GINGERBREAD

I had planned to spend much of the year researching gingerbread recipes in preparation for this year’s Christmas advent project. To that end I have saved many gingerbread recipes to my Pinterest board. However, after the first few tries, I lost heart. No matter the recipe, the end product was dry. And I picked up on silent vibes from Mike that he wasn’t a fan of these experiments.

The topic still sparks my imagination, though, so I hadn’t quite given up. While shopping at Walmart recently, I picked up yet another jar of molasses, now available only in smaller quantities, it seems. That’s the way they keep you from realizing just how very expensive it is, I suspect.

Anyway, I decided not to check myself out, so I got in line at one of the manned registers. The cashier was friendly and chatty, and I never complain of a chatty cashier. I know that when it’s my turn, she’ll chat with me, too.

“What are you going to do with the molasses,” she asked. (I’m no judge of age, but I think it’s safe to say she fit my generation.)

“Gingerbread,” I responded.

“Mine is hard,” she said, matter-of-factly, and my ears pricked up.

“Hard? Do you mean dry,” I asked.

“Yes, dry and hard,” she said.

“I know what you mean,” I continued, “but I don’t think it’s supposed to be.”

“Oh! My mother makes wonderful gingerbread,” she said. Oh! Now she’s going to tell me what her mother says. I love to hear what the older generation has to say, but you know how it is -- those folks are becoming scarce, and the implication is that I am now the older generation.

“So, what’s wrong with ours,” I asked. “Are we baking it too long?”

“That’s what my mother says,” she responded. “She says to cut the heat and take it out sooner.”

And remember – this happened at Walmart. You just never know . . .

So, yesterday afternoon I made gingerbread again using Betty Crocker’s recipe for “Old-fashionedGingerbread.” As per the directions, I set the oven at 325 rather than the usual 350. And at 50 minutes, I removed it, even though my inclination was to bake that extra five minutes. This one was nice and moist, and Mike has said several times that it’s delicious.

The recipe called for a teaspoon of ginger and a teaspoon of cinnamon. We like it spicy, so I added a little more ginger and ¼ teaspoon of cloves. I’m a big fan of cloves. KW

GINGERBREAD FROM A CHILD'S COOKBOOK

Here's a delightful gingerbread recipe from a mid-century child's cookbook published by the good folks at Westinghouse. This little book belongs to my friend Chris, whose father bought it for her when she was little, and she kindly forwarded a scan of the recipe to me. Here's what she wrote about it:


"The copyright on the little cookbook is 1951.  My tipsy handwriting in it looks to be circa third grade (note the word Monday in the top left of the gingerbread recipe), which was probably the first year I was capable of cooking the recipes with some help.  The cover is missing, but in my memory it was red cardstock.  The pages are 8 ½ x 11.  The price?  Fifty cents.  It’s a treasure to me but it’s not in very good shape."

And that's the way it is with treasures. Sometimes they aren't in good shape because we used them. Price in the day: fifty cents. Price today: PRICELESS.

I think you'd enjoy reading through the mixing directions, which are entertaining as well as educational. Though written for a child's use, this is a standard gingerbread recipe.

And note the SECRET: "In the United States Senate dining room they serve gingerbread every noon. Some of the Senators eat it like bread. It's such a healthful food for all of us to eat." I was unsuccessful in efforts to discover if they still serve gingerbread in the Senate dining room. I doubt it.

I think my mother would have agreed that gingerbread is a healthful food, but I'm not sure it has a place in today's concept of a healthy diet. KW

UPDATE: I found the book on Amazon for $12.00 -- "Sugar an' Spice and all things nice."

GRANDMA APPLEGATE'S GINGERBREAD

Here are two gingerbread recipes from Grandma Ina's box.

Grandma Applegate's Gingerbread
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter (now you're talkin')
1 tsp each of cloves, cinnamon, and ginger
2 tsp soda stirred into 1 cup of boiling water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 well-beaten eggs stirred in last thing
Bake in moderate oven 40 minutes.

On the back of this recipe card Ina glued a newspaper clipping dated 1940 about Mrs. Virginia Estes Applegate of Roseburg, Oregon, who was celebrating her 93rd birthday. Her husband was Daniel W. Applegate, son of Jesse Applegate of early pioneering days' fame. (Jesse Applegate was instrumental and finding a less dangerous river crossing along the Oregon Trail.) Under Mrs. Applegate's photo, Ina had written "Aunt Jennie," which implies she knew Mrs. Applegate personally -- and also wanted the rest of us to know. And then next to that clipping, there's another for "Tasty Gingerbread." Unfortunately, a corner of the clipping is torn, so I had to guess as to the words that might have been there.

Tasty Gingerbread
Cream 3 tablespoons butter and 1 cup sugar and add one beaten egg.
Sift together one and a half cups flour, one teaspoon soda, a quarter teaspoon salt, a teaspoon each of ginger and cinnamon, and add to the first mixture alternately with a half cup milk and a half cup molasses mixed together.
Pour into a shallow buttered pan and bake 30 to 40 minutes.

That recipe concludes with the following statement: "Good gingerbread solves the problem of what to offer when unexpected company drops in." Hmmmm. How will I know when to expect the unexpected company so that I'm ready with the gingerbread? KW

[Update: I baked Grandma Applegate's Gingerbread. I think it's the best I've made to date -- the best flavor and the best texture. I really like cloves.]

BAKING GRANDMA'S GINGER CAKE

Kathy's Egg Beater

So that we don't have to refer to a previous post, here again is the recipe for Grandma's ginger cake.

Grandma Portfors' Ginger Cake
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar - fill with molasses. Beat
1/2 cup shortening -- fill with hot water
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cup cake flour
salt
Beat with egg beater.

I think my grandmother baked by the "about what you'd think" rule. Mother, on the other hand, was a stickler for exact measurement. I'm somewhere in between.

The other evening I decided to try this recipe, even though I know there are better ones today. You know, whether we call it improvement or not, baking products change, but I tried to duplicate this recipe. I even bought cake flour. I used the mild-flavored Brer Rabbit molasses, but in taste-testing, Mike opines that there's not much difference between the mild and full-flavored varieties.

I used half of a Crisco baking stick (1/2 cup), and because I ignored the rule of blending the shortening and sugar first, the shortening didn't blend. I really think the hot water was supposed to melt the shortening, and I didn't make that happen.

Finished Product

I realized the recipe didn't call for ginger, so I added a teaspoon with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Really -- a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and nutmeg wasn't nearly enough, I thought, so I doubled the cinnamon. Seems like "back in the day" recipes are stingy with flavoring. Perhaps they were expensive or hard to come by. For example, I remember asking my mother if I couldn't use more. "No!" she would say; "half is plenty." Now mistress of my own kitchen, I use plenty of vanilla and spices, albeit with some guilt.

I also added two handfuls of raisins, and Mike said it could use more. I do like raisins in my gingerbread.

In the end, it was overbaked, as is my habit. I baked it at 325 for 25 minutes and it wasn't set, so I baked it 10 minutes longer when I should have gone for 5 minutes. But it was good, we thought. The next evening I made applesauce in my Instant Pot, and that was delicious. The ginger cake topped with applesauce was especially good.

It seems like we used to spread butter on gingerbread. I can't remember for sure. KW

MORE ABOUT GINGERBREAD

I cleaned under the coffee table last week and rediscovered my copy of America's Best Lost Recipes from the editors of Cook's Country Magazine (recipes tested and approved in America's Test Kitchen). So, I sat right down (after I dusted it off, of course) and checked for a gingerbread recipe. Yes, there was one, and an interesting note from the Test Kitchen:

We were very curious about this recipe since it called for blackstrap molasses, which we generally shy away from as it is so strongly flavored that any spices are completely overpowered by it. Its potency comes as a result of a third round of boiling during the cane sugar refining process -- the two earlier rounds yielding mild (light) and robust (dark) molasses. With each successive boiling the molasses grows more bitter or pronounced in flavor as more sugar is extracted. Much to our surprise, we found that the hearty blackstrap molasses stood up to the spices and gave this cake a distinctively smoky note we liked. That said you can certainly use robust molasses (which is easier to find) and this cake will still be delicious.


Molasses is quite expensive, you know. (Or we could use the old-fashioned word and call it "dear.") Last month I bought several different varieties. Undoubtedly there are other brands, but in the local market I only know of "Grandma's" and "Brer Rabbit."

Grandma Nina Portfors (1886-1955)

Anyway, rather than post the recipe from the cookbook, I decided to post this one from my Grandmother Portfors' recipe box:

Grandma Portfors' Ginger Cake
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar - fill with molasses. Beat
1/2 cup shortening -- fill with hot water
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cup cake flour
salt
Beat with egg beater.

There you have it. Obviously Grandma wrote the recipe for her own use, and I had to search my memory banks in order to figure out how to make this cake. Here's my interpretation:
Beat one egg with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup molasses. Add 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup cup hot water. Beat again. Mix dry ingredients (I used regular flour instead of cake flour) and add to first mixture. Bake 30 minutes at 350 in prepared 8-inch square pan.

I haven't tried the recipe yet. I'll let you know when I do. KW

MOLASSES ICE BOX COOKIES

When Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for the Modern Hostess was published, the kitchen as we know it today was still in the process of being born. Some women, like my Grandma Ina, were still cooking on a wood stove. And many young housewives with electric stoves, like my mother, remembered what it was like to cook on a wood stove. Not everyone had an electric mixer, and even if you did, it probably wasn’t powerful. And some kitchens still had an ice box instead of a refrigerator. The wording of this recipe for “Molasses Ice Box Cookies” reminded me of all this.

½ cup Brer Rabbit Molasses

½ cup shortening

½ cup sugar

1 egg

2 ½ cups flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp soda

¼ tsp cloves

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

Put molasses and shortening in large saucepan. Stir over low heat until shortening has melted. Remove from fire; stir in sugar. Cool. Add unbeaten egg; stir. Sift remaining ingredients together and add to first mixture. Form dough into rolls about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in waxed paper and chill 3 to 4 hours. Slice thin and bake on well-greased baking sheet in moderate oven (375 F) 10 to 15 minutes.

I was very careful as I melted the shortening in the molasses, keeping the temperature at the simmer setting. Once I removed the mixture from the heat, I immediately added the sugar. Then I was distracted over the noon hour, and the mixture cooled too much. I probably should have re-heated it, but despite its stiffness, I managed to stir in the egg. Then, like a good girl, I sifted the dry ingredients before adding them to the molasses mixture in the big pan. I was tempted to use the mixer at this point, but I stirred by hand until it was well-blended. I then made two logs of the dough, wrapped them in waxed paper, and put them in the fridge for about three hours. We had plans for the evening, but I had time to bake the cookies before supper.

Now, I can’t slice straight or with uniformity to save my soul, but I tried my best. The recipe said “slice thinly” – not very specific. And I was skeptical of that 375 oven. So, I sliced my first tray at about 1/8 inch and baked at 375 for 8 minutes (instead of 10-12), and the cookies came out just short of scorched. Feeling bolder, I sliced the next tray thicker (1/4 inch), cut the heat to 350, and baked again for 8 minutes. Perfect! These cookies don’t spread much, so I crowded them onto the tray to save baking time.

I think we like them. I would try the recipe again and use the mixer. KW

[That evening we went to see Darkest Hour and enjoyed it. There were 14 of us in the theater, and I would guess most of us were 70+.]

HARVEST APPLE CAKE

Once upon a time, many years ago, I served gingerbread to my mother. She commented that gingerbread should be served with a sauce, such as a lemon or caramel. I thought her comment odd since we occasionally had gingerbread when I was at home, and we never had a sauce with it. However, true to my training, I didn’t question her -- or perhaps I just didn't want to hear that she thought my cake was dry. As I’ve moved through life, I have continued to serve gingerbread with nothing more than Cool Whip, if desired.

I suppose my first experimental effort of the season isn’t actually gingerbread because the recipe doesn’t call for ginger. It was the molasses-based “Harvest Apple Cake” from Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for the Modern Hostess, 1940. As I said in a previous post, I have had both successes and failures with this recipe. Here’s the original recipe noting my alterations:

Harvest Apple Cake

1 ½ cups thinly sliced apples – I used 2 cups Gala apples, chopped

¾ cup Brer Rabbit molasses – I used Grandma’s Molasses.

1/3 cup shortening

½ cup hot water

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup sugar

1 t cinnamon

½ t cloves

¼ t mace or nutmeg – I used nutmeg.

1 ½ t soda

Slowly cook apples in molasses until tender. Cool. Melt shortening in hot water. Sift all dry ingredients and gradually add hot water mixture, stirring constantly to keep smooth. Stir in molasses and apples. Pour in greased pan and bake1/2 hour in moderate oven (350 F.). Serves 8 to 12.

In a previous effort, I’m sure I scorched the molasses and apples mixture. This time I used my small Crockpot on low for three hours. Two hours would have been sufficient, I think, because the molasses already smelled pretty hot. I then followed the directions and poured the batter into an 8x8 pan. I set my oven at 335 and checked the cake at 25 minutes. I took it out at 35 minutes.

Conclusions:

·       It was nicely done around the edges, but the center was a little under-done. And that under-done part was most delicious in my opinion.

·       The recipe doesn’t state the pan size. Next time, I would use the 7x11 pan instead of the 8x8. I think it was a little too much batter for the 8x8.

·       The recipe doesn’t call for salt. Mike immediately missed it. I would add ¼ teaspoon.

Mike prefers his cake plain. I used Cool Whip on my serving. KW