Gingerbread Recipe

Gingerbread today is quite different from what it used to be. Once upon a time, “gingerbread” simply meant preserved ginger. By the fifteenth century it was a “cake” made from a dense dough of breadcrumbs or ground almonds mixed with honey or spices. Often this dough was pressed into moulds with very intricate designs. There were many varieties of gingerbread in medieval times: ‘coarse’, ‘fine’, white, red (coloured with red wine or sandalwood), and gilded (with real gold).

Here is a small sample recipe

Grasmere Gingerbread.
8 oz. wholemeal flour
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
6 oz butter
6 oz brown sugar
1 level tablespoon

Golden Syrup.

Mix the flour, bicarb soda, cream of tartar and ground ginger. Rub in the butter. Add the sugar and Golden Syrup and mix well. Press into a greased 8 inch diameter tin. Bake in a cool (325oC) oven for 45-50 minutes. Leave in the tin 15 minutes. Cut into wedges.

Yorkshire Parkin.

4 level tablespoons Golden Syrup
4 level tablespoons Treacle
3 oz soft dark brown sugar
8 oz butter
¼ pint milk
8 oz plain flour
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons bicarb soda1 teaspoon salt
8 oz fine or medium oatmeal.

Melt the syrup, treacle, sugar, butter and milk together gently. Sif the flour, ginger, bicarb, salt together and add the oatmeal. Add the melted mixture to the dry mixture and beat till smooth. Pour into a greased and lined 11 x 7 inch tin. Cook in a cool (325oC) oven 40-45 minutes. It will shrink back from the sides of the tin, and look a bit sunken, but will spring back when cooked. Cool in the tin ten minutes before turning out.

Quotation for the Day ...

And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread. William Shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost