The Clever Hack That Adds A Subtle Spice To Baked Goods

Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice are staples in baking, but they're not the only flavors on the spice rack worthy of the sweet treatment. Flavorings like cardamom, coriander, Chinese five spice, chili powder, saffron, and pink peppercorn are all making the baking scene these days, and it's easy to experiment with them at home as long as you don't go overboard. If you want to sneak something like sumac into your desserts, grind spices with some sugar to make a sweet blend. With this clever hack, you can add a subtle spice to any of your baked goods, and you can dial in the intensity of the flavor before you add it to an entire batch of batter.

If you've never ground spices at home, it's pretty easy. All you need is a clean electric coffee grinder, food processor, or even a mortar and pestle, plus some whole spices for grinding. Grocery stores sell pre-powdered spices, but this works better with whole spices like cloves, anise, cardamon, and any other uncommon spice that will impress people, which you can buy at food co-ops.

Grinding sugar and spices together is the same process as grinding whole spices by themselves. Just add some of whatever spice you want to use to the coffee grinder, food processor, or mortar bowl. Then pour in at least a ¼ cup of regular white, granulated sugar. If you're using a coffee grinder, which doesn't have a lot of space, you'll probably need to work in small batches. If you want to flavor a lot of sugar all at the same time, it might be better to use a food processor. Also, if the solid piece of spice is large, like a ball of nutmeg, a whole cinnamon stick, or a star anise, break it up before you grind it with the sugar. (For pesky star anise, cover it with a kitchen towel and bash it with a rolling pin.)

If you have to process the spice and sugar together for too long, the sugar crystals can become superfine or powdered, which might not be appropriate for certain recipes. If you don't want to run the risk of overprocessing your sugar, buy larger, coarser crystals, sometimes sold as decorating sugar or pearl sugar.

When you're finished grinding, taste the spiced sugar. Is the flavor of the spice very strong? If so, cut the intensity with more sugar until you reach a balanced flavor. Remember, however, that the spice needs to flavor all the batter, not just the sugar, so you want the essence of the spice to be strong enough that it can stand up to all the other ingredients like butter and flour. Once you get a flavored sugar you like, scale it up to the rest of the sugar in the recipe, and you're ready to bake!