Gingerbread recipe

[winter]

Just sticking it here so that I don't forget, but anyone's welcome to try it. This is Grandmother's foolproof gingerbread recipe. This stuff lasts ages, is very easy on the stomach and tastes divine :)


Ingredients:
500 g flour
4 eggs (yolks and whites separated)
1 glass sugar (doesn't have to be a full glass)
3 spoons honey (or more)
150 g butter
1.5 heaped teaspoons bakin
Tons of raisins, orange peel, almonds, nuts, whatever else you want
1 cup of strong instant coffee
1 sachet of gingerbread spice (or powdered ginger, cinnamon, kardamon, cloves and stuff)

In a saucepan on low fire, melt honey and sugar, using a wooden spoon. Add butter, melt, stir in. Add coffee, stir in. Take the saucepan off the fire, let the mixture cool. Add flour, spice and soda, stir. Add yolks and raisins etc, stir. Beat the whites until stiff, then gently fold into the mixture. Pour into baking vessels, leaving lots of room on top - this stuff grows lots. Bake at 180C for 1 hour, test with a wooden skewer until it's dry-ish.


Also, a very happy birthday to assimbya :)

Comments

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

Oooh, damn,t aht sounds lovely ;D I want to try iut, except tht I don't have honey. or nuts. or, oh, much anything really. But do tell me,w aht sort of baking vessels does this need, and how much does this make? :D

[winter]

Two or three decent-sized narrow rectangular deep pans, the sort you'd use for fruitcake or paté. Or one birthday-cake round pan and one narrow rectangular one. Makes enough for Christmas, providing there are other cakes as well ;) Or if not, it feeds about 20 for Christmas Dinner dessert - though there wasn't enough for seconds that time, and I got glared at for daring to make too little of the tastiness.

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

haa, thankies. i do believe I have a birthday cake pan and a rectabngular pan...

.. ofcourse now I jsut got to figure out how to fold stuff. otherwise, I bvelieve I have a new treat to perfect before I leave for my trip :D

[winter]

Folding in means just stirring in very gently, so as not to damage the texture of the beaten whites :) You might even take some on your trip - covered with cloth or paper, this gingerbread lasts two weeks easy. Might last more, but I always end up eating it all ;)

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

I am working on v. strict luggage limists so alas, canöt take any goodies with me... believe me,t he idea is VERY tempting :D

and thanks for the tip. will know when i start making these :D

[winter]

*facepalms* Just remembered the main ingredient - spices!

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

Ooops..... :P

[alice_montrose]

Sounds lovely! I'll definitely give it a try! *nods vigurously*

[winter]

Also dead easy - assuming you have a mechanical way of beating eggs, it's 10 minutes' work. Easy as brownies, and more impressive.

[alice_montrose]

I definitely have a mechanical way of beating eggs - I always screw up beating them manually.

I did share some of my own easy-to-put-together recipes with my f-list a while ago. You can find them here.

[winter]

I abhor beating eggs manually - I always get wrist cramps. And yay! I love having new recipes to try out :)

[alice_montrose]

I really need to type the filled eggs recipe too. Unless you already know that one (likely).

[winter]

I think I do - I know several. I'm mostly a baker, though lately I've been experimenting with meat, and of course salads due to the diet.

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

/Fails so much at cooking that actually thought gingerbread was made with ginger ¬_¬;;;

[winter]

*facepalms* Knew I forgot something. I use pre-mixed gingerbread spice though, adding more cinnamon as I see fit.

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of any help, then! :)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I wonder whether I can get the ingredients here, especially the spices. Because this would be a wonderful thing to bake around Christmas.

[winter]

The spices are light and sold in single-cake portions, so if you want I can send you a satchel or two in a letter :) It's a mix of cinnamon, kardamom, cloves, nutmeg and allspice, but alas they don't give the proportions on the box.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I had a look at the spice rack in the supermarket today, and it stretches down an entire aisle. So I guess the stuff I want is in there somewhere. I'll just have to sit down with the dictionary for a bit. Ginger, cinnamon, kardamom and cloves I'm fairly sure I've already smelled there.

[winter]

I'm not sure about the origin of allspice, but nutmeg comes from Asia (Indonesia to be exact) so it's probably around. *googles* Allspice's from Jamaica, so it might not be available, but upping the cinnamon and ginger and adding a bit of pepper will be a good substitute, I think.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I can kind of remember the taste of allspice, so I could probably come up with a reasonable replacement. I'm already thinking that spices and tea are going to make up a major part of my luggage on the way back.

[ananda-daydream.livejournal.com]

If you google for "recipe subsititutions" (or something along those lines), there's a good sub for allspice around somewhere; I've looked it up before I know. :)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

(Should have thought of this...)

[chocolate_chip.livejournal.com]

;_; I'm allergic to ginger.

[winter]

Poor thing! Candied ginger is my personal anti-drug.

[assimbya.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much! That seems like a great recipe as well. :)

[rachelpage.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this recipe. You made my day!