Wasabi Gingerbread

[quinara]

(The colours on my phone are really drab; sorry! I've tried to get things looking like they should...)
(Also: context.)

Well, I couldn't resist. Mostly because I've been looking for an excuse to go and get some miso paste from the Korean/Asian supermarket near me, and getting a few more ingredients made sense. I wouldn't say the wasabi in these is very strong at all, and I don't know if you could tell what was in them if you didn't already know, but they are nice and fragrant (+ sweet) and leave a certain warmness in your mouth after you've eaten one. They're absolutely nothing like wasabi peas and I'm sure Spike's palate would be quite bored by them, but they're a variation I'll make again! I might experiment with a touch more spices, because I wouldn't mind more flavour, though I think the ratio is right.

Ingredients

3oz soft light brown sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon black treacle (I think this is molasses?)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon green tea powder (there seemed to be some difference between this and the slightly more expensive matcha powder, but I'm not sure what it is)
1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder (the only option I had for this was the affordable version, listed as 76% western horseradish, mustard, tapioca starch and 2% wasabi - obviously adjust if you have access to something stronger)
Juice of half a lime (half-heartedly squeezed to create 1-2 tablespoons)

3 1/2 oz butter
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Approx. 8oz of plain flour

For decoration: 1/4 teaspoon wasabi powder; the rest of the juice from the lime half (more earnestly squeezed); several teaspoons of icing sugar

Method

Put the sugar, syrups, spices and lime juice in a large, deep pan. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has melted and the mixture is at boiling point.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, cut into small chunks. When this has melted, stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Gradually stir in the flour, adding as much as necessary and ultimately kneading to the point that you have a thick, squidgy dough which doesn't have a shine and doesn't stick to the sides of the pan. Wrap this dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface so it's fairly thick (1/2 to 3/4 cm or something?), then cut into whatever shapes you want. Bake on a lined tray at 180 degrees C for approximately 13 minutes (adjust depending on whether your shapes have fiddly narrow bits or have vast expanses of dough to cook). The edges should be just going slightly darker brown, while the centres should be matte and shouldn't let your finger pass straight through them, though expect a bit of a dimple. Leave them to cool on the tray for at least five minutes before you move them, so the bottoms have time to harden up.

To decorate like what I've got, mix a little more wasabi powder with some icing sugar and the rest of the lime juice until you have some icing at a consistency that will drizzle from the end of a fork. (Obvs. food colouring is an option if you want the icing more green, and water can happily replace the juice if you don't have enough.) Scoop some icing onto the fork and flicker it diagonally over the cooling gingerbread. Ta-da!

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

Oh, cool. The cookies sound good, but I'm fascinated by the lime-wasabi icing all by itself. I can think of all sorts of entertaining places I could put that.

[quinara]

:D I think mine might need more wasabi, because it mostly tastes like a slightly strange lime icing, but it's pretty damn zingy.

(I should also probably note with this recipe that I'm cooking with a slight cold, and one thing I can feel are the biscuits doing my sinuses some good!)

[rahirah]

Man, I would love to try this with real wasabi. A sushi place near us will give you the real thing if you ask for it, and it's SO good...

[quinara]

I think you should DO EET and report back. :D Although I can only reiterate that next time I do this I'm going to do 2 teaspoons of ginger and green tea powder and 1 teaspoon or wasabi, if only to keep things interesting. Though maybe don't double the real stuff...! (Although, I'm not actually sure if wasabi is stronger or just more flavoursome? Hmm!)