Spicy Gingerbread

Yes, it's nearly June, the kids are out of school, the weather's warming up again, and we've got more than 6 months to go until Christmas, but here I am making gingerbread anyway.  While it may be out of season right now, gingerbread is one of my favorite treats any time of the year.  Which is how it was traditionally enjoyed all over Europe, actually.

Gingerbread is likely one of the oldest traditional recipes I'll ever post on this site, as it dates to at least the 10th century.  In the centuries before the Spanish started to import chocolate from the new world, ginger, cinnamon, clove, and other spices imported from Asia were some of the most exotic flavors available to European bakers, so gingerbreads, usually sweetened with honey or molasses because sugar was too expensive, became a delicacy seen at festivals and royal courts year-round.  Elizabeth I was known to impress foreign  dignitaries by serving gingerbread men (probably without the candy buttons we add today).  English towns held "gingerbread fairs" as late as the nineteenth century, and gingerbread was believed to have some medicinal properties, as an aid to digestion.  (In fact, this is quite true, provided the cake contains enough ginger.  We still use ginger teas and ginger ale for that purpose today.)

While gingerbread, particularly in cookie form, has undoubtedly been eaten at Christmas time since the middle ages, it was not strongly associated with that particular holiday until the mid nineteenth century, at least in the English speaking world.  When Queen Victoria married Albert of Saxe-Koburg (in Bavaria) in the 1830's, they imported many German Christmas traditions to England, including Christmas trees, Saint Nicholas, and gingerbread houses.  Around the same time, a wave of German immigrants were bringing the same traditions with them to the US.  Obviously, the traditions stuck, and while some bakeries today might have gingerbread and other spiced cakes year-round, they're mainly associated with Christmastime.

Which obviously isn't to say that you can't enjoy this spicy cake any time of year, as long as you're willing to make it yourself.  Whether it's June or December, this cake is the perfect not-too-sweet treat to have with your morning coffee or afternoon tea, so I highly recommend making the effort.  And it's actually really easy to make.  There's not even any decorating involved!

This recipe comes straight from one of my Irish cookbooks and is very heavy on the ginger and molasses.  The resulting cake is dense, moist, sweet, and a little spicy.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F, and butter a 9-inch loaf pan.  Whisk together flour, spices, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add molasses, and finally add the buttermilk.  The mixture will appear runny and not emulsified.  Stir in the dry ingredients until combined, then pour the batter into the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40-50* minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool before serving.

*The cookbook, written by someone who lives at sea level, says to bake for 40-50 minutes.  Here at 5280 feet, it's more like an hour.  The center was still runny at 40 minutes.

Scottish Shortbread

Shortbread is one of the simplest types of cookie you can possibly make.  There are just 4 ingredients- butter, flour, sugar, salt- and the result is a wonderfully tender, crumbly, not too sweet cookie with a subtle, buttery flavour.  Because of its simplicity, you can really add pretty much anything you want to it.  In my research, I've seen variations ranging from thumbprint cookies with strawberry or apricot jam to salted caramel shortbread squares to shortbread cookies with rosemary and thyme, and while some of these look interesting, I'm generally of the opinion that simpler is better when it comes to food.

While I'll probably try (and post) some fancy shortbreads eventually, this recipe is an attempt at recreating a family recipe handed down from a Scottish great-grandmother that I think my mom has, but I can't find in her messy kitchen.  I definitely remember my mom making these at Christmas when I was little and letting my and my brothers cut out and decorate Santas and Christmas trees.  She called them "butter cookies" at the time, so I didn't realize that they were shortbread, rather than some variation of sugar cookie, until much later.

The recipe I've come up with through much experimentation is a combination of Joy of Baking, Martha Stewart, a couple of online resources, several of them Scottish, and what my mom remembers about the recipe that's buried in a cookbook somewhere (probably).  After much research, I decided to go with a very simple formula: 1 part butter: 1/2 part sugar: 1 1/2 part flour, with a pinch of salt because I use unsalted butter.  I decided not to mix the AP flour with rice flour or corn starch like some of the Scottish recipes do because my mother certainly never added corn starch, and I can't picture my great-grandmother even knowing where to buy rice flour.  Anyway, I can't imagine rice having been readily available in 15th or 16th century Scotland, when buttered shortbread was first popularized (Mary, Queen of Scots is said to have been a fan).  I've omitted the vanilla extract common in American recipes for similar reasons: no one in my family uses it in shortbread, and vanilla isn't exactly native to northern Europe.  Besides, simpler is usually better.  I've also decided to use granulated rather than powdered sugar because that's what my grandmother's recipe called for.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

Instructions: 

pre-heat oven to 350F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Cream together butter, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.  Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well.  Once all flour has been added, the dough should be fairly grainy.  Gently press the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle on the baking sheet, cut into bars, and prick the top with a fork, preferably in a decorative pattern.  Alternately, roll out dough on a floured surface and cut shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake in the preheated oven approximately 25 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.  Let cool.


Note on butter:

Did you know that European butter is 85% fat, while American butter is only 75%?  While this sounds great to those Americans who count calories and watch their fat consumption, it can cause some difficulties when baking, especially if the recipe uses a lot of butter, as in the case of croissants or (more relevantly) shortbread.  The lower fat American variety of butter will still result in a good product, and it will be slightly lower calorie, but using a European butter will result in more tender baked goods.  I once made two batches of shortbread side-by-side, one with Kerrygold unsalted butter and the other with a Trader Joe's brand, and I was staggered by the difference in both texture and flavour.  I definitely recommend not worrying too much about the calories and using Kerrygold or another European style butter.