Just a few shots of the wonders that surrounded us at Winter Witch Camp last weekend. Most of these were taken during a photo walk I took out onto the lake. It was one gorgeous afternoon among many. I know those of you that were there know what I’m talking about.
Enjoy!
This afternoon we made tomorrow’s breakfast… apple cider doughnuts, from this recipe at Smitten Kitchen. Oh my goodness, they are divine!
We made just a couple of minor tweaks to her directions, by adding a teeny bit more cider (but still reducing it to a quarter cup), using a little more cinnamon, adding a little allspice, and frying in canola instead of shortning. But that’s just because I can’t leave a recipe completely alone. You know me… 
We now have 18 doughnuts and 16 doughnut holes. Well, we had 18 originally, but we couldn’t very well not test them when they were still warm, could we? This gets to be breakfast tomorrow, and the rest get frozen for the winter. Yippee!
I have finally managed to make a perfect soft, chewy ginger cookie. Don’t get me wrong. Ginger snaps can be quite tasty. They definitely have their place. But when I want a ginger cookie, I want soft and chewy, with the deep earthiness of molasses and just the right amount of ginger bite.
Thus was born the Triple Ginger Cookie (inspired by a recipe from Alton Brown). And here I’ll make a small detour to chat a bit about my cooking philosophy and recipes in general. If you’ve seen any of my other recipes you may note that I play a bit fast and loose with quantities and that sometimes my recipes are more like vague guidelines. That’s because that’s how I view most recipes. They are a basic framework, a technique to start me on my path towards what I might be making. I freely change ingredients, sometimes for the good and sometimes… not so much. This recipe was one such rambling tour through one of Alton Brown’s techniques. Feel free to use what I’ve written exactly as I’ve written it. If you do I’m pretty sure you’ll end up with some mighty tasty cookies. But please feel equally free to change things up as much as you please. Add more ginger, use a different flour, or a different kind of sugar/molasses, or add some extra ingredients to make something uniquely your own. That’s my kind of kitchen magic.
Triple Ginger Cookies
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
In large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt. Set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer using paddle (preferred) or in another large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, cream butter with sugar, molasses, and grated ginger.
Reduce speed to stir/low and add the egg, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix until fully incorporated.
Add the flour mixture in three installments, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Stir in the chopped crystallized ginger.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Portion cookies using your favorite method. I use two spoons to form a little cookie dough blob, then flatten it slightly on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookies have soft-set (so that the centers have set, but the cookies are still soft), rotating your pans after 4 minutes.
Once done, let cool on a rack and enjoy!
If you make your cookies between 3/4 and 1 oz you’ll get about 3 dozen 2″ cookies from this batch. They’re really nice sized, not too small that eating one feels unsatisfying, but not so big that eating two feels like too many. But it is a big batch. If you don’t want to bake quite so many many cookies at a time, you can always freeze your cookie dough blobs on a cookie sheet until solid, then bag them up and bake them later. That’s what I did!
A great while ago, you may remember my mentioning my joining a site called Spoonflower, where designers can have their own work printed on fabric. They are really lovely people. Wonderful fabric options, fun owners and employees, cool community of designers, great customer service.
Well, just a few weeks ago, they put out a call for Halloween themed fabric designs for their weekly design contest. I’ve never entered one of their themed contests before, but I figured who better to enter a Halloween design contest than a witch!
So this week, my design is in the running for votes. If you like the design, below, think about voting. I’m not very good at self-promotion, and I hope that I’m not being completely shameless by asking. But just take a look…
We completed the labyrinth! At long last, and just in time for last weekend’s party.
Here are some pictures of the labyrinth completed. We were able to not only finish construction, but also set up our planned altars within the labyrinth (the central altar and altars surrounding the priestess point, one for each direction/element). This has truly been a labour of love, creating such a sacred space here on our land. Hard work, but more than worth it.
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