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Christmas: Blue Ribbon Gingerbread

Source of Recipe

From "Lost Recipes" by Marion Cunningham


Recipe Introduction

"Gingerbread existed in medieval times, and it was given as a gift like a box of chocolates. The original gingerbreads always had honey as a sweetener, and if you want to honor the past, add 1 tablespoon of honey to the following recipe. This Blue Ribbon recipe pays tribute to the old-fashioned gingerbread—dark and spicy. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
â—¦ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
â—¦ 2 teaspoons ground ginger
â—¦ 1 teaspoon ground cloves
â—¦ 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
â—¦ ½ cup sugar
â—¦ 1 cup dark molasses
â—¦ 1 tablespoon honey (optional)
â—¦ 2 teaspoons baking soda
â—¦ 1 cup boiling water
â—¦ 2 eggs, lightly beaten


Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour an 8-inch square pan.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves together onto a piece of waxed paper. Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until it is smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and molasses (and honey, if you wish), and continue beating until well blended. Mix the baking soda and boiling water and pour into the butter-sugar mixture, beating well. Add the flour mixture and continue to beat until the batter is smooth, then beat in the eggs.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick or broom straw inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Serve warm. (Some like this gingerbread cool, so try it both ways.)

Serves 8 or 9



Visions of Gingerbread:
"I love gingerbread in its true cake form—moist, spongy and spicy. It is strictly home food, but no one makes it anymore. Those who crave it get their fix from mixes, and if you give them the real thing, they appear confused. Why doesn't *their* gingerbread taste that good? There is nothing to be said about mixes: they are uniformly disgusting. Besides, gingerbread made from scratch takes very little time and gives back tenfold what you put into it. Baking gingerbread perfumes a house as nothing else. It is good eaten warm or cool, iced or plain. It improves with age, should you be lucky or restrained enough to keep any around."
— Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking