ginger Archives - Wood & Spoon

Chewy Gingerbread Lemon Bars

Best Christmas Cookies of 2020:

This is my comfort zone. Give me all the chocolate. All the butter. All the peppermint and sprinkles and frosting. It was hard to whittle my favorites list down to just ten choice cookies, but it had to be done. Without further ado, here they are!

Chewy Gingerbread Lemon Bars by Wood and Spoon. These are soft blondie-like bars flavored with ginger and topped with a cream cheese and lemon frosting! These bars and sweetened and chewy, perfect for the holidays! Learn how to make these sweet gingerbread treats on thewoodandspoon.com

Peanut Butter Pretzel Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, these are as over-the-top and delicious as they sound. A chewy cookie loaded with peanut butter and both chocolate and caramel morsels take the cake in my book.

Mint Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

These are a crowd favorite in my house of mint chocolate lovers. The sandwiching is simple and makes for a cookie that feels super special.

Soft-Frosted Sugar Cookies

I grew up on these cookies. These soft and simple sugar cookies have a creamy spreadable frosting. They’re not fussy, not hard to make- just special and yummy.

Espresso Caramel Thumbprint Cookies

Here, an espresso-scented caramel fill chocolate thumbprint cookies. These cookies are definitely for the grown-ups- not Santa.

Brown Butter Bourbon Snickerdoodles

These are newer on my site, but they’re already a fave. Make them and you’ll see why.

White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (with option for vegan!)

Peppermint reigns supreme this time of year, and I love how soft and tender these cookies stay, even a day or two after making them. With option for vegan preparation, these are a great option for people following special diets.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Another newbie that rightfully earned its place on this list. Load these chewy chocolate chip cookies with whatever you have in your kitchen.

Sugar Cookie Gift Tags

Don’t let the hearts fool you- you can enjoy these cookies allll year long. Here, I offer a tutorial on how to make gift tags out of, you guessed it, sugar cookies! Although these were hearts for Valentine’s Day, I think little trees, candy canes or even tiny stocking cookies would be great here!

Espresso Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Maybe my favorite chocolate chip cookie. Loaded with espresso powder, toffee bits and chunks of chocolate, these cookies are great for coffee and chocolate lovers alike!

Peppermint Bark Brownies

I had to sneak one more peppermint option on here. These are CRAZY fudgy. Like, insanely so. Just make them

Chewy Gingerbread Lemon Bars

So those all sound great, right? But do you see what is missing from the list? Gingerbread. Specifically, chewy gingerbread lemon bars. Today’s recipe is a soft and chewy ginger-flavored bar that is flavored with ginger, molasses, and cinnamon. The topping is a sweet and tangy lemon cream cheese frosting, a combo that, in my book, is best case scenario for any kind of gingerbread. They go so well together and these bars really shine because of it.

To keep things simple, you can easily make these chewy gingerbread lemon bars in advance and store in an airtight container in the freezer. You can pull them out to thaw for family, Santa, or whoever else might wiggle down your chimney. I opted to use a large round piping tip to decorate these with icing, but you can also just spread it right on top with an offset spatula. A little garnish of sanding sugar or gingerbread crumbs make these bars look super cute too!

Chewy Gingerbread Bars by Wood and Spoon. These are soft blondie-like bars flavored with ginger and topped with a cream cheese and lemon frosting! These bars and sweetened and chewy, perfect for the holidays! Learn how to make these sweet gingerbread treats on thewoodandspoon.com

We’re just a few days out from the big day! Get to planning your baking and let me know how I can help! I’d love to chat! Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

If you like these chewy gingerbread lemon bars you should try:

Chewy Gingerbread Lemon Bars

Print Recipe

These chewy gingerbread lemon bars have a gingerbread flavor, soft texture, and are topped with fluffy lemon cream cheese frosting!

Author: Kate Wood
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 30
Total Time: 60
Yield: 16
Category: Dessert

Ingredients

For the bars:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1–1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon nutmeg

For the frosting:

¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon lemon zest

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Instructions

To make the bars:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fareheit. Line a 9” square pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease with baking spray. Set aside.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, sugar, and molasses until lighted and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the dry ingredients. Stir just until combined. Dump the dough into the prepared pan and use lightly wet fingers or a piece of wax paper to press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake in the preheated oven until the bars are puffed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 27-28 minutes. Allow to cool completely. You can expedite this process in the fridge or freezer.

To make the frosting:

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the powdered sugar, juice, and zest and stir to combine. Spread the frosting out on the bars, or, to frost like I did, cut out the 16 squares and use a large round piping tip to pipe the frosting on. You can barely chill the bars to have the frosting set up a little more firm. Store the bars covered at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Bourbon Ginger Sweet Tea

This is a seriously simple cocktail to throw together. Kentucky bourbon, lime juice, and ginger beer are combined with sweet tea and poured over a tall glass of ice to make a cocktail that is kind of a mash-up of a bourbon mule and sweet tea. Because no shaking or blending is needed, this also happens to be a great cocktail to batch for a crowd and share on the last of this season.

Making the Drinks

To make a really good bourbon ginger sweet tea we need really good ingredients. Sweet tea is a staple here in the South, and it’s no secret that my go-to fave is from a locally founded company, Red Diamond. Made simply with tea leaves, water, and sugar, Red Diamond Sweet Tea is free of preservatives and concentrates and has that perfect classic flavor that every glass of good Southern sweet tea should. To the tea we add fresh lime juice, quality Kentucky bourbon, and just a smidge of ginger beer. The lime juice and ginger beer balance out the boozy sweetness of the bourbon and sweet tea, and all together these ingredients make up a cocktail that is seriously easy to drink. Pace yourselves, people.

If you’d like to batch this bourbon ginger sweet tea for a crowd, pull out your calculators and get computing! I recommend stirring the ingredients together just before serving and allowing guests to pour their own over glasses of ice. If you want to make these ahead, just leave out the ice and the ginger beer until just before serving to keep the cocktail slightly fizzy and to prevent it from getting watered down. Serve each tea in a tall glass and garnish with a lime wedge if you’re feeling extra fancy.

If you are doing all you can to soak in these last days of summer, give this drink a try. It’s seriously refreshing and makes for a great treat to sip on day or night. Many thanks to Red Diamond for sponsoring this post and to you all for supporting brands that make Wood & Spoon possible. If you give the recipe a try, let me know what you think in the comments section below! Happy Monday!

If you like this recipe you should check out:

Warm Apple Tea

Sweet Tea Hot Toddy

Pinot Margaritas

Grapefruit Moscow Mules

Bourbon Ginger Sweet Tea

Print Recipe

This bourbon ginger sweet tea is a refreshing summertime and Southern take on a bourbon mule!

Author: Kate Wood
Prep Time: 3
Total Time: 3 minutes
Yield: 1
Category: Drink

Ingredients

1–1/2 ounces bourbon
½ ounce lime juice
5 ounces ready to drink sweet tea
2 ounces ginger beer

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Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients in a large glass filled with ice. Add an additional ounce of ginger beer if desired. Enjoy!

Ginger Margaritas

9 Comments / Food and Drink

Sunday- the day of rest. The day for couch naps and leisurely suppers; the time for extra cups of coffee and folding laundry. To help get you in full-on relaxation mode, I’m sharing a sweet summery cocktail and a few photos from George’s 2nd birthday. Grab some limes, pop a squat, and lets dive into these ginger margaritas!

First Up: George’s Birthday!

A few days ago we had a number of friends and family members over to celebrate our George. On what ended up being the hottest day Alabama has seen all spring, about 30 kids and 30 adults sweat it out in the backyard of our rental home to honor our little buddy with popsicles, balloons, guac, and tacos.

Ginger Margaritas and George's Birthday Party Wood and Spoon Blog by Kate Wood. 2nd birthday party for boy, popsicles, boozy frozen desserts, layer cake, balloon letters spray painted, outdoors, picnic, balloons with confetti, party inspiration — photos by Sam Jones

The party was loads of fun, and I’m so grateful for a handful of folks are eager to love our family. I am, however, still learning how to host people in our home. While I love being surrounded by people I love, I haven’t quite figured out to be at rest in it and just let everyone have a good time. Type A party planners out there- how do you do it? How do you relax long enough to enjoy the party yourself?

Luckily I had the help of Sam Jones, who was standing by to take photos, my mother, pro-babysitter and dishwasher extraordinaire, and my dear friend Rayne who made sure the pitchers of booze stayed brimming and iced down all evening long.

Ginger Margaritas

To make sure the adults stayed well-hydrated, we had a variety of margaritas- both frozen and on-the-rocks lime margs, rosé margs, and a single batch of ginger margaritas, a bright and refreshing drink that I’ve been enjoying a whole lot lately. Because sharing is caring, I’m serving up the recipe for those ginger margaritas to you today to enjoy at your own backyard bashes. After all, our guests need to be served well, right?

Making the Margs

To make these ginger margaritas, we start with the syrup. Fresh ginger root is peeled and roughly chopped before being cooked with sugar and water on medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has begun to simmer, remove the pan from heat and allow the spicy ginger to infuse into the sugar syrup. Chill the finished syrup in the fridge for future use.

When you’re ready to make your ginger margaritas, simply combine fresh lime juice, tequila, and your pre-made syrup in a tall shaker filled with ice. Shake, shake, shake until icy and pour the mixture into a salt-rimmed glass. These ginger margaritas are super refreshing, a fun and unique take on everyone’s favorite summertime cocktail. This is a beverage that will ensure your party guests come back to all of your future parties- even the hot and sweaty backyard ones.

Happy Sunday to you and thanks for taking a break with me. Enjoy these ginger margaritas during your Sunday day drinking and be sure to check out more cocktails and party inspiration below!

If you like these ginger margaritas you should check out:

Rosé Margaritas

Sparkling Margaritas

Honey Basil Margaritas

Pinot Ritas

Ginger Margaritas

Print Recipe

These ginger margaritas a bright and refreshing, a unique and delicious take on everyone’s favorite tequila cocktail!

Author: Kate Wood
Prep Time: 30
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 1

Ingredients

For the margaritas:

1 ounce silver tequila
1 ounce lime juice
1 ounce ginger syrup

For the ginger syrup:

2/3 cup freshly peeled and sliced ginger
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup water

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Instructions

To make the margaritas:

Pour the ingredients into a tall shaker and fill with ice. Shake vigorously for 30 second to allow
the ice to melt and the mixture to chill. Pour the contents of a shaker into a salt rimmed glass
and enjoy!

To make the ginger syrup:

Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, on medium-low
heat until simmering. Allow to cook for an additional 25 minutes on low heat. Strain the ginger
out of the syrup and chill in a heat proof container until cold.

Notes

The syrup recipe will produce enough to make several margaritas.
Only fresh ginger will work for this recipe. Ginger powder, bottled minced ginger, and pickled
ginger are not recommended.

Ginger Molasses Bundt Cakes

8 Comments / Cakes

Guys, I gotta tell you, I’m feeling so merry that I could burst. All the gift wrapping and carols and tinsel and Charlie Brown Christmas has got me feeling more festive than Mrs. Claus herself. I’ve eaten more peppermint bark and cookies than I can admit without a small amount of shame, but honestly, who cares? IT’S CHRISTMAS! If you haven’t gotten in the holiday spirit yet, just hang in there, because everyone is bound to catch the fever at some point. And if you’ve hit a mental block or dead end in your Christmas shopping already, keep reading because I have got some terrific tips for you!

These past few weeks I’ve gotten a lot of questions from friends and followers about what type of tools an aspiring baker might need. There’s so much available in stores that sometimes it’s hard to pick out which items are necessary and reliable. So I have compiled a Christmas list for you, or for the aspiring home bakers in your life, of tools and kitchen supplies that you can count on to get the job done. These are items and brands that I have in my home and rely on every week, and while not all are essential, they’re all super fun and useful. You can check out the links for these items at the bottom of this post!

And if you haven’t maxed out your tolerable intake level of gingerbread and other holiday spiced foods, I have these little ginger molasses bundt cakes for you too! I had been looking for a ginger cake recipe for some time and finally found one from David Lebovitz that I was quite fond of. I wanted these cakes to have a more mild ginger flavor and not be so heavily spiced that people who weren’t as fond of ginger could enjoy them as well. I think these are spot on.

These ginger molasses bundt cakes are fluffy and moist, with warm flavors of molasses and brown sugar throughout. I used jarred ginger to help keep the prep time for this recipe under 10 minutes, but fresh ginger would be a home run here too. If you prefer a more strongly ginger flavored cake, you can add up to two more tablespoons of ginger to give them an extra zesty boost. The cakes are topped with a white chocolate glaze that sweetens them up a bit and make them look like little snow topped mountains. (Insert heart eyes).

Because most people don’t have a mini bundt pan laying around, you can also make mini muffins or an 8″ cake out of this recipe. I personally prefer the mini muffins to a large cake, but who I am to tell you what to do?

Stay tuned for more Christmas cheer from this gal over the next few weeks, and please give these ginger molasses cakes a shot! If you have any questions about the Christmas wish list, drop me a line below in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them. Cheers to all and to all a good night!

Ginger Molasses Bundt cakes

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

These ginger molasses bundt cakes and moist and fluffy cakes, fragrant from spicy ginger and cinnamon, and sweetened up by a white chocolate glaze.

Author: Kate Wood
Prep Time: 30
Cook Time: 60
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 6

Ingredients

For the cakes

1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons fresh minced ginger (See Notes)
1/2 cup mild molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon baking soda
1–1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves

For the glaze

3/4 cup white chocolate chips
4 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

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Instructions

To prepare the cakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the vanilla, ginger, molasses, sugars, and oil in a large bowl, stirring together until evenly mixed.
Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Once boiling, carefully add the baking soda and stir to mix in.
Add the baking soda and water mixture to the bowl with the sugars and stir to combine. Add in the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Grease (I use baking spray with flour) a 6 cake mini bundt pan and evenly disperse the batter in each cake pan. Place in the preheated oven and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes and then invert the cakes on to a cooling rack to continue cooling.

To prepare the frosting

Once the cakes are cooled, prepare the frosting.
Over a double boiler set on low heat, melt the chocolate chips with the heavy cream. Do no let the water get too hot as this will cause the chocolate to seize up. Instead, allow the chocolate to begin melting and move on and off the heat as needed in order for the chips to just barely melt. Do not increase the heat above low or allow the bowl to get too hot. Once melted, allow the chocolate to cool slightly and then whisk in the sifted confectioner’s sugar. Stir until combined and the drizzle over the cooled cakes. If the frosting is too stiff, you can heat slightly in the microwave about 15 seconds or add additional heavy cream, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Notes

Notes: I used minced ginger from a jar, but if you have fresh ginger on hand that would be lovely as well.
This recipe can also be prepared in mini muffin tins. Adjust bake time to about 15 minutes. Recipe makes about 30 mini muffins or 1- 8″ cake.

Recipe Adapted From: David Lebovitz

ginger

Best Christmas Cookies of 2020:

Chewy Gingerbread Lemon Bars

If you like these chewy gingerbread lemon bars you should try:

Chewy Gingerbread Lemon Bars

Ingredients

For the bars:

For the frosting:

Instructions

To make the bars:

To make the frosting:

Bourbon Ginger Sweet Tea

Making the Drinks

If you like this recipe you should check out:

Bourbon Ginger Sweet Tea

Ingredients

Instructions

First Up: George’s Birthday!

Ginger Margaritas

Making the Margs

If you like these ginger margaritas you should check out:

Ginger Margaritas

Ingredients

For the margaritas:

For the ginger syrup:

Instructions

To make the margaritas:

To make the ginger syrup:

Notes

Ginger Molasses Bundt cakes

Ingredients

For the cakes

For the glaze

Instructions

To prepare the cakes

To prepare the frosting

Notes

join the list