From: lindam+@CS.CMU.EDU (Linda Macaluso)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: RECIPES:  Really Ginger Snaps, Soused Christmas Pudding
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:26:01 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University


   To the person who requested really gingery ginger snaps, these just might take
the cake - or cookie.  ;^)  Recipe originally from _The New Basics_, tweaked a
little by me.

   And to the person who requested a Christmas pudding with lots of alcohol, well, the authors of the book (_The Bad-For-You Cookbook_, if anyone cares) say,
"it absorbs more rum than your humble authors on a hot night in Jamaica, and it
*cannot* go bad under any circumstances, short of being injected with penicillin
and left in the sun."  Ahem.


GingerSnaps
-----------

2 C (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 C dark brown sugar
3 eggs 
3/4 C molasses
1/4 C ground ginger (sic)
4 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t cinammon
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
*1/4 - 1/3 C diced candied ginger - my addition*

Cream butter & sugar together until light and fluffy, by hand or on low speed
in a mixer, then beat in eggs & molasses.  Sift together flour, sugar, cinnamon,
soda and salt. Stir into butter and sugar mixture thoroughly, then fold in 
candied ginger. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes. 
(At this point dough can also be frozen for later use.)  

Preheat the oven to 325 F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or wax paper.
Drop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets by rounded teaspoons or, for fanc-
ier cookies, pipe through a pastry bag or cookie press.  Flatten cookie drops 
with fingers, a fork or the bottom of a glass, greased, then dipped in sugar. 
Bake 10 - 13 minutes or until browned.  Lift parchment off sheets and place onto
racks or countertop.  When cookies are cool, remove them from paper.  ~6 dozen.

The cookbook also includes a recipe for making your own candied ginger, which
I definitely want to try sometime, given the price of candied ginger.  It's a
really time-consuming recipe, though!

Crystallized Candied Ginger
---------------------------

2 C fresh ginger, peeled and sliced or chopped in about 1/4" pieces
Salt
4 C water
1 C sugar, plus extra for dipping

Put ginger in a small saucepan and add cold water to cover.  Add a pinch of salt
and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Then drain the
ginger, rinse it under cold water, and drain it again.  Repeat this process three
more times.  (That's what the book says!) 

After three boil-rinse cycles, return ginger to saucepan, then add 4 C water and
1 C sugar.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer slowly till syrup is
thick, about 1 1/4 hours.  

Layer a cookie sheet with sugar to about 1/4 inch and lift out the slices of
ginger with a slotted spoon.  Roll them around in the sugar to coat them well,
then transfer to wire racks to cool and dry completely.  If stored airtight, the
ginger will keep for several months.


Christmas Plum Pudding and Hard Sauce
-------------------------------------

The cookbook says to start this pudding around Thanksgiving, so it has time to
sit and absorb alcohol for a month before Christmas.

1 1/2 C currants
2 C raisins
3/4 C prunes
2 C mixed candied fruit, (orange or lemon peel, cherries, whatever)
1 pound beef suet, well cleaned
juice and grated zest of one lemon
juice and grated zest of one orange
5 C bread crumbs, preferably homemade
2 1/2 C flour
1 C chopped almonds
2 C peeled and chopped cooking apples
1 1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
1 T each ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg
2 t salt
1 quart rum or cognac
4 eggs

Wash the candied fruit, raisins and prunes.  Chop the prunes.  Mince the candied 
fruit and the suet.

Add all ingredients except liquor and eggs to a large bowl. Stir to mix very 
well.  Add 1 cup of the liquor and stir again.  Cover the bowl with a clean
kitchen towel and put in a cool place.

Uncover every day, add 2 tablespoons run or cognac and stir will.  Recover.  
Continue until all but 1/4 cup of the liquor is added.  At this stage, pudding
can stand 2 to 4 weeks.

When you are ready to cook it, add the eggs.  The mixture may be thinned a little
with milk if it seems necessary.  Butter and flour pudding mold (a mteal mixer
bowl works well).  Add pudding mixture and cover with clean cotton cloth, tying
securely with string.  Set mold in large pot of boiling water and boil at least
six hours.

Remove and let stand 30 minutes.  Unmold onto serving platter, then heat remaining
run or cognac, pour it over the pudding and light it.  Serve with hard sauce.

Hard Sauce for Plum Pudding
---------------------------

1 c unsalted butter, softened
2 C confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla
3 T brandy
nutmeg

Thoroughly cream butter.  Beat sugar in gradually, as if making mayonnaise.  Add
vanilla and brandy, beating gradually.  Pour into serving bowl and sprinkle nutmeg
over the surface.  Chill until needed.