There were snowflakes falling in Seattle just five days ago on April first, no joke. Today it is sunny and 70 degrees! Everyone in the city is silly with joy and finding any excuse to get outside. This taste of spring weather sent me to the refrigerator to see what sort of refreshment I could create to punctuate this delightful change in weather.

Sparkling Grapefruit Refresh-mint

Place 4-5 fresh mint leaves in the bottom of a drinking glass.
Add 5-6 ice cubes and using the handle of a wooden spoon, muddle the mint leaves to bruise and release their flavor.
Fill the glass half-full with grapefruit juice.
Fill the rest of the glass with seltzer water.
Mix and enjoy!
(If you prefer a sweet drink add simple syrup or agave syrup to taste.)

The tart bite of grapefruit juice is crisp and refreshing with the mint adding a summery aroma and a smooth minty finish to every sip. In addition to sipping this on a beautiful spring or summer day, it would make a simple, yet sophisticated, non-alcoholic drink to serve at cocktail party.

Looking at the recipe, Chocolate Gingerbread didn’t strike me, which is a little puzzling because I love the individual components. It’s a recipe I have  flipped right past for no good reason, but thanks to my Tuesdays with Dorie weekly baking group I am once again challenged to evaluate a baseless presumption, in this case, that chocolate and gingerbread are anything less than a perfect match. Maybe it’s that gingerbread is so darn good it seems pointless to muddle it up with chocolate.  The reality is there is no muddling going on with this gingerbread. It is rich, moist, and not overly sweet and delivers a bold gingerbread flavor that is beautifully complemented by chocolate.

photo by David Peterman

I really love the texture of this cake. It is dense, but not heavy, and really moist. In addition to the chocolate frosting, there are chocolate pieces mixed throughout the cake that add a lovely gooey factor to the texture. The only change I made to the recipe is I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I think most desserts are improved by a touch of salt and with all the spices in this cake, I was really surprised it didn’t call for salt, so I tossed in a bit for good measure. The frosting is good, but a nice dollop of whipped cream in its place would be equally good.

I bought a huge piece of gorgeous fresh ginger when shopping for this recipe and after mincing up the 2 tablespoons I needed for the gingerbread; I had plenty left to play with. I made a big batch of Spiced Crystallized Ginger by adding a vanilla bean, cardamom, and cinnamon to the process. It was a successful experiment that will probably become my standard. Click here for the recipe along with my tip on the best way to peel such an oddly shaped item as ginger.

photo by David Peterman

Continuing my ginger binge, I made ginger-flavored seltzer water. (That is actually a piece of crystallized ginger on the glass, not a shrimp.) Get ready for the recipe: place a couple of hunks of fresh ginger in seltzer water and let it infuse for 24 hours in the refrigerator. It’s that easy and it makes a lovely beverage.

Over the summer we bought a Soda Club machine to make our own seltzer and I have been experimenting with all kinds of interesting flavors. The best thing is you don’t need to make your own seltzer to play with the infusions. I will post some of the successful combinations I have come up with separately at some point, but for now give the ginger a try. I like to skewer the ginger so I can remove it easily once the flavor is strong enough.

If you are now craving chocolate gingerbread, you can visit Heather, who selected this week’s recipe, at Sherry Trifle where she has it posted. Even better, pick up a copy of Dorie Greenspans’s Baking: From My Home to Yours and you will have this recipe along with whole book of great things to bake.

More delicious cookies are piling up in the kitchens of the Tuesdays with Dorie online baking clan. This week we indulged in Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. Oh yes, it was off to the candy isle to stock up on a big carton of whoppers!

photo by David Peterman

I love malt and whoppers so I knew these would be a big hit with me, though I also know from experience that desserts with candy mix-ins run the risk of being cloyingly sweet. I am not a fan of the sickly sweet stuff, so I hedged my bets with extra bitter 70% dark chocolate chunks in place of the bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips that Dorie calls for. I am happy I did. The cookies are rich and chocolaty, and the sweet hits of melted malt balls are nicely tempered by the bitter chocolate chunks. Additionally, I topped them with a light sprinkling of Murray River Flake Salt as a final counterpoint to the sweet candy and a flavor enhancer to the chocolate.

The biggest factor for these cookies slipping from “ooh-ahh” reviews to “eh” is baking time. They are a bit of a cakey cookie and the difference between soft and gooey or dry and cakey could be as little as an extra thirty seconds to a minute in the oven. Error on the side of underdone and they will be “ooh-ahh”‘ good.

photo by David Peterman

So now that I have a big jar of leftover malt powder in my cupboard what do I do? Oh, sure I could make more cookies, but it’s not like the extra whoppers are going to even last until tomorrow, so I thought I had better come up with another plan. My need for a future-use plan is due to the last time I had a jar of malt; it languished in the back of my cupboard for about five years and the remaining contents was so rock hard I finally tossed it out a few months ago. Feeling a bit guilty, I decided to put it behind me and move on. Then this recipe comes along forcing me to face my demons! I vow to use the entire jar of malt and not let a single bit go to waste. Or should I say every bit will go to waist!

The first thing that came to mind is a spicy malted hot cocoa. Like it or not the air is starting to have that crispy nip of fall, at least here in the Northwest where we never really even had summer this year, and hot cocoa is one of my favorite cold weather treats.

Wed. 8/17 – I have updated the recipe now that I have been drinking it for a few more days. I decided it needed more malt and more cocoa.

Spicy Malted Hot Cocoa Mix
1 cup malted milk powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients together and mix well. Store in an airtight container.
To make a spicy hot beverage, heat one cup of milk and whisk in 3 Tablespoons of Spicy Malted Hot Cocoa Mix. Relax and enjoy.

This has a pretty good kick, so if you don’t like spicy cut back on both the ancho chile and cayenne pepper. Hot cocoa is the perfect place to use a high quality dutch processed cocoa powder if you can. After tasting this, I am not the least bit worried about that extra malt powder languishing in the cupboard this time. I may even need to buy another jar before the winter is over.

Thank you to Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for this week’s recipe selection. You can find the recipe for Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.