Citrus season is a reason unto itself for celebration. What could be greater than a flood of wonderful sweet and tart produce to the market? Lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines, grapefruits: they are all wonderful and I love them. I love eating them, cooking with them, baking with them, looking at them. I hate to waste any part of these beautiful fruits, so I recently took my citrus game to the next level and candied some peel. 

Candied peel is actually incredibly easy. Plus it lets you get as much out of your citrus as possible. They are perfect for when you just need a bite or two of something sweet. I used to love candied orange peel dipped in chocolate, and although chocolate can be a great addition, I chose to leave these as they were. 

When you candy them, you end up with a simple syrup that will retain some of the flavor of the peels. Don't throw it away! You can use it in other things, such as this gorgeous sorbet I threw together the other night. 

One or two pieces of citrus (I used blood orange and grapefruit) 
Granulated sugar
Water

Using a sharp paring knife, cut the peel off of the citrus. Try not to get too much of the pith with each piece. You shouldn't see the fruit under the slice. If you do get a piece that has a lot of white with it, try and trim as much off as you can, but be careful, it is a lot harder to remove the pith once it is sliced. Your candies and syrup will be more bitter if there is a lot of pith retained. 

Once you have your slices put them in a saucepan and cover completely with cold water. Place on the stove on high and heat until boiling. Immediately remove from heat and strain. Return to pan and cover again with cold water. Return to stove, heat until boiling, then immediately strain. Combine equal parts water and granulated sugar in saucepan. How much you need will depend on how many peels you have, but a good starting point is 1-1.5 cups of each. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar. If it starts spitting syrup up the sides of the pan, wet a pastry brush with water and gently brush the sides, making sure you're not dipping it into the syrup. Add the peels and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until the peels are soft and translucent, which can take up to an hour or two. Remove from heat, strain, and let dry on a cooling rack. This helps the extra syrup drip off. Once (mostly) dry, put into a bowl with half a cup granulated sugar and toss. Return peels to rack and continue drying until stiff. Store in airtight container. 

If retaining the syrup, let it cool in an open container in the fridge, then once it is fully chilled, seal and store in the fridge for up to two weeks. 

1 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
1 cup reserved citrus simple syrup
1 cup cava

Combine all three ingredients in a bowl. If ingredients are room temperature or above, let the mixture chill in the fridge for an hour or two before moving into the ice cream maker. If ingredients start cold, you can mix and put directly into ice cream maker of your choice. I use a Kitchenaid attachment bowl, which must be frozen ahead of time. I connect the frozen bowl to my mixer, pour in my chilled mixture, and let it do its thing. It took about 20-30 minutes for my sorbet to freeze in the bowl. Then I removed it, put it into a freezer-safe container, and let it rest for a few more hours before scooping and serving. 

This sorbet is incredibly refreshing, light, and delicious. Perfect after a rich and heavy meal, like creamy pasta or butter-basted steak. Top with candied peel for an impressive but simple dish that truly celebrates the season. 

Spice is having a little bit of a heyday right now. Sriracha is ubiquitous, and people are finding new ways to incorporate heat into everything: potato chips, chili beers, and even desserts. And I have to say, I'm definitely on board this spicy gravy train. 

I didn't grow up eating spicy foods, and would even shy away from the pepper flakes at pizza joints. I'm not sure when or what changed, but suddenly I want to add heat to everything. I'm slowly learning about the different ways you can incorporate heat and flavor, which peppers will give you both, which ones will only give you one or the other. Some hot sauces are great if you just want the sweat effect, but the truly great ones are the kind that give you nuances of both. 

To me, spice is a little like that once-fabled sixth taste, umami. You know when it is missing, when it is needed, and when it is overpowering. Heat is number 7. It's like adding a texture, but for your taste buds, not your mouth. 

Which is what brings me (finally) to these cookies. A simple recipe, and incredibly easy to make, but suddenly and unexpectedly elevated to the stuff legends are made of. I'm serious. If you enjoy creative food, and will allow yourself to be surprised by it, then try these cookies. 

They actually came about by one of those great works of providence, those happy accidents that all too often change lives. I was attending a cookie exchange party and Reid told me that if I made molasses crinkle cookies, he would eat the leftovers. This was a big deal for me, not only because I love molasses crinkle cookies, but because all too often he will not eat more than a couple of anything I make, and even then only because I told him he had to. So I set about making them, after my own fashion, which is to not read the recipe all the way through until I'm in the middle of making it. So of course I didn't realize that I would need some kind of sanding sugar to roll the cookies in until I got to the step in which I needed some kind of sugar to roll the cookies in. Well, I rummaged in our pantry and happened upon some habanero sugar my mom recently gave me for my birthday. And I thought, 'Why not?' And thus the greatest cookie I have ever made was born. 

The instant these cookies touch your tongue you feel your cheeks flush and your heat rise. But what you are biting into is sweet and chewy, rich and full of spices. The butter and sugar roll over your tongue and you are hooked. The habanero sugar is just on the outside, which makes an incredibly satisfying bite, and gives the cookie a complexity that is irresistible. 

I highly recommend eating them alongside a nice latte or milky tea, as the richness of the dairy will help soothe the heat of the cookie. It's the perfect give-and-take. 

I adapted the recipe from this Bon Appetit one. 

Habanero Sugar Molasses Cookies

Ingredients: 
 2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 scant tsp. ground ginger
.5 tsp ground cardamom
.5 tsp kosher salt

1 large egg
.5 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened*
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light or dark molasses 
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

Habanero sugar** and regular granulated sugar for rolling


Place oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 375. Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. In a stand mixer, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add egg and molasses and gently beat until combined, making sure to scrape the sides down. Slowly add the flour and stir until uniformly mixed. This is not a particularly wet dough, but can be over mixed, so I would take it out of the mixer once it looks cohesive and use a spoon to get any dry flour pressed into the rest of the dough.* 

Once dough is mixed, scoop out in small amounts, about .5-1 tablespoon in size.*** Roll into balls and then roll in the habanero sugar and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Oddly enough, these bake better on non-insulated, regular bakeware (no fancy non-stick surfaces). If you think the straight habanero sugar will be too much for you, combine it with regular granulated sugar to your liking. 

Start the cookies on the upper rack, bake for four minutes, switch to lower rack, bake for three minutes, then remove from sheet and place on a cooling rack. This short cooking time ensures chewy cookies. Repeat until you run out of dough. 

*The Bon Appetit recipe has you melt the butter. I tried that the first time and found that my cookies didn't crack as much as I wanted them to. But if you are in a time crunch and don't have time to soften your butter, melting it will still produce delicious cookies. And it does help keep the dough from getting dry. 

**My habanero sugar came from this store, but a quick look around the internet tells me that you could find it at many different online spice retailers. If you are lucky enough to have a local spice store, give them a call to see if they carry it. 

***You want these cookies small! The dainty size helps keep the ratio of sugar to cookie in tact and helps keep them from being too overwhelming for those unaccustomed to spicy desserts. Keep the mystery alive and let them reach for a second one, rather than burn out trying to get through their first.