One of the best things I've ever eaten in an airport was a
ginger slice in Auckland, New Zealand. Think of a bar cookie with an almost shortbread-like crust, topped with a thick ginger icing. But this is icing with fire power -- the ginger is no afterthought and doesn't play second fiddle to molasses or cinnamon or allspice or anything else.
Right about now everyone goes crazy for gingerbread with its earthy, spicy richness, chock full of molasses, nutmeg, allspice, and oh yeah, ginger. And I'm right there, too. I made a batch of molasses (really, gingerbread) cookies a couple of weekends ago from a Prudence Penny recipe from waaaaaay back. But they weren't much to talk about (um, hard and stale at the same time on day 2?). So then yesterday while doing a little
DailyCandy catch up reading, I came across
the Meatball Shop's Ginger Cookies recipe with a ginger lover's triple-threat: fresh, ground
and, yeah crystallized. No molasses in sight! All I can say is, thank you Daniel Holzman and David Chernow.
You've heard of the Donut Man in Glendora, California right? If not, let me introduce you, because what they do there, you need to know about it. The Donut Man is famous for their fresh strawberry donuts -- that's right, they take a glazed donut, slice it in half and sandwich in an enormous portion of fresh strawberries (or peaches, later in the summer) in goo. It's ridiculously deliciously goo-d. Today, I was thinking about those doughnuts and meant to stop by Top Pot on the way home for a couple of glazed and then I promptly forgot. Instead, I came up with these baked strawberry shortcake doughnuts (or in this case: short, cake doughnuts). Doesn't it look like one of those spongy dessert cups they sell right next to the strawberries in the produce department?