Receta Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies; lake update
Think of these as Ginger Snaps (old-fashioned cookie) meet Chocolate Chips and fall in love.
I can’t get chocolate chips, of course, but you get the idea.
When one can’t buy chocolate chips one makes chocolate chunks.
One of the first kitchen utensils I bought at mon mari’s favorite DIY store was a chocolate hammer. I have since bought other tools – for grating, shaving, etc. but the hammer was first.
It’s not really for smashing chocolate…. But it’s the right size and weight and it’s kept in a kitchen drawer rather than a box in the barn.
Plus it gets washed after it’s used – a statement mon mari will never make about his hammers.
I’ve discovered it works really well for ‘chopping’ nuts, too.
Anyway, I buy bars of premium dark chocolate and smash them with my hammer to make the chocolate chunks.
Easy!
Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Total time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp. dark molasses
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. cloves
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chunks
- extra granulated sugar
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven, 375F (190C)
Cream butter and sugar
Add next 8 ingredients and stir well
Stir in chocolate chunks.
Shape into I-inch balls, dip tops in sugar and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 375F (190C) 10 – 12 minutes or until cookies are browned & firm.
Remove and cool completely.
I know you’re on pins & needles to see the latest lake photos. Frankly, I can’t believe how interesting this whole process is.
We had rather a lot of rain the last week, when the backhoe was broken, and there was water in the bottom of the new lake. You can see it back in the corner – very dirty, muddy water.
I thought that was a good thing, but I was wrong.
They pumped it all out.
Then they dug a deep, square pit and they’re lining it with concrete blocks and cement.
I have no idea why…..
The farmer had told me that they would be done by last Friday and that’s when they would bring our dirt.
Well – they brought our dirt but the lake isn’t finished. Apparently the pressure is on from somewhere, though as they worked Sat. and have been starting before sunrise and working until dark.
Oh – that pile of dirt is not a pyramid – it goes all the way to the edge of the grass.
To give you an idea of the size of the lake:
It starts with a deep, narrow ‘finger’ that goes all the way to the far end on the left. I drew lines along the edge.
Then there is the wide part in the middle. They’re digging out the far right corner now.
Needless to say there is rather a lot of dirt that needs to be spread around. The digger works non-stop and the two dump-trucks haul non-stop.
The field on this side used to be rather hilly (for a field) with a dip in the middle that had standing water in the winter.
It’s now flat. I think they’ve added about 15 feet (3 meters) of dirt to the center of the field, evening it all out.
As I said…. I’m finding the whole project fascinating.
Last update on December 7, 2015
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