When I brought two fragrant loaves of gingerbread into the newsroom on Thursday, I almost felt like the Brothers Grimm witch whose edible home was so tempting.
Hansel and Gretel couldn’t resist munching on the witch’s house; our editor Joe Soprano finally put aside his strict diet and agreed to sample an offering from the Times Leader Test Kitchen.
“I like gingerbread,” he said, giving a thumbs-up to the spicy cake.
Other tasters enjoyed the gingerbread, too, with reporter Patrick Kernan saying “it would be good with a really dark cup of coffee, something strong like espresso.”
“It almost tastes like pure ginger, the kind they give you with sushi,” Patrick added.
The ginger flavor really came through because the recipe I used — found in the dessert section of my vintage copy of Mollie Katzen’s “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest” cookbook — calls not for the powdered ginger you might have in your spice rack but for 3 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger root.
If you like the smell of ginger, you’ll breathe deeply when you saute that freshly grated ginger root in butter and the heavenly aroma fills your kitchen. Mmm.
The recipe was really simple and Mollie Katzen writes easy-to-understand directions.
So, why did I make two somewhat different loaves?
The reason is because I wasn’t baking in an organized, measure-all-the-ingredients first kind of fashion, but just grabbing them as I went along.
As I was adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, I thought the batter seemed overly moist and convinced myself (wrongly) that I had skipped a cup of flour. So I added a cup. This made for a drier batter.
And that first pan of gingerbread hadn’t been in the oven 10 minutes before I realized (correctly) that I shouldn’t have added the extra flour.
So I started all over again, grated more ginger root and made an entirely new batch. This time I accepted the fact that it’s a moist batter and baked it.
Now I had two cakes, one with the 2 cups of flour and one with 3.
And, everybody who tried both cakes said they liked both of them,with taste taster Maria Dibou even preferring the drier cake.
“It reminds me of pumpkin bread,” she said, suggesting it would be even better with “icing made from confectioners sugar.”
Everyone else seemed to prefer the moister cake, although as editor Roger DuPuis and reporter Bill O’Boyle assured me, both varieties were tasty.
And taste tester Ben Mandell, who appreciated the way “the ginger immediately hits you” said he’d even consider making the gingerbread for a family holiday party.
If you’d like to try it, too, here is the recipe:
SPICY GINGERBREAD by Mollie Katzen
5 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons freshly grated ginger root
1/2 cup light honey
1/2 cup light molasses
1/2 cup firm yogurt
1 large egg
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Saute butter and freshly grated ginger root together lightly, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Beat honey and molasses together vigorously for 5 minutes. Beat in above ginger plus all the butter
Beat together the yogurt and egg. Combine with the wet mix and set aside
Thoroughly sift together the flours, soda, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the center of the dry mixture.
add the wet mixture. Mix thoroughly, but minimally.
Spread the batter into a nicely buttered pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes in a 350-degree oven. It’s done when the top surface is springy to the touch, or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.