Ingredient Spotlight: Spice Mixes
How to use different spice mixes in your baking and desserts (and which ones to skip!)
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Today’s Ingredient Spotlight is a bit unusual in that it features not just a single ingredient but many ingredients. Because today we will talk about spice mixes and blends and how to use them in your baking and desserts. (And we will also cover which ones should probably be reserved for savoury cooking, although that is no doubt somewhat subjective).
For past editions of the Ingredient Spotlight series click on the following links: Hibiscus, Labneh, Mahleb, Miso, Sumac, Tamarind and Turmeric.
If there are other ingredients you would like me to highlight in this series, drop me a comment below.
I suspect that regardless of where you grew up you will already be familiar with different spice mixes from cooking savoury food. While we have all been told that for the best flavour experience we should buy our spices whole and then toast and grind them “to order” so to speak, almost each cuisine has a number of go-to spice blends that many of us will find ourselves reaching for time and time again. And for these it is simply easier to keep the relevant spices already ground and blended on hand. And thanks to chefs like Ottolenghi, most of us are now also familiar with spice blends from other cuisines. So I suspect many of us who enjoy cooking and experimenting with different flavours probably keep quite a broad range of spice mixes on our shelves - from Persian Advieh, to Ethiopian Berbere, Chinese Five Spice Powder, Yemeni Hawaij, Indian Garam Masala, Lebanese Seven Spice Mix, Moroccan Ras El Hanout etc. And yet, are we really making the most of these flavour bombs?
Certainly when it comes to baking with spice mixes, I feel like most of us are overly cautious, relying on a very small number of spice mixes such as Mixed Spice (in the UK), Pumpkin Spice (in the US), Lebkuchengewürz (in Germany) or Pain d’Epices (in France), for example, to season our cakes and cookies. And all of these are also heavily associated with festive baking, in particular for the Christmas holidays. Which is all fine and well. But I like to think there are so many more delicious flavours to explore in spice blends we likely already have at home anyway. Spice mixes that can lend our baked goods and desserts delicious complexity and depth of flavour without screaming “Christmas”. And with the added benefit of allowing us to make the most of our pantries and use up our spice mixes before they lose all their potency.
Today’s post is therefore a little run through of the spice blends that I think work best in cakes and desserts. And yes, I will share plenty of recipe ideas. But we will also talk about which spice blends might not work so well in desserts and how I think about which spice blends will and will not work in sweet applications (a judgment call no doubt but I will share my thought process) and how to use them.
Which spice mixes work well in cakes, desserts and other sweet treats?
A good starting point when it comes to preparing cakes, desserts and other sweet treats with spice mixes is to look towards spice mixes that include spices we already associate with sweet dishes - for example cinnamon, cloves, ginger, anise, star anise, nutmeg and/or mace etc. or spices with a similar flavour profile, so you can add fennel to that list as well. That means Chinese Five Spice Powder and its mix of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds is excellent for your first forays into using different spice mixes. Same goes for Masala Chai - which often includes black peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom, fennel, ground ginger and star anise - and is as delicious for making Chai Masala as it is in cakes and cookies.
If you are feeling a little bit more adventurous you can also start playing around with earthy Garam Masala (which often includes cinnamon, mace, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and cardamon pods) and earthy yet warming Ras El Hanout (ingredients for this vary but the list often includes at least a dozen different spices such as cardamom, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, dry ginger, chili peppers, coriander seed, peppercorn, sweet and hot paprika, fenugreek, and dry turmeric). Similarly, Yemeni spice blend Hawaij, which I first heard about via Molly Yeh and which often includes black pepper, cumin, cloves, allspice, coriander, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, works great in sweet recipes as well. Another spice blend I enjoy playing with in sweet applications is the floral Persian spice blend Advieh which typically includes cinnamon, nutmeg, rose petals, cardamom and cumin and which works beautifully in rice pudding and porridge for example.
And while technically a condiment, I also often look to Egyptian Dukkah, for inspiration. Recipes for this vary - for example, Ottolenghi’s version includes coriander seed, cumin, seed, black and white sesame seeds, toasted hazelnuts, toasted pine nuts, oregano, paprika and salt. Following a similar formula but using a mix of say toasted and roughly ground almonds and pistachios, rose petals, mahleb and cardamom would make a beautiful Dukkah to use in sweet applications. As a base for a crumble topping, to add some crunch and flavour to even a simple bowl of Greek yoghurt with roasted rhubarb or fresh raspberries or mixed with sugar to roll some cookies in before baking. See for example the Ras El Hanout, Apricot and Pistachio Dukkah cookies featured at the top of this post (recipe linked to below) from my friend Kaja Hengstenberg’s Cookies & Crumbs book.
(And it goes without saying that Pumpkin Spice, Mixed Spice, Quatre Epices, Lebkuchengewürz etc. are all similar enough in terms of flavour to also be used interchangeably, so there is no need strictly speaking to keep all of these to hand at any given time).
Which spice mixes are best reserved for savoury cooking?
Despite my passion for kitchen experiments and playing around with different flavours, there are certain spice mixes I (for now) happily reserve for savoury cooking. And now this is of course a judgment call but if a spice mix prominently features one of the following, then I happily skip the experimenting with said spice mix in cakes and desserts: onion powder, garlic powder, paprika (although Justine Doiron’s Sweet Potato Cake with Smoked Paprika Caramel might just make me change my mind about paprika!). And in the past I would have probably included spices mixes containing cumin on that list but I now find that the earthiness of cumin can add a beautiful complexity to baked goods - especially anything made with chocolate, coconut or root vegetables and tubers. For example, I now often bake with both Garam Masala and Ras El Hanout, both of which include cumin. Maybe for yourself you do want to add earthy cumin and/or curry powder to that list, or maybe spice mixes including turmeric.
How to use spice mixes in your cakes, desserts and other sweet treats
When it comes to combining different ingredients and flavours, it is good to look for flavour affinities. Now, with spice mixes that might seem more challenging since many of them combine at least a handful if not many more different spices with different flavour profiles. That being said, many, if not most, spice mixes have a dominant flavour note. For example, it is undeniable that the dominant flavour of Chinese Five Spice Powder is warming and licorice-y star anise. Or that Garam Masala tastes undeniably earthy first, thanks to the inclusion of cumin. Once I have determined what the dominant flavour or flavour profile of a given spice mix is, I then try and think of other ingredients and flavours that work well with that flavour.
Another trick is to take inspiration from how a given spice mix is used in savoury cooking. Since Persian spice blend Advieh is typically used in rice dishes, my first experiments involving Advieh were rice pudding and rice porridge - both of which were delicious. Similarly, Chinese Five Spice Powder is one of the ingredients in Chinese plum sauce - which led me to start my sweet experiments with Chinese Five Spice Powder in recipes using plums and prunes and what also led to my recipes for Prune Plum Tarte Tatin with Chinese Five Spice Powder to a Prune and Chinese Five Spice Powder Sticky Toffee Pudding which I have shared here on Substack (both recipes are linked to below).
I also find that any spices mixes with an earthy note, like Ras El Hanout or Garam Masala for example, but also Hawaij, tend to work brilliantly with chocolate - there is something about chocolate that tames their earthiness and yet the chocolate also ends up tasting more chocolatey.
Recipe Ideas for Using Spice Mixes
Here are some ideas from across the web (and my Substack) for delicious cakes, cookies and other sweet treats using a variety of different spice mixes:
Cookies
Kaja Hengstenberg’s Oat Cookies with Ras El Hanout, Apricot and Pistachio Dukkah
Nik Sharma’s Masala Chai Gingersnaps
Cocoa and Garam Masala Snickerdoodles
Eleanor Ford’s Garam Masala and Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Whispers of Cardamom
Kashmiri Curry Breakfast Cookies
Baharat Chewy Molasses Cookies
Cake
Claire Saffitz’ Kabocha Turmeric Tea Cake with Garam Masala
Nik Sharma’s Masala Chai Apple Cake
Cider and Five Spice Bundt Cake
Prune and Chinese Five Spice Sticky Toffee Pudding with Miso Butterscotch Sauce
Pear, Cocoa and Garam Masala Cake
Nik Sharma’s Masala Chai Carrot Cake
Sabrina Ghayour’s Ras El Hanout and Buttermilk Sweet Loaf Cake with Rose Icing
Nik Sharma’s Masala Chai Pumpkin Cake
Other sweet treats
Justine Doiron’s Five Spice Sesame Granola Bark
Nik Sharma’s Masala Chai Fig Jam Buns
Justin Gellatly’s Baharat Doughnuts for Arabica
Baharat Chocolate “Kielbasa” Salami
Hot Fudge Sauce with Garam Masala
Prune Plum Tarte Tatin with Chinese Five Spice Powder
Nik Sharma’s Masala Chai Ice Cream
Persian Rice Pudding with Advieh
Molly Yeh’s Hawaij Apple Pie with Cardamom Whipped Cream
What is your favourite spice mix to bake with? Do you have any spice mixes at home that you do not know what to do with? Let me know in the comments below
Love this post, so many great ideas! I regularly use Garam Masala and Berbere in my cooking, making my own mix in order to avoid cinnamon as it aggravates a skin condition I have. Seasonal cooking without cinnamon in Fall and Winter is quite sad, though. I miss that warm earthiness. My spice cupboard is jammed with goodness, as I love making foods that just sing with flavor.