Gingerbread

Ingredients

• 4 lbs. flour
• x teaspoonful pimento or allspice
• 1 teaspoonful mixed spice
• 1 oz. bi-carbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoonful ground ginger
• lb. brown sugar
• 1 lb. treacle
• 4 pint water
• lb. butter or 7 ozs. of lard

Method

1. 1

   Rub the butter or lard into the flour; add the spice, pimento, ginger, and bi-carbonate of soda.

2. 2

   Mix the sugar and water together and then mix in the treacle.

3. 3

   Use this liquid to make up the flour, etc., into a soft dough.

4. 4

   Put this dough into a well-greased baking tin so that it will be about half-an-inch thick.

5. 5

   Bake this in a slow oven (350° F) for about 30 minutes.

6. 6

   Remove the tin from the oven and allow the gingerbread to go cold in the tin.

7. 7

   Then cut it into blocks about three inches square and serve.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Sea Cookery (1911) by Richard Bond, page 85. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

gingerbread to cool in the baking tin when removed from the oven. Cut into blocks of suitable size, and it is ready for the table. TRANSPARENT GINGERBREAD. 1 lb. flour 1 lb. treacle 4 lb. butter 4 lb. crushed loaf sugar 4 oz. ground ginger Mix together the flour, ginger, and sugar, melt the butter and pour it and the treacle together into the flour, mix well together, and drop a dessertspoonful at a time on a very clean greased baking tin. Allow three inches space between each.' Bake in a moderate oven ten minutes. ORMSKIRK GINGERBREAD. 1 lb. flour 4 lb. butter f- lb. brown sugar 4 lb. treacle 1 oz. ground ginger 1 teaspoonful baking powder The grated rind and juice of 1 lemon Put the flout into a bowl, add the butter, and rub all together as if for shoit paste. Mix in the sugar, ginger, and baking powder, then mix all to a paste with the lemon juice and rind, and the treacle. Roll this out on a floured board until only one-eighth inch thick. Cut out with a round cutter, or a wineglass will do. Put these on a baking sheet, and bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes. I 140 1 oz. sugar 2 ozs. flour TEA CAKES. Make a ferment of : — £ pint water at 100° F. £ pint milk at 100° F. 1 £ ozs. compressed yeast Put this aside in a warm place until it rises and falls again. This should take place in about thirty minutes. While the ferment is working get ready the following mixture 6 ozs. lard 2 lbs. flour £ oz. salt £ lb. sugar eggs Rub the lard into the flour and add the salt. When the ferment has fallen, add to it the eggs and sugar and beat them up. Pour this into the flour and mix all to a dough. Give it a very thorough kneading to ensure having a bulky tea cake, and then cover over with a cloth and put it in a warm place to rise. This will take about an hour. When it has risen, divide the dough into pieces about 3 ozs. •each, mould these up, and then roll them out into cakes about four inches diameter. Put these on a warm, greased baking sheet so that they do not touch each other, allow them to rise, and then brush them over with eggwash and bake in a very hot oven (450° F.) about ten minutes. SALLY LUNNS. Sally Lunns are made in the same way as tea cakes, but with the addition of lb. currants to the foregoing recipe. Weigh off the •dough into 9 ozs. pieces, and when moulded, put these into round cake tins, allow them to rise, then bake for half an hour. COFFEE BUNS. These are made in exactly the same way as Italian buns, with the difference in flavour obtained by using lemon curd instead of almond paste in the centre. In this case the lemon curd is put into the hollow in the centre of the buns after they are baked. These buns are eminently suitable for serving with the morning coffee. SWISS BUNS. These are made from the same mixture, or dough, as the Tea Cakes, the only difference being their size and shape, and the fact that they are finished off with water icing on top. To make the Swiss Buns, have ready the dough as directed in Tea Cakes, divide it into pieces 2 ozs. each, mould these up into finger-shaped rolls about four inches long ; place these side by side, but only just barely touching each other, on a warm greased baking sheet, and allow them to rise until very light. Bake in a hot oven .(425° F.) about fifteen minutes. 141 Allow them to cool on the tin after they are baked. Run a small quantity of water icing on the top of each, and they are ready for serving. ITALIAN BUNS. These are made from the same dough as Sally Lunns, but with the addition of almond paste and water icing. To make them, have ready the dough divided into 2 ozs. pieces, mould them up like an ordinary bun, and place them well apart on a warm greased baking sheet to rise. When about half risen, make a hollow in the centre of each by pressing it down with the thumb. Put a small piece of almond paste, which has previously been coloured pink with a little cochineal, in each hollow centre, allow them to fully rise, and bake in a hot oven (425° F.) about fifteen minutes. Allow to cool, and then run a little water icing around the top of each before serving. STEAM BREAD AND BUN PROVER. This apparatus is designed so that a sufficient quantity of wet steam may be sprayed inside, so that bread, rolls, or fermented buns, after being moulded into shape and placed on the sheet tins, can be proved equally as well before baking as they are proved at the bakers’ establishments ashore. Wet steam has the effect of keeping the surface of the dough moist, m addition to giving the required warmth, with the result that the buns or bread, after being baked, is thin and has also a good rich colour. 142 GINGERBREAD. 4 lbs. flour x teaspoonful pimento or allspice 1 teaspoonful mixed spice 1 oz. bi-carbonate of soda 1 teaspoonful ground ginger lb. brown sugar 1 lb. treacle 4 pint water \ lb. butter or 7 ozs. of lard

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.