Sarah Nelson, Grasmere-inspired Gingerbread
Inspired by Sarah Nelson's Grasmere gingerbread recipe I enjoyed while taking a walking tour around Grasmere Lake in the Lake District (England), I have adapted the recipe from Regula Ysewijn's recipe found in her cookbook Oats in the North, Wheat from the South: The History of British Baking: Savoury and Sweet.
Ingredients
- 225 g (8 oz) Pastry Flour (all purpose flour will work as well)
- 115 g (4 oz) dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup candied ginger, roughly chopped
- 1-2 Tbsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp mace
- 2 Tbsp molasses
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fleur de sel
- 115 g (4 oz) unsalted butter, chilled
Instructions
- You will want a square (8"x8") or a rectangular cake pan (4" x 16").
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F), 180 degrees (C).
- Prepare the cake pan. Using a stick of butter, grease the bottom and the sides and especially the corners of the pan. Then place parchment paper into the pan. You may just put it in the bottom, but you can also cut out a larger piece of parchment and let it run up all of the sides. The butter you have applied will hold the parchment while you press the cookie dough in later.
- In a food processor, add all of the dry ingredients including all of the ginger (each type - if you don't have all of them, just adjust with the others that you have). Add the molasses as well. Pulse until combined.
- Then roughly chop up the chilled butter, and add that to the food processor and pulse until a loose consistent crumb is created. It won't stick together like a pastry and that is okay. You want it to be a a loose crumb. When you piece a bit between your fingers it will stick together and that is all you need.
- Reserve 70 grams of the cookie dough and set aside. Pour the remaninder of the cookie dough (which will not be sticking together - it will be loose and not like a pastry), into the prepared cake pan. Using a pastry scraper, press to dough into the pan, creating an even and flat top. Then sprinkle on the 70 grams you set aside, so it is loosely on top similar to a crumble topping.
- Before putting the pan into the oven (you can also do this immediately after it comes out of the oven while it is still hot, but be sure not to touch the cake pan as it will be hot), using the pastry scraper, make a slight indent/score to divide the pan into fourths (see photos at the bottom of recipe to observe the indents made after it came out of the oven), and then into eights so that after it is baked, it will be easier to separate and break into its large and small pieces.
- Bake until golden brown for 20 minutes (approximately). Until lightly golden brown.
- The gingerbread is wonderful warm right out of the oven. With each following day, it will become slightly less tender, but then it becomes wonderful for dunking into your tea or coffee. You can also reheat it back up ever so slightly by putting it in the microwave as this soften it somewhat.
