What is it about nuts that go so wonderfully with pumpkin and butternut squash dishes? Walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts just pair so nicely with the flavors of squash. When I first received Buitoni’s Butternut Squash Agnolotti, I knew I wanted to make a hazelnut cream sauce with it. Hazelnuts, like most nuts, taste significantly better when toasted. I have no idea why this is, but I feel the need to always heat nuts for a little while to increase the flavor.
Ingredients:
1 package of Buitoni’s Butternut Squash Agnolotti
1/2 cup hazelnuts, blanched
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch each of ginger, allspice, and nutmeg (1/8 teaspoon or less)
I promise I’ll stop my cookie binge after this post. I was looking for a somewhat “adult” cookie for a bake sale at work and I came across this recipe for Ginger Lemon Pinwheel Cookies. Ginger and lemon cookies? Hmm. This recipe takes a long time (a lot of refrigerating, freezing, etc.) so if you plan on making these Ginger Lemon Pinwheel Cookies, make sure you have a good chunk of time, around 2 hours.
but they are so pretty it’s worth it!
Ingredients
Ginger dough:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg yolk
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash of ground allspice
Lemon dough:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg white
the zest of 2 lemons
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
To make the Ginger Lemon Pinwheel Cookies, begin by making the ginger dough. In a medium bowl, add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and allspice, stir with a whisk to combine.
Add 1/4 cup butter and the brown sugar to a large bowl. Beat with a mixer on medium until well combined.
You will end up using an entire egg in this recipe. To remove the yolk from the egg white, crack the egg over a bowl carefully. Split the two ends of the egg and move the egg from shell piece to shell piece until the white falls into the bowl and the yolk is left in the shell. Reserve the egg white for the lemon dough.
Add molasses and egg yolk to the sugar and butter. Beat until well blended.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
To make the lemon dough, add 5 tablespoons softened butter and the sugar in a large bowl. Mix at medium speed until blended. Add the egg white and beat until combined.
Add lemon rind, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, and vanilla using a mixer to blend.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat at low speed just until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill 30 minutes.
Unwrap ginger dough. Roll ginger dough between sheets of plastic wrap into a 13 x 8 1/2–inch rectangle (3/16 inch thick). (I honestly just eyeballed this). Chill 10 minutes.
Unwrap lemon dough. Roll lemon dough between sheets of plastic wrap into a 13 x 9–inch rectangle (3/16 inch thick). Basically I just tried to make it slightly thinner than the ginger dough. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Chill 10 minutes.
Carefully stack ginger dough on top of lemon dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border along one long edge.
Starting with the long side without a border, roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion. Seal edges (do not seal ends of roll). Cover with plastic wrap; freeze 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the freezer. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap dough. Cut with a sharp knife into 40 slices (I got 39 out of mine, so close!)
Arrange slices 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake one batch at a time for 9 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
So I can’t lie, this Ginger Lemon Pinwheel Cookies recipe has to be one of the most time consuming and difficult cookie recipes I’ve ever made. But the result is pretty awesome. I was so proud of myself when they turned out looking like pinwheels!
You primarily taste the gingerbread, but the aftertaste is a light lemony flavor.
I thought these two flavors might compete with each other, but they end up being quite complimentary. Who knew?
Also, these Ginger Lemon Pinwheel Cookies are pretty snazzy looking aren’t they? 🙂
These Ginger Lemon Pinwheel Cookies are not soft chewy cookies (like a chocolate chip), they are more firm than that. They would probably be awesome dipped into some tea. Yum!
Two cookie recipes rolled together to create these yummy ginger and lemon pinwheel cookies!
Course Dessert
Keyword Cookies, Ginger, Lemon, Pinwheel
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Chill Time 1 hourhour20 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours
Servings 40cookies
Ingredients
Ginger dough:
1/4cupunsalted buttersoftened
1/3cuppacked dark brown sugar
1/4cupmolasses
1large egg yolk
1 1/3cupsall-purpose flour
3/4teaspoonground ginger
3/4teaspoonground cinnamon
1/4teaspoonsalt
1/8teaspoonground nutmeg
Dash of ground allspice
Lemon dough:
5tablespoonsunsalted buttersoftened
2/3cupgranulated sugar
1large egg white
the zest of 2 lemons
1/2teaspoonlemon juice
3/4teaspoonvanilla extract
1 1/3cupsall-purpose flour
1/4teaspoonsalt
Instructions
Begin by making the ginger dough. In a medium bowl, add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and allspice, stir with a whisk to combine.
Add 1/4 cup butter and the brown sugar to a large bowl. Beat with a mixer on medium until well combined.
You will end up using an entire egg in this recipe. To remove the yolk from the egg white, crack the egg over a bowl carefully. Split the two ends of the egg and move the egg from shell piece to shell piece until the white falls into the bowl and the yolk is left in the shell. Reserve the egg white for the lemon dough.
Add molasses and egg yolk to the sugar and butter. Beat until well blended.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
To make the lemon dough, add 5 tablespoons softened butter and the sugar in a large bowl. Mix at medium speed until blended. Add the egg white and beat until combined.
Add lemon rind, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, and vanilla using a mixer to blend.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat at low speed just until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill 30 minutes.
Unwrap ginger dough. Roll ginger dough between sheets of plastic wrap into a 13 x 8 1/2–inch rectangle (3/16 inch thick). (I honestly just eyeballed this). Chill 10 minutes.
Unwrap lemon dough. Roll lemon dough between sheets of plastic wrap into a 13 x 9–inch rectangle (3/16 inch thick). Basically I just tried to make it slightly thinner than the ginger dough. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Chill 10 minutes.
Carefully stack ginger dough on top of lemon dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border along one long edge.
Starting with the long side without a border, roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion. Seal edges (do not seal ends of roll). Cover with plastic wrap; freeze 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the freezer. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap dough. Cut with a sharp knife into 40 slices.
Arrange slices 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake one batch at a time for 9 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Notes
If you make this recipe, share a photo on Instagram and tag me @icancookthat!
At the request of a coworker (and by request I mean he brought in cans of pumpkin puree), I finally made a pumpkin classic — Pumpkin Bread. Although usually made with walnuts or pecans, I instead decided to use chocolate chips. I used a recipe from Cooking Lightas a base for the recipe.
Ingredients:
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup water
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
Cooking spray
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves to a medium sized bowl.
Combine using a whisk.
Add the sugar, egg substitute, oil, buttermilk, and eggs in a large bowl.
Using a mixer, beat on high until well mixed.
Add 2/3 cup water and the pumpkin puree.
Beat on low until blended.
Add the dry flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low until just combined.
Add the chocolate chips. Combine using a spatula. Be sure to not overmix.
Add batter into 2 9×5 inch loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Using a knife to loosen the edges, remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
You can either half this recipe, or freeze the extra bread for up to one month. Just tightly wrap it in plastic wrap before putting it in the freezer.
The original recipe topped the bread with pecans or chopped walnuts, feel free to do that as well before baking.
If you think the bread is browning too much on top, cover it with tin foil towards the end (with 10-15 minutes left).
This bread is so so yummy. I love when I can pass off a dessert-like bread for a breakfast also. (Shh.)
I limited a bit of the spices, more so than I usually would, so that the star would be the sweetness from the chocolate chips. Definitely a winner!
I was really hoping to make actual pumpkin bread using Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, but I couldn’t find pumpkin puree anywhere! Two years in a row of crop shortages are making it very difficult for me to enjoy my favorite ingredient. Anyways, I instead made a Pumpkin Spice Bread.
Ingredients:
1 Dogfish Head Punkin Ale (or other Pumpkin Beer)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, spices and salt to a medium sized bowl.
Mix to combine. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Add the beer. It will fizz up a lot!
Fold the dry ingredients into the beer until just combined. You do not want to over stir it, or the bread will not rise.
Add the chocolate chips and walnuts and stir to combine.
Spray a bread pan with cooking spray and add the dough to the pan.
Cook for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool and then remove from the pan using a knife to loosen the edges.
Serve with butter sprinkled with cinnamon.
The bread has a subtle sweetness to it which makes it perfect for breakfast. I love crunch from the walnuts and the extra pop of sweetness from the chocolate chips.
It’s difficult to not associate barbecues with Labor Day weekend. The unofficial end of summer is usually spent the same way summer began on Memorial Day: relaxing (preferably at a beach) and enjoying the company of friends and family while eating burgers, hot dogs, and grilled chicken. Well, there was no beach for me this weekend, but I was still able to “grill” despite the kind of crummy weather so that I still got my barbecue fix. Cooking Light has a surprisingly simple looking recipe for Pulled Chicken Sandwiches that I just had to try.
Ingredients:
For the chicken:
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
For the sauce:
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses
Remaining ingredients:
8 sandwich rolls, toasted
Pickles, your choice
Don’t let the number of ingredients deter you from making this. It really is simple! The original recipe actually used dark brown sugar, but I had light brown sugar on hand. Feel free to use whichever one you happen to have. You can substitute chicken breasts for this, but thigh meat adds extra juiciness to the sandwich that you really don’t want to miss out tasting.
Begin by preheating your grill. I was stuck indoors, so I just used a grill pan.
Combine first 7 ingredients (light brown sugar through ginger) in a small bowl. I somehow misplaced my measuring spoons so I kind of eyeballed all of these ingredients. Don’t worry about getting the perfect amounts, it’s more about the proportion to the other spices.
Rub the mixture evenly over the chicken.
Place chicken on a grill rack coated with cooking spray.
Cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until a thermometer registers 180 degrees, turning occasionally.
Let stand for 5 minutes.
Shred with 2 forks.
Set to the side for now.
Prepare your onions. If needed, slice your pickles. My boyfriend prefers sweet pickles so we bought the mini ones and minced them for an easy topping.
To prepare sauce, heat oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Stir in 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and the next 5 ingredients (chili powder through ground red pepper) and cook for 30 seconds.
Add ketchup, vinegar and molasses.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.
Stir in chicken and cook for 2 minutes, making sure the chicken is thoroughly coated in the sauce.
Toast the buns.
Place about 1/3 cup chicken mixture on bottom halves of the toasted roll.
Top with pickles if desired.
This recipe was promising from the start. I haven’t seen my boyfriend so excited for a meal I’m cooking in a long time; he even offered to help out! (He worked on grilling and shredding the chicken while I prepped and worked on the sauce, it really sped up the cook time). And this recipe really delivered. It tasted like it had slow cooked for hours, subtly sweet and spicy at the same time. I really don’t like pickles, but my boyfriend had his topped with pickles and said it really made the sandwich that much better.
This meal could easily be used in the winter months to remind you of the warmer weather. You could make this as I did on a grill pan, or to really enhance the flavor, you could cook the chicken in a slow cooker for 5 hours on low.
