Can't Catch Me..I'm the Chai Gingerbread Girl

Quite a while back I saw a Facebook post from a foodie friend of mine (Hello out there Crystin N.!!). She shared a recipe that her friends were raving over. I thought right then that I should save that one. I am VERY glad I did.

In my post Valentine's Day stupor, I was QUITE over that too-sweet-milk-chocolate taste and smell. (Is it just me or as you eat more dark chocolate do you start to be able to smell a difference in the chocolates??). I thought it was an excellent time to try out this recipe.

One thing stood out to me when I first read through-- it did NOT call for molasses. I love gingerbread but I hate working with molasses!! It's a pain to measure. It's a pain to get the top of the jar cleaned off so that next time it isn't superglued shut. It's a pain to clean up the measuring cup that is now coated in molasses. (wow, I didn't realize I had a molasses 'issue'!!) In the end, I usually just buy a mix in order to avoid the molasses thing altogether. Shhhhh....don't tell.

So, that left only one trick to this recipe-- peeling & grating the fresh ginger. I had done it once before. It's not very hard at all. It's kinda like trying to peel a really knobby carrot :) So, then, once it's peeled just use a fine grater to get the amount you need. You can see my unpeeled ginger in the first picture and the peeled and grated amount added to the bowl in the second one.

The dough IS very sticky (just as described) but I just sprayed my hands with non-stick spray and spread it into the pan. The recipe says optionally to sprinkle with sugar but I happened to have this cinnamon-sugar + vanilla and I thought that might make a nice upgrade. It DID.

These were a huge hit with the adults. (My kids wouldn't even try them so I can not report any kid reviews). I REALLY liked the flavor combo of the chai tea and the ginger (by the way: I just cut open a chai tea bag I had in the pantry to get the amount needed for the recipe). The ginger was not too strong either. This was my biggest fear going in. I LOVED that you could see the hairy ginger pieces and the tea leaf bits in the final product (top picture).

These would be excellent with a vanilla or caramel ice cream-- maybe next time?? Mmmmmmmmm....I need to make some more! ENJOY!