Ginger Snap Biscuits In Davao City

[Markham]

They just finished an annual event in Honolulu where several thousand children constructed gingerbread houses using donated materials from the hotel and restaurant industry. Each child was supervised by one adult. This jarred my memory that many hotels in the Philippines sell gingerbread houses during the holidays. Usually, you have to order one. Remove the frosting. That's pure sugar. The large square and rectangular gingerbread biscuits should be good to eat.

Ginger Nuts are completely different to Gingerbread and should not, for example, disintegrate when dunked in one's cup of (hot) tea :)

[JJReyes]

Ginger Nuts are completely different to Gingerbread and should not, for example, disintegrate when dunked in one's cup of (hot) tea

 

Oh! I better stop responding to this topic since I don't eat Ginger Nuts or drink a hot cup of English tea. 

[Thomas]

Ginger Nuts are completely different to Gingerbread and should not, for example, disintegrate when dunked in one's cup of (hot) tea :)

Oh aren't Ginger Nuts same as what's shown in the picture in the link 2Cat2 show?    (Which I would have called "Ginger bread" when translating what we Swedes of some odd reason call "pepparkakor", which would be "PEPPER cookie" translated word by word! But perhaps it was short of ginger here originaly, so perhaps many used pepper back then, Wikipedia says there are mant different recepies, so I suppouse no point I look up a Swedish one.)

[Kiwi-Alan]

Just as nice dipped in a hot cup of coffee.

[2Cats2]

 

Ginger Nuts are completely different to Gingerbread and should not, for example, disintegrate when dunked in one's cup of (hot) tea :)

Oh aren't Ginger Nuts same as what's shown in the picture in the link 2Cat2 show?    (Which I would have called "Ginger bread" when translating what we Swedes of some odd reason call "pepparkakor", which would be "PEPPER cookie" translated word by word! But perhaps it was short of ginger here originaly, so perhaps many used pepper back then, Wikipedia says there are mant different recepies, so I suppouse no point I look up a Swedish one.)

 

There are three different things we are discussing. They are not the same.

 

Gingerbread: It is as the name suggests soft and crumbling, like bread or cake . Tastes very nice.

 

Pepparkakor: I lived in Sweden for a year and know this well. It is delicious ...but it is not ginger nuts.  The biscuit is much thinner and softer. The taste is peppery and also a little bit like cinnamon.

 

British ginger nuts: These are very hard and taste strongly of ginger. Some are so hard that you think you might break a tooth eating them… Which is why some people like to dip them in tea or coffee to soften them before eating.  I don't.

 

Anyway… I have given up in my search to buy ginger nuts in the  Davao city (or ginger snaps as they are sometimes called). I'm going to try and bake my own. There is an easy recipe provided by BBC:

 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/269616/gingernut-biscuits

 

The problem, as someone pointed out, is that you cannot find the ingredient Golden Syrup in the Philippines. I am going to try and use honey and see if this works.  I will let you know how it turns out. The other possible alternative to golden syrup  would be maple pancake syrup. Both sound interesting… But it might not be ginger nuts as I know them which come out of the oven.

 

Watch this space...

 

More fun in the Philippines…!   :-)

[2Cats2]

 

 

Ginger Nuts are completely different to Gingerbread and should not, for example, disintegrate when dunked in one's cup of (hot) tea :)

Oh aren't Ginger Nuts same as what's shown in the picture in the link 2Cat2 show?    (Which I would have called "Ginger bread" when translating what we Swedes of some odd reason call "pepparkakor", which would be "PEPPER cookie" translated word by word! But perhaps it was short of ginger here originaly, so perhaps many used pepper back then, Wikipedia says there are mant different recepies, so I suppouse no point I look up a Swedish one.)

 

There are three different things we are discussing. They are not the same.

 

Gingerbread: It is as the name suggests soft and crumbling, like bread or cake . Tastes very nice.

 

Pepparkakor: I lived in Sweden for a year and know this well. It is delicious ...but it is not ginger nuts.  The biscuit is much thinner and softer. The taste is peppery and also a little bit like cinnamon.

 

British ginger nuts: These are very hard and taste strongly of ginger. Some are so hard that you think you might break a tooth eating them… Which is why some people like to dip them in tea or coffee to soften them before eating.  I don't.

 

Anyway… I have given up in my search to buy ginger nuts in the  Davao city (or ginger snaps as they are sometimes called). I'm going to try and bake my own. There is an easy recipe provided by BBC:

 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/269616/gingernut-biscuits

 

The problem, as someone pointed out, is that you cannot find the ingredient Golden Syrup in the Philippines. I am going to try and use honey and see if this works.  I will let you know how it turns out. The other possible alternative to golden syrup  would be maple pancake syrup. Both sound interesting… But it might not be ginger nuts as I know them which come out of the oven.

 

Watch this space...

 

More fun in the Philippines…!   :-)

 

 

 Okay… I think I must describe this as "work in progress". I've just taken my first home-baked ginger nuts out of the oven. They smell great… But they don't look like what I expected. They are ginger balls…!

 

The recipe said "make walnut sized balls of the mixture and arrange well spaced out onto the baking sheets. Flatten slightly then bake in the centre of the oven".

 

This made me think that in the oven they were going to flatten and spread out into biscuit shapes.  This was why they needd to be well spaced and why only flatten slightly. What happened is that 20 minutes later they came out of the oven exactly the same shape as they went in.

 

Why? Not sure…

 

The recipe said use self raising flour. I used general-purpose flour. Maybe I should try self raising flour next time. Also I think I will roll them into biscuit shapes before they go into the oven. As I said… Work in progress.

 

But they smell great. Can't wait to taste them. As well as ginger, I added some cinnamon powder. Maybe they will taste more like the Swedish Pepparkakor. But they are too hot to eat right now.  :-(

 

2Cats2

[Jake]

Hey 2Cats2,

 

It would seem that you resolved your obsession for ginger snap biscuits.  You just have to refine it a little bit.  

You got me curious about that self rising flour.  Perhaps I could use that for my middle leg....he, he.

 

Indeed, it's more fun in the Philippines when you can improvise homemade products that you dearly miss

from home country.  What I miss about my native land is genuine pandesal and super halo-halo.  

 

Have a good one, respectfully -- Jake

[MacBubba]

Even pandesal in the Philippines has changed.  My wife remembers the hot pandesal to be airy, not dense like the pandesals we've had on our last three visits.

[i am bob]

if you want to make golden syrup, you can use just plain corn syrup.  If you really want the original flavour, try adding 1 part molasses to 2 parts corn syrup.  

[JJReyes]

Even pandesal in the Philippines has changed.  My wife remembers the hot pandesal to be airy, not dense like the pandesals we've had on our last three visits.

 

On weekends, we would get up before dawn and travel to rural areas to take pictures. Early morning and late afternoon light are ideal. I would prepare a large thermos of hot coffee while my wife would slice cheese. The pandesals then were baked in earthen ovens and wood burning. They were absolutely delicious. Then the national government convinced bakers that wood burning ovens contributed to pollution and that gas burning stoves (purchased on a government approved installment plan) were more efficient. Two things happened. The pandesals became as tasteless as American white bread made in a large factory and pandesal prices went up.

 

Your wife, my wife and I share memories of the good old days.

Edited December 12, 2013 by JJReyes