Yun Huang Yong/Flickr Creative Commons
It seems like the weather may want to cool off these next few days. Sure the highs here in the Houston area will be in the 70s, but the nights will be in the 40s – kind of like parts of Oregon in August, ha! But since we’re creeping ever closer to Christmas and another big gathering with family and friends, I thought I’d pass on a very very tasty gingerbread recipe. The grandkids and I made some gingerbread cookies with this recipe over the weekend, and my goal of losing 10 pounds this year might have suffered some damage (only 15 pounds to go!). Anyhow, I found a great old-fashioned gingerbread recipe and here’s what you’ll need:
- half cup of margarine
- half cup of sugar
- half cup of molasses
- one egg yolk
- 2 cups of sifted flower
- half tsp of salt
- one tsp baking powder
- one tsp cinnamon
- two tsp pumpkin spice
- one tsp cloves
- one cup hot water
Now, you may not have all this stuff, I certainly didn’t have any molasses on hand, but the grandkids pointed out that maple syrup is practically molasses so we used that. And it worked! So substitute what you have with what you need and make this recipe your own. It’s a very simple recipe, after all.
Put the butter, sugar, molasses/syrup and egg in a bowl and mix together while the oven is pre-heating to 350. Next, and in another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger, pumpkin spice, cloves, salt, and cinnamon. Pour the sifted mixture in with the butter/sugar/syrup/egg mixture and add the hot water. Stir, and then pour into a buttered pan. Let it bake for an hour and poke it with a toothpick. When the toothpick comes out clean and dry, your gingerbread is finished!
Now comes the hard part… you need to let it cool in the pan before you start cutting it up and eating it. This drives the grandkids crazy because it smells AMAZING!