SweetSugarBelle's Favorite Gingerbread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why shouldn't you use blackstrap molasses in gingerbread? ›

Though it's ideal for savory foods such as barbecue sauces and stews, Bourdon cautioned against choosing blackstrap for cookies. “Please avoid this dark and bitter molasses for your baking recipes,” she said. “It will make your cookies dry and quite frankly inedible. The rationale is basic chemistry.

The recipe is simple and straight forward, beginning with the usual steps of creaming butter and sugar. Fancy molasses is the lightest of the molasses varieties and adds the perfect amount of robust sweetness when paired with dark brown sugar.

Spice Combinations

Some other common spices used in gingerbread recipes are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and allspice. Cinnamon is available in ground form and in a stick. For baking, you should use ground cinnamon. Nutmeg adds a nutty, sweet spiciness to gingerbread.

Unsulphured molasses can be light, dark or blackstrap, as long as it hasn't been treated with sulphur dioxide. Most commercially produced molasses is unsulphured.

It's the number of times the juice is boiled that makes all the difference. Light or regular molasses is produced after the second boiling. Blackstrap molasses is what comes from a third boiling, and it's very bitter. You'll usually see it used in baked beans or barbecue sauce.

As far as I can find, molasses is about 70% sugar and high in moisture, while blackstrap is 45% sugar, low in moisture, dense, bitter and salty.” Remember to use blackstrap only when a recipe calls for the ingredient, such as with baked beans. But don't sub in the sweetener for light or dark molasses.

Molasses – Essential for that deep, rich, caramel-like gingerbread flavour! It also helps hold the dough's shape. Golden syrup makes a great sub, or treacle. Honey will also work, but the cookies will spread out a touch more and not have the same deep flavour (but still very, very good!).

No. Molasses are far too dark. They're more akin to Black Treacle, which you will also come across in British recipes. Golden syrup is an inverted sugar syrup which is light golden in colour.

Should gingerbread cookies be hard or soft? Soft gingerbread biscuits are ideal. They ought to be flexible. However, they should still be somewhat elastic, and if you hold them too firmly because you're so excited to eat them, you might even be able to leave your fingerprints on the cookie!

Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses.

Why is it called gingerbread when there is no ginger? ›

In Medieval England, the term gingerbread simply meant “preserved ginger” and wasn't applied to the desserts we are familiar with until the 15th century. The term is now broadly used to describe any type of sweet treat that combines ginger with honey, treacle or molasses.

Gingerbread, as we know it today, descends from Medieval European culinary traditions. Gingerbread was also shaped into different forms by monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century. Lebkuchen bakers are recorded as early as 1296 in Ulm and 1395 in Nuremberg.

Some bakeries are now calling gingerbread men by the gender neutral term “gingerbread people.” Do you agree with the change? I couldn't care less if they called them “gingerbread cookies.” Originally Answered: Some Bakeries are now calling Gingerbread men by the gender fluid title Gingerbread people.

Research has also shown that it may improve dental hygiene, reduce cholesterol and lower blood pressure. Similarly, nutmeg – another common ingredient in gingerbread – is associated with reduced inflammation and may benefit heart health.

A traditional Gingerbread Cake that is quick and easy to make. The combination of golden syrup, cinnamon and our Organic Blackstrap Molasses results in a slightly sweet and lightly spiced flavour. We have made ours in a Bundt cake mould but it can also be made in a simple loaf tin.

Use blackstrap molasses in your cooking with caution. While light and dark molasses can be used fairly interchangeably, blackstrap molasses can overpower your baking with off-putting flavors.

Many people are fans of the stronger, more robust flavours and use it in recipes such as baked beans and gingerbread. In addition to its deep flavour, blackstrap molasses is recognized as a source of iron and calcium.

Click here for recipes and other information about blackstrap molasses. WARNING: Consuming this product can expose you to chemicals including lead and acrylamide, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.