Autumn is my favorite season of the year. I think that’s in part because I have an affinity for wearing layers and snuggling up with my three babies — and at ages 12,13 and 17, it’s getting increasingly tough for all of us to fit onto my queen-size bed on those cold, sleepy mornings. The other reason I favor fall is due to the appearance of spices that seem to go into hibernation during much of the year.
Ginger, cardamom, all spice, cloves — I love them all, yet I don’t tend to bake much with them for about eight months out of the year. Now cooking with them is a whole different thing. The cool spring and muggy summer months lend themselves to tart citrus and fragrant vanilla flavors. But as I sat awaiting my seven-spice pumpkin cheesecake to come out of the oven, I daresay that the spices employed in this luxe dessert should consider getting themselves a decent lobby to garner more attention from bakers and pastry chefs during the rest of the year.
How do you coax the maximum flavor from any of these spices? The first key is to make sure they are in date. I always know my cardamom is losing its punch when I can barely smell it when I walk by the spice cabinet. In fact, when I first purchase cardamom, I have to keep it in a plastic resealable bag otherwise the smell over powers the kitchen. If you don’t cook or bake much with cardamom or any of these other spices, consider buying theme in small quantities.
The second key to maximum spice flavor is, when you store them, make sure they aren’t near a heat source — such as above your cooktop. Whoever invented those spice racks designed to hang at the back of stoves surely didn’t cook much with what they bottled.
Finally, toasting the spices in a dry sauce pan or, if your recipe uses melted butter, blooming the spices in said butter are great ways to ramp up the flavor.
There are certain foods I propose be made available year round: egg nog, candy corn, fresh cranberries, the Reese peanut butter Easter eggs. (Yes, I know those come in different holiday shapes. But none of them are as good as the egg. Maybe it’s the peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio? But I digress.) Maybe it’s time I added my favorite fall spices to the year-round list.