A Winelover's Wanderings

Palma of Palmabella's Passions picked ginger as this week's ingredient. This should be interesting!

I checked out a bunch of potential recipes and found a couple that sounded interesting to me.

The first one was given to me by my friend Marianne. I don't know where it came from originally, but it was really GOOD!

Candied Ginger and Rosemary Squares

4 sticks (2 cups) softened unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 cups al-purpose flour
1 t. salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten, divided
1 cup (5 1/2 oz) finely chopped crystallized ginger
3 T. dried rosemary, crumbled or 2 T. chopped fresh
1 T. water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large food processor fitted with the metal blade, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Into a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt, then gradually pulse into butter mixture along with three-fourths of the eggs.

Beat in ginger and rosemary.

Press dough evenly into a 13 x 9 inch baking pan lined with buttered tin foil.

In a small bowl beat water into remaining egg to make an egg wash and brush on dough.

With back of knife, score dough (about 1/4 inch deep) in a cross-hatch pattern and bake in the middle of oven 35 to 40 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan completely. Lift out by edges of foil, and cut into squares on cutting board. (May be made 5 days ahead and chilled covered. Let come to room temperature before serving.)

Garnish with rosemary sprigs if desired. Serves 16 to 20 as a hearty hors d'oeuvre.

I halved the recipe and used fresh rosemary. Then I completely forgot to score the dough before baking.

The squares were really good, but next time I would probably put in more ginger and more rosemary.