It’s hard to imagine celebrating the winter holidays without a little gingerbread in the mix. The combination of molasses, ginger, and other spices creates cookies and loaf cake that seem made for cozying up next to the woodstove and watching the snow come down.

The gingerbread cookie recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon is an old one that I’ve made bolder with extra spices. When I want an even stronger ginger flavor—any time of year—I make Triple Gingersnaps or Triple Ginger Cake. But expanding just the ground spices gives traditional cookies a little kick yet keeps them smooth and ideal for decorating.

Learn more about holiday cookies and get the complete recipe for Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Cookies in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

The 1930’s source for the gingerbread cookie recipe I share in this week’s Flathead Beacon column only called for ground ginger. I prefer the complexity of complementary warming spices—and an unexpected ingredient that I explain more fully in my first piece for the Simply Recipes.

Freshly ground black pepper works surprisingly well with sweet ingredients, adding more fragrance and depth than spicy heat. It’s particularly effective with other strong spices in baked goods like gingerbread, in chocolate desserts, and with stone fruit and berries. I also incorporate black peppercorns into lightly pickled fruit, including the spice blend for Sweet-Spiced Blackberries, Pickled Pineapple, and Strawberry-Balsamic Shrub in my pickling cookbook.

Learn more about upgrading gingerbread and other desserts in my Simply Recipes article. You can find more sweet recipes that sneak in a little black pepper in the recipe index.

Other Holiday Upgrades

I had another first piece published this week, for USA Today 10Best. For this article, I gathered a collection of health-minded versions of classic holiday recipes from around the web. It’s loaded with ideas for making healthier and tastier sides like stuffing, mashed potatoes, latkes, gravy, and my own Orange-Infused Cranberry Sauce. I included some classic desserts too. Not only do the Healthier Gingerbread Cookies swap coconut oil, coconut sugar, and whole wheat pastry flour for the standard ingredients, but guess what? The recipe includes black pepper.

Learn more about my healthy holiday picks in this USA Today 10Best article. You can read more of my work off the blog here.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.