Thyme with Rosemary: Spices help make the holidays warm, fragrant
I am unable to measure the amount of spices I have used in baking and cooking throughout my lifetime. Spices truly contribute to the warmth of the holidays. Delicious and inviting scents of cinnamon, cloves and ginger drift throughout my home. Their sweet scents fill the house with warm memories of love and of the holidays. Enhance your holidays with these spices:
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is one of those spices which has a long history, spurring world exploration. Its pungent flavor has a slightly sweet taste and works wonders in hot cocoa, cookies and other sweet treats.
Cinnamon comes from the bark of a low-growing tropical evergreen tree native to Sri Lanka. The inner bark is peeled from long, slender shoots. As the sun dries the inner bark, it curls, one strip inside the other, into sticks or quills. The warm aroma comes from the essential oil present in the bark. The bark is crushed to a powder, or left as cinnamon sticks.
Cinnamon bark or sticks are scarcer than ground cinnamon. Ground cinnamon is widely used in cakes, cookies, puddings, biscuits and cinnamon sugar. It complements savory meats, carrots, spinach, onions, as well as apples, blueberries and desserts. The ground spices lose their flavor quickly and should be purchased in small quantities and stored in an airtight container. Use cinnamon sticks to flavor mulled wine and coffee.
Cloves
Cloves are especially fragrant spices, heady and appetite-enhancing.
The fragrance carries an air of mystery and romance. The clove tree, a member of the myrtle family and native of Southeast Asia, grows to 30 feet in tropical climates near the sea. The nail-shaped clove is a woody evergreen tree.
Cloves have a sharp, distinctive, wintergreen-like flavor. Use the hard, dried small flower buds ground or whole. The hard buds are pulverized to a powder for ground cloves. Strongly flavored, cloves have a relationship with vegetables such as beets, carrots and squash, as well with prunes, cranberries, pickling brines and meats.
The fierce fragrance of cloves adds a distinctive flavor to fruit.
Ginger
Ginger comes from fat, irregular shaped hand-like tuberous rhizomes that appear brown, knotty and branched.
A native of the tropics of Southeast Asia, ginger was one of the earliest spices imported into Europe over the caravan routes. Its sharp taste is the warmest of the spices, spicy to the tongue.
Sweets, such as breads, cakes and cookies dominate the use of ginger. Use in savory dishes and in curries, and don’t stir-fry vegetables without it. Fresh ginger rhizomes or green ginger root come fresh or dried and should be plump and firm.
Finely chop or pound the peeled rhizome, and preserve in alcohol, or keep for several months wrapped in a moist towel inside a bag in the refrigerator. Discard cooked ginger before serving.
Produce dried ginger by drying the unpeeled rhizome. Bruise the dried ginger with a rolling pin or hammer to release the aromatic flavor during cooking. Ground ginger is made from the dried rhizome and once ground loses it flavor.
Use one or more of these spices to experience for yourself the warmth they add in your holiday baking.
Gingersnap Cookies
Sparkling sugar on top, these gingersnaps are crisp outside and chewy inside. A timeless cookie, ideal for the holidays.
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup honey
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar, about
Combine 2/3 cup sugar, butter, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and vanilla in a large bowl. Cream together until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until fluffy. Blend in honey. Add flour, a little at a time and blend well. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls. Roll in sugar. Place 21/2 inches apart onto lightly buttered cookie sheet.
Bake in 350-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove cookies immediately from cookie sheet to racks. Cool thoroughly.
Makes about 4 dozen.
Clove Pomander Ball
I like to make more than one. Pomander balls fragrantly scent each room for the holidays.
1 fresh lemon or orange, unblemished
1 cup, more or less, whole cloves
2 teaspoons orris root powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
One by one, press the cloves into the lemon or orange, starting from the stalk end and going round and round until it is covered. For hanging, press a staple into the top.
Mix together on a square of tissue paper the orris root and the cinnamon. Roll the fruit in this, then twist the paper lightly together round it and store in a dark cupboard for a few weeks to dry. When the pomander has hardened, shake off any excess powder. Thread ribbon through the staple, tie in a loop and finish with a bow.
Makes 1.
Rosemary Perry-Hessong, Lafayette, combines her passion for gardening with a love of cooking. She may be contacted by emailing [email protected].
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