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Gingerbread (No. 2)
1/2 cup butter. 1 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon ginger 2 eggs (well beaten) 1 cup molasses Pinch of salt 1 teaspoon baking soda (dissolved in molasses) 1 cup cold water 3 cups Five Roses flour.
Mix in the order named, and bake 20 or 30 minutes. Icing may be used, if preferred.
A plain molasses gingerbread of the everyday sort: no butter, no milk, and a batter thin enough to pour. It works, but the original assumes knowledge the modern baker has to supply.
- No fat is a typo you should not fixThe list genuinely contains no butter or shortening. Molasses-and-water gingerbreads of this kind were made lean on purpose; the crumb is more like a soft, moist cake bread than a buttery loaf. It stales quickly, so eat it within a day or two or wrap it tightly.
- Oven temperatureThe book gives none. A 20-to-30-minute bake for a batter of this volume points to a moderate oven, around 350F, in a greased 9x13 inch pan. In a deeper pan, such as an 8-inch square, the batter sits thicker and will need appreciably longer; test with a skewer.
- Soda in the molassesThis is the hinge. Stirring the teaspoon of baking soda into the cup of molasses first lets the acid in the molasses start working immediately and neutralises its harshness. The mixture will foam and lighten in colour; add it while it is still active rather than letting it sit.
- Molasses, not blackstrapPeriod molasses meant a mild table molasses, roughly what is sold now as fancy or full-flavour. Blackstrap is markedly bitterer and will overwhelm the ginger.
- Five Roses flourA Canadian hard-wheat all-purpose flour, higher in protein than most soft southern flours. Ordinary all-purpose is the right substitute; measure the three cups by spooning and levelling, or weigh at about 360-375 g.
- The ginger measureA full tablespoon of ground ginger reads as a lot, and the heat is clearly intended. Ground spice may well have lost potency in the tin before use; with a recently opened jar, two teaspoons gives a comparable heat.
- Mixing order matters"Mix in the order named" means sugar and ginger, then eggs, then the foaming molasses, salt, water, and flour last. Stir only until the flour disappears; overworking a thin batter with hard-wheat flour makes it tough and tunnelled.
- Yield and finishingAbout 12 to 16 squares from a 9x13 pan. The recipe leaves the icing unspecified; a simple confectioners' sugar and water glaze suits it, and lemon in the glaze is a good foil for the molasses.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, the Montreal-based millers behind the Five Roses brand, and distributed as flour promotion to Canadian households in the early twentieth century. Its recipes came largely from home cooks who wrote in, which is why the same dish appears two or three times over with small variations and why the instructions assume a woman who already knows her own stove. Molasses gingerbread of this type was a standard of North American baking through the nineteenth century: molasses was cheaper than sugar, kept well, and supplied the acid that made saleratus and later baking soda work as a leavener, so the pairing of the two was practical chemistry before it was a flavour tradition. The lack of butter marks it as an economical version, the kind kept in the pantry for tea rather than made for company.