Melon Berry Soup with Triple Ginger Cookies for French Fridays with Dorie

 Melon Berry Soup with Triple Ginger Cookies

Good morning French Friday!  I missed you last week but am happy to be back and in better form than last week.  Dorie's cold melon soup could not have come  at a better time for me as I have been recuperating from a major dental surgery which required eating only foods that are nourishing with little chewing.

I actually made a double batch of soup just for myself and gave away all the triple ginger cookies, sigh.
I made a dessert soup which is a Scandinavian tradition that is served both warm and cold.  I found an inspirational recipe in my copy of Wonderful, Wonderful Danish Cooking for cold cherry soup that calls for a pint of sherry wine to be added just before serving.  Now that is my kind of soup!  Dorie's melon berry soup also calls for adding a sweet dessert style wine- just a spoonful to each bowl of soup before serving, a tad more conservative but I'm sure good all the same.  This week, because of my surgery, wine tastes horrible to me but this melon berry soup tasted spicy and refreshing, next time I will add a splash of sweet wine to mine before enjoying.  As those of you know who have been following our group of devoted Doristas know it has been requested that we don't share Dorie's exact recipe from her collection in her award winning cookbook, Around My French Table.  
I will share a few notes on making this homemade fruit soup.  Always start with a ripe cantaloupe and even then you may want to add a sprinkle or two of sugar to sweeten up your fruit broth, depending on your sweet tooth.  I doubled the recipe and am planning on eating the entire amount myself, have to have something to look forward to... but I think it would make 6-8 small servings.  I used one ripe cantaloupe, juice from a lime, a pinch of sea salt and a few teaspoons of grated fresh ginger placed in the blender to create the fruit soup.  I used a second cantaloupe for my melon balls which were chilled and placed in a small bowl before pouring in the chilled pureed fruit mixture.  I used a sliced strawberry and a sprig of mint to decorate my fruit soup but I think raspberries or blueberries would work equally well and look lovely with the cantaloupe broth.  Please check out the other contributors to French Fridays with Dorie here.  I am going to share the recipe for the Triple Ginger Cookies because they are a ginger lover's delight and go great with the melon berry soup.

 Triple Ginger Cookies

Ingredients and Directions for Triple Ginger Cookies

from The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti

makes about 48 cookies

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger from a 2" piece of peeled fresh ginger

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1&1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup mild flavor molasses

2&1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger

4 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda and salt.  Stir in the candied ginger and set aside.

In a stand mixer beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy, scrape the bowl down and beat in the egg.  Beat in the molasses and grated fresh ginger.  Add the flour mixture and mix until everything is combined, being careful not too over mix the dough.

Place a rounded tablespoon of cookie dough, spaced a few inches apart on the cookie sheets.  I used a mini ice cream scoop, it makes the job go much quicker.  They do spread so make sure you leave some room between the dough balls on the cookie sheets.  You may want to rotate the cookie sheets half way through the baking to make the cookies bake evenly.  

Bake for about 14 minutes until browned.  Wait until they cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheets and then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.