My great-grandmother was an amazing baker. Her cookie recipes especially were amazing, my favorite was her molasses cookies. They had a light, airy texture and somehow always achieved the perfect balance between the molasses and the ginger. I use the past tense referring to the cookies because, of course, I can no longer enjoy them and I haven't yet succeeded in replicating them quite right with gluten-free ingredients. It is a work in progress and I hate to tease my readers, but if I ever do get it right, I can't publish it. Family secret.
But I can recommend a substitute! Pamela's produces a wide-range of gluten-free cookies (often also non-diary) and I just recently tried their
Ginger Cookies with Sliced Almonds. The ginger flavor was a little too strong for my palate (spoiled by past tastes of perfect molasses cookies), but they are, after all, ginger cookies and a strong ginger flavor should be expected. The cookies have a nice texture and the sliced almonds are a nice edition. They're neither dry or moist and, therefore, go very well with tea.
This afternoon, I paired my ginger cookies with tea purchased from the
Baxter Tea Company, an amazing little, Maine-owned company that sells amazing teas. The Baxter Tea Company is a great business in several respects (small, Maine-owned, sells tea), but what captured my business was that the owner donates ten percent of her profits to maintaining Baxter State Park. That is a cause I whole-heartedly support, especially if I get high-quality loose tea as part of the bargain! This afternoon's tea was
Dutchess Grey, a variation on Earl Grey that contains lemon peel, cloves, cinnamon and safflowers. I don't care for the heavy flavor of bergamot in Earl Grey, so this was an excellent selection for me and the spicy citrus flavor complimented my ginger cookies beautifully.
My great-grandmother was an amazing baker. Her cookie recipes especially were amazing, my favorite was her molasses cookies. They had a light, airy texture and somehow always achieved the perfect balance between the molasses and the ginger. I use the past tense referring to the cookies because, of course, I can no longer enjoy them and I haven't yet succeeded in replicating them quite right with gluten-free ingredients. It is a work in progress and I hate to tease my readers, but if I ever do get it right, I can't publish it. Family secret.
But I can recommend a substitute! Pamela's produces a wide-range of gluten-free cookies (often also non-diary) and I just recently tried their Ginger Cookies with Sliced Almonds. The ginger flavor was a little too strong for my palate (spoiled by past tastes of perfect molasses cookies), but they are, after all, ginger cookies and a strong ginger flavor should be expected. The cookies have a nice texture and the sliced almonds are a nice edition. They're neither dry or moist and, therefore, go very well with tea.
This afternoon, I paired my ginger cookies with tea purchased from the Baxter Tea Company, an amazing little, Maine-owned company that sells amazing teas. The Baxter Tea Company is a great business in several respects (small, Maine-owned, sells tea), but what captured my business was that the owner donates ten percent of her profits to maintaining Baxter State Park. That is a cause I whole-heartedly support, especially if I get high-quality loose tea as part of the bargain! This afternoon's tea was Dutchess Grey, a variation on Earl Grey that contains lemon peel, cloves, cinnamon and safflowers. I don't care for the heavy flavor of bergamot in Earl Grey, so this was an excellent selection for me and the spicy citrus flavor complimented my ginger cookies beautifully.
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