If you are a ginger fan you’re going to love these chewy, spicy gingerbread cookies.

Ginger is perfect this time of year – the peppery spice warming tastebuds and tummies. Although this ancient spice is native to China and India, it is one of the most popular spices of the world. . .

Gingerbread History

What we know as gingerbread today is far from its original form. In fact, what was referred to as “gingerbread” in medieval English cookery, was actually a medicinal candy made of ginger and sugar. Back then, the term was used loosely to refer to candy as well as breads, which were also eaten for medicinal purposes. Later gingerbread evolved into a highly spiced  honey cake, influenced by the German Lebkuchen and Roman honey cakes.

In the 1500s, English gingerbreads denoted highly spiced, crisp cookies. They were eaten after dipping in wine or cider and were also used for holiday ornaments. The crisp cookie version carried over to the new world. Then, when leavening agents were introduced, the term “gingerbread” in the U.S. referred to  ginger-spiced cakes.

Whether cake or cookie, “gingerbread” has been enjoyed during the holidays for hundreds of years. And, although there were special gingerbread bakers in Europe who were a distinct sub-group of the baker’s guild, no special certificate is required to make these cookies.

Hard v. Chewy Gingerbread Cookies

I’m not a fan of the hard-as-brick versions of gingerbread and the thin ginger snaps aren’t interesting to me – I’m more a fan of the ginger and not the snap. So, the recipe below is for a thick, chewy and spicy ginger cookie.

Apparently, the key to getting a chewy cookie is having at least 4 tablespoons butter per cup of flour. Cooks Illustrated got me straight on that. However, as far as process, Heidi at 101 Cookbooks (one of my favorite food bloggers) made some triple ginger cookies awhile back that did not require pulling out the food processor or mixer.

The recipe below is adapted from both. These cookies are the trifecta of ginger – fresh, ground and crystallized. It’s aggressive but not overly sharp, balanced by the molasses. If you’ve followed me for awhile you know I don’t like things super sweet. If you do, up the sugar a few tablespoons and also roll the balls of dough in large grain sugar before baking.

These chewy gingerbread cookies would be great in a holiday cookie exchange.

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This time of year I take advantage of the access to fresh cranberries by subbing them for the dried or jellied versions when possible. This recipe for fresh cranberry chocolate scones is an adaptation of my standard scone recipe that I usually use with dried fruit – currants, golden raisins, cherries, or dried cranberries.

Scones originate with the culinary fare of Scotland, Ireland and England and are linked to the Welsh tradition of cooking small yeast cakes on bake stones and griddles.

Although scones are not a part of the usual Thanksgiving fare, they certainly are lovely with a cup of tea or coffee any time of day.

Did I mention that traditionally scones are not laden with lots of sugar? For American taste buds, think more about the sweetness of a biscuit rather than those sweet, frosting covered scones found at the market and coffee shops.

Originally, scones were made with oats, shaped into a large round that was cut into wedges. More often these days, classic scones are made with flour and use currants or raisins and are eaten plain or smeared with clotted cream or preserves.

This version capitalizes on fresh, tart cranberries and also calls for chocolate – a combo I adore. I eat them plain – no extra cream, preserves or butter.

One other fact I must mention, scones are best when freshly baked. The recipe below makes a dozen or 14 wedges. If you want to freeze some to bake later, see the instructions about flash-freezing below.

Tidbits on Cranberries:

1. Cranberries are closely related to blueberries, lingonberries and cowberries.
2. Cranberries are tested for firmness by their bounce, which explains why they are also referred to as “bounceberries.” Those that do not bounce are discarded.
3. Cranberries stay fresh longer than other berries because they have a waxy skin.

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Cranberries are “the” Thanksgiving berry, even though it’s unclear that they were part of the 1621 feast shared by Native Americans and pilgrims.

The meal is believed to have included wheat, corn, barley, waterfowl, deer, fish, and wild turkey. It is certain, however, that long before white settlers arrived, Native Americans had been cultivating cranberries (and other berries) for food. So, it’s possible some of those crimson berries made an appearance.

Nonetheless, cranberries are requisite today at Thanksgiving. During this time of year – cranberries are coincidentally at their peak (October through December).

No qualms from me. I like food that’s tart and bitter and I’m a big fan of cranberries – fresh, cooked, dried and juiced. Since the 19^th century, the berries have found their way in desserts, sauces, jellies, preserves and ketchup.

Yes, cranberry ketchup. This interesting tidbit caught my attention too. Apparently, it’s one of the more popular non-tomato based ketchups.

My recipe for ginger cranberry ketchup is not just novel. It’ll be a staple year-round – for your turkey sandwiches , turkey burgers, chicken and turkey tacos, etc. It has both sweet and sour notes and a little kick, if you choose to add chile. It’s easy to make and the spice blend is open to your own twist: nutmeg, cumin, and Chinese five spice.

The extra bonus here over cranberry sauce is that the vinegar in the recipe not only gives it some twang but it extends its shelf life. It’ll keep for about a month with refrigeration.

Tidbits on Cranberries:

1. Cooking: When cooking cranberries, add sugar after they have popped to avoid tough berries.
2. Buying: Select cranberries that are firm not shriveled or discolored. Stock up on fresh cranberries while in season (October through December).
3. Storing: Fresh cranberries can be refrigerated for up to four weeks; frozen in plastic bags for nine months to a year. Do not wash them before storing.

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If you checked out my Mexican Pumpkin Seed Pesto, you know that pumpkin seeds have been used in Mexican cookery since pre-Columbian times. Pumpkins are believed to have originated in Central America about 5500 B.C.E.

Pumpkin seeds are used in many Mexican dishes, typically to make thick, rich sauces. However, they are also frequently eaten there as a snack – roasted in oil or used to make palanquetas or pepitorias, a candy brittle.

Know that generally, I turn up my nose at regular peanut brittle – something that started when I was a teenager wearing braces. So, this Mexican brittle is exceptional.  It’s packed with good for you ingredients and has less of the sugary brittle.

Palanquetas (brittle with nuts) or pepitorias (brittle with seeds) are usually flat, round disks, but they are sometimes also packaged as rectangular blocks. Candy makers load them with a single ingredient like pepitas (pumpkin seeds), cacahuates (peanuts) or sesame seeds (ajonjoli) – or, they make them with this trio of  traditional ingredients, sometimes also adding popped amaranth .

With this recipe you’ll be able to make your own at home. It’s easy.  If you’re wary about eating “brittle,” you can boil the honey for less time and your final palanquetas will be more chewy like those fancy, expensive granola bars you find at the natural/health food stores.

This weekend I made two batches – I took one chewy version to a friends’ house and they were an instant hit. The other, I made more brittle-like. Either version will make a great protein snack fit for your outdoor, air and car travels. These also make great goodie gifts during the holidays. To make them more novel, add some ground chile and a squeeze of lime to your honey before you boil.

My version uses honey as the brittle base rather than sugar or sugar and corn syrup that most recipes call for. It’s a hearty snack that’s not overly sweet.

Tidbits on Pumpkin Seeds:

1. Pumpkin seeds are more rich in iron than any other seed and are an excellent source of zinc, an essential mineral that helps the immune system.
2. Buy hulled green (untoasted) pumpkin seeds at health-food stores or Mexican/Latin American markets where there is frequent turnover. Untoasted pumpkin seeds are less perishable. Store them in the freezer.

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Apples are not only tasty and good for you, over the thousands of years that they’ve been around, they’ve grown to have cultural and religious significance.

For instance, this Jewish apple salad – charoset is eaten during the Jewish Pesach (Passover) festival. Charoset is also spelled “charosset,” “charosses” or “haroset”  and pronounced ha-ROH-ses or ha-ROH-set.

Depending on the provenance, the salad ingredients and texture will vary.

In the Ashkenazi (Eastern European) version, ingredients traditionally include apples, nuts, cinnamon, sweet red wine and honey – in a finely chopped salad spread over matzos. For the Sephardim (Mediterranean), the salad generally includes dates, other dried fruit, and spices like ginger – pureed into a paste and sometimes rolled into sticky balls eaten with sweetmeat throughout the holiday.

Charoset recipes are typically family recipes that also reflect an ethnic influence. Some recipes add bananas, pine nuts, chiles, cilantro or other local ingredients.

However, whether the salad is finely chopped or paste-like – it symbolically represents the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build ancient Egypt and the salad is one of six items on the Sedar Plate along with bitter herbs.

Since I’m not Jewish, I’m inclined to eat this salad throughout the fall and winter months, when apples are at their peak and dried fruit is abundant. This version is more tart than sweet, made sweeter with the sweet red wine. However, I think the salad would also be lovely using olive oil in lieu of sweet wine and adding some fresh parsley and cilantro for a more savory salad. Or, I may make it simply using orange or apple juice and eat the leftovers in my oatmeal.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about apple salads or your family’s charoset version.

Tidbits on Apples:

1. There are over 7,500 known varieties of apples.
2. In some cultures, an apple is a symbol of immortality, love or sexuality. For example, throwing an apple at a person’s bed was an invitation for something racier than apple pie in ancient Greece.
3. Some folklore credits apples with increasing a woman’s chances of conception.
4. Apples have also been rubbed on skin to remove birthmarks.
5. The proverb an apple a day keeps the doctor away, has some truth to it primarily because it helps aid digestion.

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Are you like the majority of Americans who only eat apples as a raw snack or in sweet dishes? If yes, you’re not alone – only a few years ago, I was the same.

More recently, I’ve taken cue from other cultures that use apples in savory dishes, much like one would use a potato – apples add a tart and sweet dimension to soups, stews and salads.

Last fall, I wrote about the Moroccan and North African cookery and how they use fruit such as apples, pears, quinces, apricots and raisins for savory dishes. This chicken and apple tagine is a twist of the Moroccan Lamb and Pear Tagine I posted. Of course, you could easily substitute pears or use both.

Although I still haven’t bought a tagine (the cooking vessel), this dish is a tagine – a reference to the rich Moroccan stew. The chicken version has more veggies (carrots, zucchini, and potatoes) and garbanzo beans. This is pure comfort food, especially when paired with couscous.

October is national apple month – so try apples in a savory dish. What’s your favorite non-sweet apple dish?

Tidbits on Apples:

1. In 2004, U.S. per capita total apple consumption was 50.4 pounds per person, according to the U.S. Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. For fresh fruit, Americans eat 18.6 pounds of apples per person, second to bananas.
2. The high pectin and malic acid in raw apples are good for digestion and elimination. Leave the skin on for extra nutritional benefits. The flavonoids found in apples are believed to help prevent cancer.
3. The acid content of apples makes them a natural breath freshener.

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As you know Fork Fingers Chopsticks just celebrated its 1 Year Anniversary. There are new things in the works – one in particular is my marketing campaign. To spread the word and create more Web love and buzz for this site, I’m taking on more opportunties – like this recent guest post at my friend Pamela’s blog My Man’s Belly. I met her at Campblogaway, a food bloggers conference last May. She’s very creative in the kitchen and as an extra beni – she gives relationship advice.

Check out my recipe for Mexican Pumpkin Seed Pesto. Use it over melted queso for an extra special appetizer, as a spread on bread or tortas (sandwiches), or as a base for a sauce to accompany your favorite meats, veggies or pasta.

I’ll be posting more pumpkin seed recipes after I finish a few more apple posts. Stay tuned – Moroccan Chicken with Apples coming soon.

It’s apple season. It, like the turning of green leaves to golden and crimson hues, is a symbol of fall. In my house and elsewhere, that means it’s time for apple crisp.

I’m more partial to crisps, crumbles and crunches than pies and tarts – not only to make but to eat. I prefer less fuss – sprinkling a quick topping over raw fruit, rather than rolling and pinching dough, and worrying about an undercooked, soggy bottom crust.

A crisp contains flour, butter and sugar that is roughly mixed and scattered atop of fruit. It’s an American adaptation of the British crumble, which some food historians say was developed there around World War II, when food rations called for a sweet alternative to the beloved apple pie they’d been eating since the fifteenth century.

However, other food history authorities suggest that apple crisp and other non-pie variations such as cobbler were introduced in the nineteenth century by the English. Notably, the earliest print reference to apple crisp in American recipes was in 1924 in “Everybody’s Cook Book: A Comprehensive Manual of Home Cookery” by Isabel Ely Lord.

Regardless of its origins, apple crisp is a fall tradition and a good apple crisp is balanced in flavor and texture. Flavor – tart apples and a crisp that’s not overly sweet. Texture – a tender juicy apple filling and a chewy, crisp topping.

In the last few weeks, I’ve already made three apple crisps – the apples always vary but not the crisp.

The apples I use depend on what’s available – Jonathan, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Braeburn, and other tart varieties. My best crisp is a mix of apples, using some apples to hold shape and others that will melt to make a sweet, juicy filling.

This crisp is my go-to recipe for any fruit-based crisp. I adapted it many years ago from the Plum and Peach Crisp recipe at 101 Cookbooks. It calls for yogurt in lieu of some of the butter. It’s fantastic because the yogurt adds a bit of tanginess to the already tart and sweet (not overly sweet) dessert. My adaptation also calls for fresh cardamom, one of my favorite comforting spices.

Enjoy! I’m interested in hearing about which apple varieties are your favorite for baked desserts.

Tidbits on Apples:

1. The large sweet apples that we recognize today descend from wild crabapples from the region of Caucasus in west Asia.
2. Apples arrived in the New World with European settlers. The first documented orchard in the U.S. was planted in 1625 in Boston.
3. Choose your apples by what you decide to do with it – eating raw versus baking. Select ones that are firm and bruise-free. The “undercast” (the background color) of ripe apples is generally a dull yellow or dull green. For example a light green Granny Smith is ripe, while a very green Granny Smith is under-ripe. Under-ripe apples will ripen quickly when left out at room temperature.
4. Store apples in the refrigerator drawer to delay additional ripening. The optimum temperature for apple storage (depending on variety) is between 32 and 40 degrees.

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It’s hinting of fall here in Colorado – crisp mornings and more frequent cool evenings. During the day, there’s still plenty of sunshine to keep my garden growing. And, that of course, means more zucchini.

This recipe for sopa de calabacitas y elote, Mexican zucchini corn soup, is simple and perfect for an almost-fall evening.

The recipe is mine but was inspired by a creamy zucchini soup I ate many, many years ago in Cuernavaca, Mexico. At the time, I left my gig in Austin, Texas to study and travel in Mexico. It was a life-changing experience – my first time traveling abroad. I lived part of the time with a local family and lucky for me, in addition to improving my Spanish, I dined on some amazing food.

I credit Josephina, the mujer de the casa (lady of the house), with introducing me to a vast repertoire of Mexican cuisine. She made exquisite meals every day – sometimes made with fancy ingredients and preparations and other times simple. Our main meal of the day was served early afternoon and almost always started with sopa (soup).

One day she prepared a creamy zucchini soup that I immediately adored – simple, light and comforting.

Her version was a pureed zucchini with stock and cream (which could easily be adapted from the recipe below). My version has additional texture from the corn and diced zucchini, plus fresh cilantro.

Enjoy summer’s bounty these last few weeks.

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