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Ginger Recipes
 "If I had but one penny in the world, thou should’st have it to buy ginger-bread"
Love’s Labours Lost
William Shakespeare
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Pumpkin Gingerbread with Caramel Sauce
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We got this recipe years ago from folksinger Deborah McClatchy.
Gingerbread:
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup molasses
1-3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup mashed pumpkin
Caramel sauce:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup mashed pumpkin
Gingerbread: Cream butter and brown sugar, then beat in the egg and molasses. Sift flour, baking soda, and spices together. Add to the butter mixture alternately with the pumpkin. Pour into a greased 9" square pan and bake at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes, until gingerbread tests done.
Caramel Sauce: Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and corn syrup and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the cream and vanilla and cool partially. To serve, cut the gingerbread into squares, pour the sauce over the top, and garnish with a dollop of the remaining pumpkin.
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Gingerbread for Grownups
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No, it doesn’t contain alcohol — just a lot of ginger. |
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup boiling water
1 egg
1-3/4 cups flour
1 to 2 tablespoons ground ginger (depending on the hardiness of your palate)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
Put the molasses, sugar, and butter in a ceramic mixing bowl. Pour the boiling water over all and stir until the butter melts. Add the egg and beat well. Combine all remaining ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and beat until smooth. Pour into a greased 8" or 9" square pan and bake for about 35 minutes at 350°F, until the gingerbread tests done. Serve warm, ideally with whipped cream or ice cream.
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Laura’s Gingerbread
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The Laura is none other than beloved writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, who sent this to an editor at The Horn Book in 1953. What would Ma and Pa Ingalls have thought of her suggestion to use chocolate frosting? I copied the recipe verbatim, so instructions are somewhat informal. For more information, go to www.hbook.com/
exhibit/wilder.html.
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1 cup brown sugar blended with 1/2 cup lard or other shortening
1 cup molasses mixed well with this.
2 teaspoons baking soda in 1 cup boiling water
(Be sure cup is full of water after foam is run off into cake mixture.)
Mix all well.
To 3 cups of flour have added one teaspoon each of the following spices: ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves; and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sift all into cake mixture and mix well.
Add lastly 2 well-beaten eggs. The mixture should be quite thin. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Raisins may be added and a chocolate frosting adds to the goodness.
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Molly Saunders’ Upper Shelf Gingerbread
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| From The Meetinghouse Cook Book, published in 1965 by the Women’s Parish Association of First Parish Church (founded 1636) in Concord, Massachusetts. This was the church attended by the Alcotts, the Emersons, and the Hawthornes, among many notables. This old-fashioned recipe makes thin slabs of gingerbread. |
3-1/2 pounds flour [about 12 cups]
1 pound butter
1 quart molasses
1 tablespoon soda
salt and ginger to taste
Boil butter and molasses, then add flour, soda, salt, and ginger. Roll 1/4 of an inch thick and place in a pan buttered and floured. Bake and cut in squares. Molly Saunders kept a shop in Salem. This gingerbread will keep almost indefinitely, and is especially good for children playing out-of-doors on snowy days.
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Upside-Down Gingerbread
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This recipe is adapted from one of the many yummy recipes at www.kingarthurflour
.com. |
Apple layer:
2 large, firm cooking apples (Granny Smith, Cortland, Northern Spy, etc.), peeled and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
Gingerbread layer:
6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup molasses
1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
Apple layer: Toss the apple slices with the sugar and spices and arrange them in a 9" square cake pan or heavy cast-iron skillet greased with shortening or pan spray.
Gingerbread layer: Cream butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs and beat until light. Beat in the molasses. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Pour batter over the apples and bake at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes.
When the cake is done, invert a serving plate over the cake pan and flip them over so the cake drops out onto the serving plate. If any apples stick, pry them out and place on top of the cake. Serve warm, garnished with whipped cream.
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