Sparkling Gingered Face Recipes

SPARKLING GINGERED FACE

Steps:

• In a non-reactive bowl, combine gelatin and champagne. Bloom for five minutes. In a small saucepan, bring ginger beer and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and stir into gelatin mixture to dissolve. Pour into a 9-cup face mold. Refrigerate overnight to set.

SPARKLING GINGER COCKTAILS

Steps:

• Simmer water, fresh ginger, and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan, uncovered, 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep 15 minutes. Strain syrup through a sieve into a bowl, discarding solids. Chill until cold.
• Finely grind crystallized ginger with remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a blender or food processor, then spread on a small plate.
• Run lemon wedges around rims of glasses, then dip rims into ginger sugar. Put 1 tablespoon syrup into each glass and top off with Prosecco.

SPARKLY GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or hand-held electric beaters, beat brown sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, molasses and fresh ginger, and mix until well combined.
• Reduce speed to low and gradually add dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.
• Divide dough in half and scrape onto two pieces of plastic wrap, wrapping each piece separately into a flat disk. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days.
• When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Use parchment paper or nonstick liners to line 3 baking sheets, or lightly grease them with nonstick cooking spray. (You may need to bake the cookies in batches.)
• On a clean, lightly floured work surface, roll one disk of dough 1/8-inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut out all the dough. With a small metal spatula, place the gingerbread cut-outs onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between cookies. Repeat with remaining dough. You can reroll the scraps once. Collect them from both pieces of dough, smush them together into a disk and chill before rerolling again.
• Bake small cookies for 8 to 12 minutes, and larger ones for 10 to 15 minutes, or until cookies are firm to the touch and their edges are slightly darker in color. Rotate cookie sheets halfway through for even baking.
• Let cookies cool on baking sheets until firm enough to lift, about 5 minutes. Using a metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
• To decorate, thin the royal icing with water until it's as thick as heavy cream (thinner than you'd use for piping). Divide it into small bowls (or a muffin tin), and use food coloring to tint it different colors. Use a brush to paint the cookies with icing, and, if you like, use toothpicks to apply more icing to make patterns. Sprinkle with colored sugar or other decorations, if you like, while the icing is still wet. Put the decorated cookies on baking sheets to set, then move them to tins or other airtight containers with parchment between the layers.

GINGERBREAD WITH CRYSTALLIZED GINGER

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking pan. Mix first 7 ingredients inn medium bowl. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Add molasses and egg and beat to blend. Beat in pear nectar, then dry ingredients and chopped ginger. Transfer batter to pan.
• Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer pan to rack; cool cake 15 minutes. Sift powdered sugar over cake. Cut cake into 16 squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.