All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [26]
Gingerbread, GLORIOUS GINGERBREAD
Gingerbread is easy, and perfect for those midweek office lulls. When the weather’s rainy or cold and I think we need a pickup, I’ll get up a half hour early and mix up a batch. By the time I’ve read the newspaper and had breakfast, it’s ready to come out of the oven and cool. And by the time I’m out of the shower, it’s ready to wrap up and carry in.
Ginger is used in most every cuisine in the world, though gingerbread is primarily a medieval European creation. According to one Web site I visited, the United States has a greater variety of gingerbread recipes than any other country. (I am skeptical of some of the things I read on the Internet: Just how did they determine this? Do the good folks at Pew Research cold-call residents in Sri Lanka, Lithuania, and Peru? ‘Cause if Pew president and pollster Andy Kohut wasn’t behind it, I may choose not to believe it.)
Now, the use of ginger for flavoring food and for medicinal purposes goes way back to ancient China. And, ginger’s not a root, it’s a rhizome—a “somewhat elongated, usually horizontal subterranean plant stem that is often thickened by deposits of reserve food material, produces shoots above and roots below, and is distinguished from a true root in possessing buds, nodes, and usually scalelike leaves”, according to the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary holding up my computer monitor. Bleeding heart plants are rhizomes. But bleeding heart bread doesn’t sound too great now does it, smarty-pants?
Ginger’s good for what ails ya, if what ails ya is nausea. When I have the flu, I crave ginger ale with crushed ice because that’s what Momma used to give me back when I was a wee gal, along with sympathy, chicken noodle soup, and saltines. Western women don’t usually eat ginger to counteract morning sickness, but Chinese women traditionally do.
There are some people who are allergic to ginger. They don’t break out, they break wind. Or they burp. So if you’re one of them, think twice and plan accordingly before trying out these recipes.
Gingerbread
This comes from my well-worn 1971 edition of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Momma picked up a copy of it at a yard sale when she was collecting things for my first apartment. It is a hoot from the very beginning: “Dear Homemaker: From cover to cover, this Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book was written with you, the homemaker, in mind. … Whether you’re an experienced cook, or a newcomer to the world of cooking three meals a day, we want it to be your best friend in the kitchen.” It’s signed “The Editors.”
Well, bless your heart, Editors. My best friend in the kitchen is my microwave, which heats two of the three meals I eat every day.
While the Editors might have missed a few episodes of Maude and probably the entire feminist movement, most of the BH&GNCB baking recipes have withstood the test of time.
Here’s a tip for this one: if you start to make it and realize you don’t quite have enough molasses, make up the difference with honey. I was desperate one morning and tried it—pretty delicious!
This recipe serves 8 to 10, depending on how you slice it.
* * *
YOU’LL NEED
An 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan
½ cup shortening
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
½ cup molasses (I use dark, or “robust”)
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup boiling water (see Tip)
Tip: OK, you should be able to figure this out, but some rookies don’t: You boil MORE than ½ cup of water. When the water reaches the boiling stage, THEN you measure it out.
1. Center a rack and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the sides and bottom of the pan with baking spray.
2. Cream the shortening on medium speed and add the sugar gradually, beating thoroughly after each addition.
3. Add the egg and beat until incorporated.