/2 tablespoon of ground Ginger.

Heat the oven to 180 c. Grease a large baking tray with butter or line it with parchment paper. Mix flour, oats, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl put to one side.

Put butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat on a low heat until butter and sugar are melted, stir occasionally, take off heat and stir in the oat mix, beat well with a wooden spoon. Scoop dessertspoons of mixture up and make into ball shapes and place on the prepared baking tray, when the tray is full slightly flatten the balls out with the back of the dessert spoon. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes, when ready remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving onto a wire rack.

I actually doubled this recipe and had two trays of 15 biscuits each in the oven at one time.