Bookarama gems

Some people will wait in line for hours to get concert tickets. Others will camp out overnight for the latest iPhone. You wouldn't see me doing either of these things, but I will drive for two hours to Timaru, then get up early to wait excitedly in line for the opening of Timaru's Rotary Bookarama - the best book sale ever.


Having stocked up on reading material (enough books that I am seriously going to have to buy a new bookcase) I returned to Mum and Dad's place to make good on my promise of ginger gems (p29) for afternoon tea.

I began by putting my gem irons in the oven to heat up while I mixed up the batter. Interestingly, the ginger gems were made differently from the plain ones I made the other week. These were made with creamed butter and sugar, while the plain ones began with melted butter.

I added some ginger and an egg to the creamed butter and sugar, then sifted in the flour. I was supposed to dissolve the baking soda in milk before adding it, but misread the instructions and sifted it in with the flour. Shrugging, I added the milk separately and carefully mixed it all together. Not wanting to overmix the batter, I treated it like muffin mix and didn't worry too much about occasional lumps.

I dropped a little butter into each slot of the gem irons, which immediately started sizzling. I started spooning in the batter as soon as possible. This recipe didn't make quite as much as the plain gems, and I was scraping the edges of the bowl to try and fill up the twelfth slot.

After ten minutes in the oven, the ginger gems were ready. They weren't perhaps as successful as the plain ones - my determination not to overmix had resulted in occasional lumps of partially-mixed flour in the finished product. It seems that overmixing might be the lesser evil in this case. We also came across the occasional little spot of baking soda: something that wouldn't have been a problem if I'd followed the recipe properly and dissolved the soda in milk first.

Despite these little issues, the gems weren't really that bad: nice and light, with a better flavour than the plain ones. I'll have another go sometime, because I'm sure these will be awesome once I get them right!