I have hundreds of recipes, but what I would love to find is a gardenweb forum type of bulletin board for people who make alcoholic drinks (not only wine!) I want to ask lots of questions about things like how to measure alcohol content, just how much sugar you really need, and so on. I'm hoping to adapt a recipe so I can make an alcoholic version of ginger beer which is also low sugar -- perhaps sweetened to a great extent with stevia! Is this an impossible dream? Anyone know of any such forum?

I succumbed to the allure of all that ginger. It was the natural cane sugar that got me. Petra, those chocolate ginger cookies sound wonderful. DH says he doesn't like ginger but I've noticed if it's wrapped in any kind of buttery-sugary confection, he's quite happy. Here's the pudding recipe. I think originally Williams-Sonoma included it with a pudding mold but I also found it online at freshmarket.com. It's been quite some while since I made this. Delicious, but I'm not sure I used that much ground ginger. It was one of those rare occasions when I failed to take notes. Ginger Steamed Pudding Ingredients:  1 1/2 c. brown sugar, packed  1/2 lb. unsalted butter, softened  5 eggs, slightly beaten  2 1/2 c. flour  2 tbsp. ground ginger  1 1/2 tsp. baking soda  1 c. crystallized ginger, chopped  3/4 c. toasted almonds, chopped  1 tbsp. brandy Preparation Cream sugar and butter together until light. Add slightly beaten eggs to mixture and mix well. Add the combined flour, ground ginger, and baking soda. Mix well. Stir in the crystallized ginger and almonds, and add the brandy. Spoon mixture into buttered mold with a center hole and cover with foil (Almost any bowl that splays out is suitable. Cooking time will be longer if there is no center hole). Place mold into large pot of boiling water, enough to cover 2/3 up the sides of the mold. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours or more until firm. Remove from water and let cool about 10 minutes or until you can unmold it. Once unmolded, cool slightly and serve with whipped cream and a garnish of mint. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: FreshMarket Recipe Archive

OMM Thanks so much for taking the time to post this recipe. It sounds really refreshing. The plastic bottles are an excellent idea. I'm going to try a batch as soon as I can get to the brew shop and get some beer yeast.

I had hoped that somewhere online I could find an old-fashioned ginger beer recipe that was similar to the recipe that I have brewed these last few years, the one that I just posted to the forum here. Copy and pasting is soooo much easier than pecking but, darned it, I couldn't find a single recipe like mine, or even one that wasn't overly complicated with specialty ingredients. What I did find on my search, though, was a recipe for an Australian ginger beer that was buried in the Mother Earth News archives. It sounds like a real winner for people who are up to the task, and perfect for someone, such as myself, that enjoys a little bit of kitchen alchemy. After pecking out my old-fashioned ginger beer recipe it is such a pleasure to simply do this: http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1981_March_April/Ginger_Beer Per their recipe; in case you don't already know, unsulfared sultanas are available at pretty much any health food store that offers items in bulk. Grocery store sultanas are almost always sulfared to impede the growth of yeast. Also, I would use fresh grated ginger but, if you opt for powdered then that would be found fresher and cheaper at a good health food store, too. If anybody tries this recipe out before I do then please let me know how it goes for you. I hope you all have a great new years! OzarkMtMan