Ginger Snaps and Lemon Curd from Episode 19
Bootie and Bossy each thought they had the best ginger snap recipe. It turns out that their recipes are virtually identical! Bootie's came from her wonderful friend, Mary Ellen Haley, who is well known for her delicious baking. Bossy's came from Marion Cunningham's cookbook, The Breakfast Book. Bossy has been luring her coworkers into attending meetings with these cookies, along with the accompanied lemon curd, for many years. One of her coworkers said he goes to bed dreaming of them. The recipe for the lemon curd comes from Ina Garten who ingeniously has you peeling the lemons for the zest and then pulverizing the peels with sugar. This method may use a few more bowls than we would like but it's so easy.
Ginger Snaps
Ingredients:
18 T butter (2 and 1/4 sticks, preferably unsalted)
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1 T ginger (bossy's uses 1 and 1/2, Bootie uses 2 teaspoons)
1 heaping t ground cloves
1 heaping t cinnamon
1 heaping t allspice
1 heaping t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
3 t baking soda
Sugar for coating dough, preferably turbinado sugar
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Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, sugar, and molasses, then add eggs. Mix dry ingredients together and then add them to the butter/sugar/molasses/egg mixture. Chill dough for @30 minutes. Roll dough into balls the size of golf balls, then roll dough in turbinado sugar to coat. Press balls lightly on cookie sheet lined with silpat or parchment paper so they don't roll around. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Do not overbake. Makes about 45 large cookies.
Ina Garten's Lemon Curd, courtesy of Food Network
Ingredients
3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
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Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.
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Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.
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Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.
"A party without cake is really just a meeting." --Julia Child
