What to do with the Ginger?

I know its been a while, but sadly I was a touch under the weather! Thankfully I'm doing much better now. Well at least I'm not in a ton of pain like I had been! Yay for mom's who stop in with medicine and chocolate! Speaking of chocolate, the other day I had a mad hankering for some scratch made brownies. I also had a bunch of pulverized ginger that had been used to make syrup. This ginger is what was left after simmering chopped ginger in equal parts water and sugar with a generous couple of squirts of Agave for an hour, then left to steep for an hour. The liquid you strain off is an excellent ginger syrup for making your own ginger ale. I didn't have the heart to throw out all that gingery goodness! So I popped it in my bullet blender and made it into a kind of chunky ginger pulp. So a thought occurred to me. Why not make ginger brownies!? So I meandered on over to my crazily overstocked pantry and began pulling out all manner of ingredients,  including some chopped hazelnuts I had stashed away for Lebkuchen season. Whats a good brownie without some nuts? So by the time I had the counter piled with ingredients, I had decided on a ginger, hazelnut brownie using Ghiradelli sweet ground chocolate, which is a kind of dutched cocoa. I used the main recipe on the canister itself but with some tasty modifications! I also wanted to make use of my 'As Seen on TV' perfect brownie pan. I was curious as to how perfect it was. I just love those 'As Seen on TV' products. However did we make it through life without them? (I am joking of course.)...(Sorta).

For these fabulous, sock you in the mouth brownies you will need:

1 stick of unsalted butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 a cup Ghiradelli sweet ground chocolate
2/3 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 small package chopped hazelnuts
4 tablespoons pureed ginger used to make ginger syrup

First things first, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray down your baking pan or dish with non-stick cooking spray.Since I'm using a perfect brownie pan, I'm spraying down the pan and the dividers.

 

 

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the sugar and butter.

 

 

 

Once you have a creamy buttery sugary substance in your mixing bowl, add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time, letting each one get mixed in before adding the next. I use bourbon vanilla. Seriously try it if you can find it! It will change your culinary life!

 

 

 

Now here is where my measuring is a bit weird. I know I put four tablespoons in the recipe, that's really just an educated guess. Honestly I didn't know the appropriate phrasing for "Two huge glopping soup spoonfuls" of pulverized ginger. So you know...use my insane method of measuring or conventional measuring spoons to add your ginger to the goop in the bowl. I also added the salt and baking powder at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

Now all that is left is to add in the flour and the cocoa. Let these all blend together fairly well before at the last possible moment adding the nuts. You just want those stirred in a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay..I admit it. Its very obvious that picture of flour is not quite right. Truth is I forgot to take a picture of that step so I tossed in one from another recipe. Bad Brandi! But you get the idea right? So now you have this wonderful smelling chocolate goo in your mixing bowl, all you have to do is schmear that into your baking dish, and pop that in the oven for about 25 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Let these babies cool and enjoy! Now I will warn you, these suckers bite back! Fresh ginger has a bit of a bite to it, almost akin to something spicy, but without the burn. The chocolate helps mellow that out a bit. Also, because its fresh ginger, it gives a rather interesting, almost Earthy texture to these sweet treats. These were darn tasty, if I do say so myself, and I made use of something that would otherwise have gone to waste! Goes to show you can make use of almost anything to create a tasty treat!

 

Brightest Blessings!