The Void and Neztra

My buddy HP Sauce, aka Hot Pants, aka Eddy and I love baking. She loves it because she happens to be very, very good at it. I love it because I aspire to one day be good at it and it always results in tasty stuff I shouldn't eat.

Eddy is already a seasoned food blogger. She belongs to a bunch of food blogs and is something of an online bloggy celeb in some circles. Me, I just bask in her sunshine.

Eddy and I decided to start our own cooking group. What name would we call it? Why "Two Hot Chicks Baking" of COURSE. Because, well, I think it is obvious.

I love ginger. Ginger is the perfect balance of hot, sweet and exotic and can wear so many personalities that you might think it should be named Sybil. From Thai Coconut Curry to Pickled along side sushi, ginger rounds out some of the most delicious savory dishes in Asia and around the world.

On the home front, ginger takes on a new, more comforting facet as a layer in many, typically holiday traditional desserts. Playing a supporting role in dishes like Pumpkin Pie and Carrot Cake, Ginger is usually relegated to a subtle background role that is some times hard to pinpoint. For a starring role, Ginger shows its true personality when used to make one of my all time favorite cookies, Ginger Snaps. The hot, comforting flavor is the perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter day.

I've never made Ginger Snaps before, but Alton Brown, my personal Culinary Hero recently featured a recipe on his fabulous Food Network show, Good Eats for Ginger Snaps using not one but three forms of ginger; fresh, dried and candied. I had to try it and now, I share the results with you.

I wasn't able to find candied ginger at my local grocery store, but since I am not really a fan of it anyway, it wasn't a big deal to leave it out of the recipe. These snaps were good, except that they were not as "snappy" in texture as I am use to, but the flavor is incredible. I have never had Ginger Snaps like this before. Next time, I will probably increase the brown sugar and decrease the molasses quantity a bit to fix the texture of the resulting cookie, but other than that, these were pure heaven and I recommend them to anyone who loves Ginger.

So, without further ado, Alton Brown's Gingeriest of the Ginger Snaps:

Alton Brown's Ginger Snaps
Source: Food Network

Ingredients

* 9 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 tablespoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 7 ounces dark brown sugar
* 5 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
* 3 ounces molasses, by weight
* 1 large egg, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
* 4 ounces finely chopped candied ginger

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, clove and salt.

Place the brown sugar and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on low speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the molasses, egg and fresh ginger and beat on medium for 1 minute. Add the crystallized ginger and using a rubber spatula, stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until well combined.

With a 2-teaspoon sized scoop, drop the dough onto a parchment lined half sheet pan approximately 2-inches apart. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 12 minutes for slightly chewy cookies or 15 minutes for more crisp cookies. Rotate the pan halfway through cooking.

Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to stay on the sheet pan for 30 seconds before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with all of the dough. Store in an airtight container for up 10 days. If desired, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough on a sheet pan and once frozen, place in a resealable bag to store. Bake directly from the freezer as above.