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Cheese Gingerbread No. 2
1/2 cup of molasses 1/2 cup of sugar 4 ounces of cheese 2 cups of flour 1 teaspoon of soda 2 teaspoons ginger 1/2 teaspoon of salt 3/4 cup of water Rub the cheese and sugar together. Add the molasses. Mix, and sift the dry ingredients, and add them to the cheese mixture alternately with the water.
A gingerbread with cheese standing in for butter, from a book built around replacing meat at the centre of a meal. The original stops before baking, so the missing pan, temperature and time are the first things to settle.
- The cheese is the shorteningFour ounces of a full-fat cheese supplies the fat this batter would otherwise get from butter. Use a soft cream cheese or a well-grated young cheddar at room temperature; a hard aged grating cheese will stay in gritty specks and a low-fat cheese leaves the crumb dry.
- "Rub together" means creamWork the cheese and sugar with a spoon or paddle until smooth and paste-like before the molasses goes in. Lumps left at this stage are likely to persist, since little in the later mixing will break them down.
- Soda, not baking powderThe single teaspoon of soda is there to react with the acid in the molasses, and it is the only leavening. Sift it thoroughly through the flour, and get the batter into the oven promptly once the wet and dry are combined.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses rather than blackstrap, which is bitter and will fight the ginger. Light or "mild" molasses will give a paler, sweeter gingerbread; the recipe does not specify a grade.
- Missing pan and ovenThe batter suits a greased 8-inch square pan or a loaf tin. Bake in a moderate oven, 350F, for about 30 to 35 minutes in the square pan, longer in a loaf, until a tester comes out clean and the top springs back.
- Batter consistencyAdding water and flour alternately keeps the mixture from breaking. The finished batter should pour thickly rather than drop in clumps; if it is stiff, a spoonful or two more water is safer than overworking it.
- Yield and keepingAbout nine squares. Like most molasses cakes it improves on the second day once wrapped, and the cheese makes it best eaten within three days or kept refrigerated.
Cheese turns up in strange places in the meatless cookbooks of the early twentieth century, and this is one of them. With meat off the table, whether for Lent, for economy, or possibly under the wartime food conservation campaigns often associated with such books, cheese was one of the substitute proteins cooks reached for, and they pressed it into service well beyond the obvious savoury dishes. Here it does double duty: it carries fat into a cake that contains no butter, and it lets a sweet course count toward the day's protein. Molasses gingerbread was already among the cheapest and most forgiving American cakes, leavened with soda against the acid of the syrup and needing no eggs, which made it a natural frame for this kind of experiment. The "No. 2" in the title tells you only that the book printed more than one version of the idea.