Seasons of the year certainly affect how and what I cook. And I’m not ready for the winter to be over with yet, as far as making soups, stews, good old comfort food, pumpkin things, and today, a gingerbread. Based on some recent temps, however, you’d think we were already in Indian Summer. The thermometer topped 100 the other day, and we had the A/C running full blast. You folks who lives east will be getting it any day.
You’ll see over on my blogroll (right sidebar) that I read a whole bunch of blogs. Unfortunately for my pressured and precious reading time, I keep adding more blogs to read rather than taking any away. But one of my favorites that I click on early in my reading is Marie’s A Year From Oak Cottage. Marie is a transplanted Canadian, lives in Kent, England, with her husband and dog. She’s a chef/cook for a family at a large manor house (they live in Oak Cottage on the property). Marie always has interesting stories to tell about her life, what she cooks, and the goings-on at the big house, about the Mrs. and the Mr. She’s a good photographer, and relishes the quiet country life she’s now leading.
We have friends in England, that we made on my DH’s and my first trip to the U.K. in 1981, and Pamela was also a cook/chef at a country estate. If you’re interested in reading about my introduction to making a proper pot of tea, or about one particular Sunday lunch and Pamela’s green pea soup, then maybe you’ll know why I was intrigued when I first ran across Marie’s blog.
Over the year or so I’ve been reading Marie’s stories, I’ve made a couple of things, but I always perk up when she mentions that a recipe comes from her beloved “blue notebook.” That means it’s one of her tried and true recipes, one that she’s been making for eons. So when I read that this gingerbread came from her blue notebook, I printed out the recipe from the post, and made it the other evening.
Lest you think that a gingerbread is just a gingerbread, let me dissuade you from that idea. This one’s a tad bit different. It has all of the same ingredients – it is just a cake after all – but there are some different techniques in this one that caught my attention. For one thing, you have to whip the eggs until they’re the consistency of whipped cream. It’s an important step to get the texture Marie relies on. She mentions using an electric whisk – I haven’t a clue what that is unless it’s an immersion blender. So I whipped and whipped by hand until my wrist was about to fall off. And this cake uses honey as well. And hot water. It’s also not all that sweet (which I like). It produces a relatively short (in height) cake (about 1 ¼ inches high, I’d guess). After it had cooled for about 30 minutes I just had to dig into it – it was still warm from the oven, and had the most wonderful soft texture (must be the whipping of those eggs). The spices added a lovely rounded flavor to the cake – I might even add more next time.
The next morning the texture wasn’t quite so soft and ethereal, but it tasted mighty good. I did just what Marie suggested: I cut a slice in half and had it with my breakfast instead of toast. She spreads it with butter and ginger preserves. Just the mention of ginger preserves takes me instantly to England, where such preserves are a staple in everyone’s larder. There’s only one brand available here in the U.S., Robertson’s, and it’s nowhere near – by a long shot – as good as the brands there. I’ve brought some home with me on trips now and then. But I’ve been out of it for awhile, and I just won’t buy Robertson’s. They don’t include all that much ginger in the jar – and the texture is too thick besides. And it’s the ginger that I like, not the sugared pectin syrup. I should learn how to make it – it can’t be that hard. If any of my readers from England or the U.K. have a good recipe, I’d love to hear about it.
Two of our grandchildren (John and Sabrina) enjoying some of the cake. It was warm enough to go swimming here in So. California a few days ago when they were here.
So, here’s Marie’s Warm Honey Gingerbread, which likes to be served with some ice cream or whipped cream on top or a caramel sauce. If you keep portions small, it’s a fairly light dessert, actually, and is very low in fat (only half a cup of butter for the whole recipe which equates to 7 grams of fat). It’s made in a 9×13 pan, so would serve at least 15 people, as long as you served it with ice cream or a sauce. Oh, that’s sounds yummy. I may have to sneak another little bite after lunch today.
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Warm Honey Gingerbread
Recipe: Marie at A Year from Oak Cottage (blog), 2008
Servings: 15
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt — or to taste
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter — softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar — or Muscovado
2 large eggs — at room temperature
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup boiling water
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F. Butter a 9 by 13 inch nonstick baking pan and set it aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg together into a bowl. Set aside.
3. Put the butter into a large bowl and cream it until it is light and lemon colored. Add the brown sugar gradually, creaming it in after each addition until it is light and fluffy.
4. Break the eggs into a separate bowl and beat them with an electric whisk until they are almost the texture of whipped cream. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature as it will not take as long.
5. Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture in three parts, beating it well after each addition until it is well blended together. Add a fourth of the flour mixture, beating it in until well blended. Beat in the honey until it is smooth. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and finally add the boiling water, stirring until smooth.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm, cut into squares with some sauce and whipped cream if desired, or a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Per Serving: 196 Calories; 7g Fat (31.3% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 45mg Cholesterol; 216mg Sodium.
Toffeeapple
said on April 17th, 2008:
I’ve no recipe for Ginger preserve but can tell you that an electric whisk is a small, hand held version of a Kitchen Aid.
Carolyn
said on April 17th, 2008:
Thanks for the info – we just call it a “hand mixer.” Funny how semantics can be so similar, but so different from British English to American English! I also was thrilled yesterday to go to a different grocery store and found, lo and behold, a different brand of ginger preserves. It doesn’t look like it has all that much of the ginger pieces in it, but it is mostly a clear jelly around it (Robertson’s is thicker and occluded), which I prefer. I’ll have to see how it tastes, though.
Toffeeapple
said on April 17th, 2008:
Actually, so do I!
I agree about semantics, I read a blog called ‘separated by a common language’. Written by an American lady living in England with her English husband – it is a fund of knowledge!