Ruth Bader Ginger Ice Cream

Ok Ben & Jerry’s. You didn’t do it, so I did.

I created Ruth Bader Ginger ice cream.

It’s a brown-sugar based vanilla-ey ice cream loaded with vibrant morsels of crystallized ginger and chewy, sugar coated gingersnap cookies. I used fresh, homemade gingersnap cookies (my recipe includes dark molasses plus cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger and the cookies are crusted with sugar). But I supposed packaged cookies would be fine.

The notorious RBG will be missed. But you don’t have to miss out on the wonderful ice cream.

Here’s the recipe:

Ruth Bader Ginger Ice Cream

• 4 cups half and half cream

• 3/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger 

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 4 large egg yolks

• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup crumbled gingersnap cookies

Heat 2 cups of the cream with the ginger in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbles appear around the edges of the pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the brown sugar, salt and egg yolks at medium speed for 3-5 minutes or until light and thick. Gradually add the heated cream and mix the ingredients. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5-6 minutes or until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour in the remaining cream and blend it in thoroughly. Pour into a container and refrigerate until cold. Stir in the vanilla extract. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions. When the mixture is almost completely frozen, add the cookie pieces, stir them in and freeze completely.

Makes about 5 cups

Fresh Ginger Cake

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

And, when life gives you fresh ginger, you make ginger cake (to go with ginger tea of course).

I’ve been using Instacart to get groceries recently because of the stay-at-home and social distancing Ed and I are following strictly. This delivery service has been excellent and I am incredibly grateful to the men and women who have shopped for us and delivered everything to our front door.

So first, bravo and thank you to them.

There have been some mistakes, none really worth talking about, but one that I found amusing.

I ordered a piece of fresh ginger and my shopper bought a pound!

That’s a lot of ginger.

But okay. I’ll use it.

First of all, I love ginger steeped in near-boiling water for tea. I’ve been drinking a lot of that recently. It’s healthy and a perfect way to stay hydrated too.

And of course, to go with the tea: cake. Like gingerbread. Except I didn’t have enough molasses so I used a mixture of date honey and regular honey. And I used fresh ginger instead of dried.

Perfect. This cake is milder than traditional gingerbread (because of the missing molasses), yet with the familiar heat because fresh ginger has a bit of a bite.

Would have loved some whipped cream, but alas, no cream in the house.

Fresh Ginger Cake

• 3/4 cup butter

• 3/4 cup date syrup (silan) (or use molasses)

• 1/4 cup honey (or use molasses)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 3 cups all-purpose flour·      

• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

• 1/4 cup grated fresh ginger

• 2 large eggs

• 1/3 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x9” cake pan. Place the butter, date syrup, honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until the butter has melted. Stir to blend ingredients thoroughly. Set aside to cool. Mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Pour the date liquid mixture over the flour mixture and beat the ingredients to blend them thoroughly. Add the ginger and eggs and beat them in. Pour in the milk and mix until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 8-10 servings