NOLA love … Cajun Ginger Cookies

I went to New Orleans for the first time last fall, to cook at a wonderful Emeril Lagasse event – Carnivale du Vin – held for his foundation.  It’s in Vegas this year – 11/14 at The Venetian – with 20 chefs and will be outstanding.  If you’re into food and hob nobbing with celebrity chefs, this is the place to be.  Check it out. Fantastic event.

Anyway, it’s shocking but I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get my butt to New Orleans.  What exactly have I been doing all these years? Such a fabulous place, with lovely people and amazing amazing food. Everyone we met – and we met some characters along the way – were unbelievably friendly, helpful, warm and just wonderful.   And damn does that city smell good!!  Everything I ate – and it was an embarrassing quantity of food – was unreal; simply fantastically good.  I loved every minute of it.  We did it all – Cochon (unbelievably good), muffalettas at Central Grocery (with Thomas Keller no less), pralines, po’ boys (a French fry sandwich!  Hello? I’m in!), beignets at Café du Monde and the hands down best fried chicken OF MY LIFE at Dookie Chase.  Holy crap.  I dream about that fried chicken still. And this was just the food we sought out in between cooking and the parties/meals that the du Vin staff planned for us.  Ridiculous.  Man, I’d weight 8000lbs if I lived in Louisiana.  I’d be so happy.

One morning after another food frenzy, we meandered back to our hotel (OK, waddled) and wandered into a used bookstore.  I just love putzing around used bookstores.  Of course, I zoom right to the cookbook section and picked up Susan Spicer’s book – Crescent City Cooking.  I met her briefly at a welcome event a few nights prior and was intrigued, so I purchased the book.  Thumbing through it on the plane, I found several recipes that I wanted immediately. Like right then and there and my bag of pretzels wasn’t cutting it.  Susan is someone who is connected to the area and it comes through not only in her cooking but her recipes and writing style.  Very engaging.

Above all else, the Double Ginger Cookies were calling to me.  I love spice/molasses cookies – everyone else can take the chocolate chips, I love me some spice.  This recipe intrigued me because it had two kinds of ginger – ground & fresh – and cayenne so I knew it would have a good bite.  Interesting.  And then I promptly forgot about them.

Then a few weeks ago, I finally got some time as I was coming up with a next round of treats for my friend in Afghanistan (I send a pal a box of goodies every couple weeks to cheer her up while she’s deployed.)   I opted to kick it up a bit and add some finely diced candied ginger too.  I named these “Cajun Ginger Cookies” because of the heat and they are super tasty!  There’s quite a bit of spice which gives a really nice zing, a little molasses to round out the flavor and something interesting – cider vinegar – which keeps them tender.  They’re great shippers and were perfect when then arrived in Afghanistan.

Rolling these in coarse sugar before baking adds a really nice crunch.  You can get some from King Arthur or specialty cookware or grocery stores (I’ve seen it at Whole Foods) or use regular granulated sugar if you can’t find any.  It won’t have the same crunch but will add that extra sweetness in a pinch.  I also like my cookies relatively small but you can make these larger just increase the baking time accordingly.

CAJUN GINGER COOKIES
Makes approximately 80 2” baked cookies

2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon cayenne
16 Tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 cup sugar
¼ cup unsulfered molasses
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger
¼ cup finely diced candied ginger
coarse sugar for dipping the cookies before baking

1. Preheat oven to 325°F and line 2 sheet pans with parchment or Silpat mats.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, allspice, cloves and cayenne and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add the molasses and vinegar and beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined, scraping once.
5. Add the egg and beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined, scrape down.
6. Add the fresh ginger on medium speed until thoroughly combined, scrape down.
7. Add the dry ingredients and the candied ginger; mix on low until just blended.  Scrape the bowl and mix until everything is thoroughly combined.
8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refridge for 30 minutes.
9. Place the coarse sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
10. With a small 1” ice cream scoop or a spoon and your hands, form 1” balls.
11. Dip each ball in the coarse sugar and place on prepared baking sheets, sugar side up, 1” apart.
12. Bake 12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking, until lightly golden.  Cool completely.
13. If you prefer, freeze the dough balls – sans coarse sugar – on a parchment lined sheet pan until solidly frozen then transfer the dough balls to a Ziploc bag for longer storage.  Roll in sugar and bake directly from the freezer, adding a few minutes to the bake time.

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