Original 1970s Gingerbread
So you’ll love this – I’ve a really mad 1970s version of that veritable culinary bible, The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, which I nicked from me Ma. I’ve got a new version too but I love the old one best for the naff photos. Flicking through, I removed one of my myriad bookmarks only to find that it was covered in childish scribble. Not just scribble, but… a recipe! judging by the dodgy writing and misspelling of the word ‘suger’, I would wager that this was one of my very first forays into trying to poison people with my cooking, and the temptation was too much – I set to work and recreated it. The good news is that this is possibly the easiest, and yummiest recipe in the world. I’ve looked it up and there are tons of versions, but this one, happily, seems to be unique and therefore possibly is my very own work. See what you think:
3 oz butter
3 oz caster sugar
1/4 pint of milk
1 or 2 teaspoons ground ginger (depends how gingery you like it)
2 tablespoons treacle (my recipe said 1 1/2, but have you tried measuring half a tablespoon of gloop?)
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
8 oz self raising flour (sifted)
So preheat your oven (I didn’t actually mention a heat on my original, but I guessed at 180 – gas 4 – and it worked fine). Butter a small loaf tin and set it aside. Measure out your butter, sugar, milk, ginger and treacle and melt them over a low heat in a saucepan. When it’s all melted together, turn off the heat and stir in your bicarbonate of soda, which will kind of fizz up, then add your flour and beat until smooth. There’s an amazing transformation to a lovely creamy batter. Very satisfying. Lob it in your tin, cover with foil (otherwise you get a crusty top and you want it to be soft and moist), bake for about 45 minutes, then remove to cool. Or, if you’re big fatties like us lot, burn your fingers trying to get it out of the tin, and butter it while it’s still steaming. Best eaten wearing flares and a shirt with a big collar. Mmmmmm.
And I love all those old cookbooks with the naff pics – my mum’s got a ton of them. Seems like a reminder of a more innocent age (when tinned pineapple was a treat and no one had heard of pomegranates, superfoods or whatnot).
[...] version of this little beauty tucked inside one of my Ma’s old cookery books a while back and recreated it with some success. Since then, though, I’ve been feverishly working on it after being stung by a comment of [...]