Okay, this is really a two-part post. Yup, more about this actual recipe in a minute.
First, I have to say that there is something wonderful about older recipes. I collect older cookbooks…the printed kind or the handwritten kind and old recipe boxes full of the gems developed over a lifetime of preparing treats for families. I can’t get enough of them. They comfort me, and I feel like I’m holding on to the history wonderful history of family favorites. It’s important to me, and a little difficult to explain to others.
I want cookbooks that contain recipes people actually eat. (If you want to get rid of your old cookbook collection, I’ll be glad to give it a new home!) I’m looking for the the kind of recipes that don’t take six hours to make or require trips to three far-away specialty stores to pick up ingredients I’ve never heard anything about. This is one of THOSE recipes. I hope to share more of them with you!
There is something wonderful about gingerbread. It is satisfying to the senses. The smell of the Holidays, has an amazing texture, and just settles the soul. It is comforting. I found this recipe in one of the cookbooks some wonderful lady compiled by typing on a typewriter and saving clippings from newspapers. I don’t know who she is or where she lived, or even what paper this treasure was preserved from. I can’t give any one person credit, so I will thank the wonderful women who developed satisfying comfort foods of the past…and the present as we share in the Hallmark Times recipes that might otherwise be lost.
Featherlight Gingerbread
1 cup butter or margarine [I’d use butter.]
1 cup mild-flavored molasses
1 cup boiling water
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 large eggs, beaten
Heavy cream, whipped
Add butter or margarine, brown sugar, and molasses to boiling water, mixing well to melt butter. [I’m sure you noticed that there is no brown sugar listed in the ingredients so I looked up what other gingerbreads with similar water and molasses use. Try 1/2 cup packed brown sugar. Use light brown sugar if you want a more mild taste and dark brown if you like a more molasses-y taste.]
Sift together the next seven ingredients and stir into molasses mixture. Blend in eggs. Turn into a well-greased, lightly floured 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or until a cake tester [or wooden toothpick] inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or cold, topped with whipped cream.
Store any leftovers in a tightly closed cake box [or airtight container], but we doubt that there’ll be much to store.
