So, supposing you took my advice and made crystallized ginger? Now that you have all that crystallized ginger, not to mention all the ginger syrup, what can you do with it?
Of course you could just make a LOT of double-chocolate ginger cookies, which is an excellent idea and don’t let me talk you out of it. I’ve been adding twice the crystallized ginger in that recipe, btw, and reducing the chocolate chips to one cup, so that ratio is totally up to you.
But supposing you would like to branch out a bit, here are a couple other recipes you might try:
King Arthur Flour Gingered Oatmeal Muffins
I like these a lot. They rise surprisingly well, too. For me, this recipe made more than 12 muffins, and I was glad I didn’t just insist on putting all the batter into just 12 muffin cups. They also came out of the muffin tin pretty easily.
1 C white whole wheat flour
½ C oat flour, which you can make by grinding some oatmeal in a food processor or (easier, if you have one) a spice grinder
¾ C rolled oats
¾ C brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 C plus 2 Tbsp milk
¼ C vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ C finely diced crystallized ginger
Toss the crystallized ginger with a spoonful of flour and set aside. Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk together the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and fold in. Add the crystallized ginger. The batter was quite thin but everything was fine, so probably you should expect that. Spoon or pour the batter into greased muffin cups, probably about fifteen cups if yours are the same size as mine. Bake at 400 degrees for about 18 minutes. Let cool five minutes and remove from the pan.
Now! You could have sprinkled these with a streusel topping before baking, as KAF suggests, and I’m sure that would be good. But I dipped the warm muffins into ginger syrup and then Demerara sugar. They were great.
King Arthur Flour Ginger-Molasses Cookies
Another KAF recipe. Usually they’re very reliable, you know. Anyway, this is a nice, soft type of cookie, which is what I prefer. I did mess with this recipe a bit, as you will see. What? You can never have too many chocolate-ginger cookies.
1 C butter
1 C sugar
¼ C molasses
¼ C ginger syrup (or more molasses)
2 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (the recipe called for 1 ½ tsp)
½ tsp cloves (the recipe called for 1 tsp)
1 tsp ginger (I believe the recipe called for ½ tsp)
2 eggs
3 ½ C flour (or reduce the flour by 2 Tbsp and add ¼ C. cocoa, or by 3 Tbsp and add 1/3 C cocoa)
½ to ¾ C crystallized ginger (not in the original recipe)
¾ C bittersweet chocolate chips (not in the original recipe)
Make cookies.
Oh, all right, actual directions: Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in molasses and ginger syrup. Beat in baking soda, salt, and spices. Beat in eggs. Stir in flour, or flour and cocoa powder. Stir in crystallized ginger and / or chocolate chips. Scoop onto lined baking sheets or else roll into 1 ½ inch balls, roll or dip into coarse sugar (such as Demerara), and place on baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes, then cool completely on racks.
Lemon Ginger Scones
2 C flour
¼ C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ butter, cold, cut in pieces
½ C chopped crystallized ginger
Zest of one (or two) lemons
2/3 C buttermilk
Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter. Stir in the ginger and lemon zest. Stir in the buttermilk. Knead gently till the dough comes together. Pat out into 7 inch circle. Cut into eight wedges and place on lined baking sheet (or freeze). Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a touch golden. Cool on racks, or better, serve warm.
I would suggest making a glaze with powdered sugar and lemon juice, since after all you just zested that lemon. Alternatively, nothing stops you from drizzling these scones with ginger syrup. Maybe try some each way? Anyway, mmmm, scones.
You can always freeze scones at the cut-into-wedges stage, and I always do unless baking for a crowd. Freshly baked scones are just better, and you can bake them right out of the freezer. Of course it adds a few minutes to the baking time, but not enough to signify.
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