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This recipe for Welsh Gingerbread is an old one. I picked it up duringmy culinary tour of Wales, and as you can see from the picture, it comes from an old book. You know, the kind your grandmother has stashed on the shelf.There’s no reference to what year this book was made, but there is a little note at the top of the recipe that says it was the original gingerbread sold at old Welsh Fairs. In the spirit of the holiday season, I couldn’t wait to try it out!
Translating Measurements
Now, I confess, it took me a couple of tries. Here in the United States, we don’t measure things by the “gill,” and I had to do a bit of googling to discover ourequivalent of demerara sugar (it’s brown sugar) and black treacle (it’s molasses). We also don’t have an Oven Control, Mark 3. So this was a fun experiment. But the results were worth it.
Testing An Old Gingerbread Recipe
Thankfully, most of the measurements were by weight/ounces, so I only had one that was a bit tricky — a gill. According to Wikipedia, “Agill or teacup is a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint. It is no longer in common use, except in regard to the volume of alcoholic spirits measures.” I also found a few references that said it was equivalent to a half cup, or five fluid ounces. So, I started with that measurement, but it ended up being a bit too moist. Then I cut it down to a third, and it was still a bit moist. Finally, I cut both the milk ANDthe molasses down to 1/3 cup and that ended up being about right.
Now, something you’ll notice about the original Welsh gingerbread recipe pictured — there are no eggs. And no ginger, either! The recipe did mention candied peel, and I assumed that was ginger. I added a bit of ground ginger to the recipe to give it more a ginger flavor andmadea glaze sprinkled some candied ginger on top to make it more like a festive dessert. Enjoy!
Welsh Gingerbread With Orange Glaze & Candied Ginger
Add the flour, baking soda, cream of tarter, and ground ginger to a large bowl and whisk together.
Next, add the butter and press into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until the butter is blended into the flour and it looks a little lumpy.
Add the brown sugar and to the flour mixture and stir together. Once it is well blended, add 1/4 cup of candied ginger and mix.
Heat the milk on the stove or in the microwave until it's warm, but not boiling. Pour the molasses into the milk and stir until the molasses is dissolved. Then pour the molasses milk into the flour and gently stir together until it's the consistency of a soft cookie dough.
Transfer dough into greased bread pan and bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (You may need a little longer depending on your oven)
While the gingerbread is baking, you can prepare the glaze.
Whisk the confectioners sugar with the orange juice until the sugar is completely dissolved and it is the consistency of a syrup.
Once the bread is done baking, let it cool for 1 hour. Drizzle with glaze and the rest of the candied ginger.
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About Rachelle Lucas
Rachelle is the founder of TheTravelBite.com and was named one of USA Today's 10Best Food and Travel Bloggers. She believes the best way to learn about a destination is through its flavors and collects recipes from her trips to recreate them here on The Travel Bite. In her spare time she enjoys running and yoga to balance out her food obsession.
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Comments
Gaylesays
Candied peel is orange peel that has been cooked with sugar in a saucepan, sort of like peanut brittle. You also buy it ready made in grocery stores. It’s really good in breads and muffins
Reply
Annsays
In our neck of the woods, mixed peel is a mixture of orange, lemon and sometimes grapefruit peel, candied and chopped finely. It remains moist, not brittle. Added to Christmas cakes is usual here amongst other baked good where dried fruit may be used. Hot cross buns aren’t the same without it!
Chill the dough: The dough is sticky once it's all beaten together in your mixing bowl and therefore, it absolutely MUST be chilled for at least 3 hours. Give yourself enough time in the kitchen or make the cookie dough and chill it overnight.
First, the texture of the cookie needs to be fairly crispy along the outside with a semi-soft, cake-like inside, and like all "perfect" cut-out cookies, they definitely need to keep their shape when baked. Secondly, they must taste sweet but notably spicy, and have a rich molasses flavour.
Factor in two days when making the gingerbread dough as it needs to chill overnight. To get ahead though, the dough can be made up to two weeks in advance and kept in the fridge, just remember to take it out of the fridge half an hour or so before rolling out!
It will stay fresh at room temperature for up to five days and you can freeze it too, so you can make it ahead of time. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Once cooled, decorate your gingerbread with icing, lollies and Christmas decorations.
If your dough is too sticky and it's impossible to work with you can add some extra flour, just a little at a time. Make sure you weigh the extra flour you add and then you'll be able to adjust the recipe correctly the next time you bake.
Chilling the dough before it goes into a hot oven gives the butter a chance to firm up and reduces how much it spreads when baking. “You should chill the dough both before rolling and cutting and after,” she said.
With its golden, amber color, it is lighter than molasses, though the two are similar in their thickness. Golden syrup also a liquid sweetener, so 1 cup of golden syrup can replace 1 cup of molasses. Golden syrup has a unique flavor, so it may alter the flavor of your recipe slightly.
Divide the dough into two thick disks and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours. (The dough can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.) To roll out the cookies, work with one disk at a time, keeping the other disk refrigerated.
Timing is the key to achieving the crispy edges and chewy centers of a perfect gingerbread cookie. Due to gingerbread's dark color, it can be tricky to tell when they're done baking—look for puffed up, just-set centers. Gingerbread cookies will collapse as they cool, delivering that chewy cookie texture.
If you try to roll out the dough right after removing it from the fridge, it will be too stiff to work with. Instead, take it out of the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes until it's warm enough to roll without tearing or cracking.
Depending on the size of the house, you may want to make a sturdier style of gingerbread, which isn't as tasty. But as long as the house is fresh, it can be eaten within a few days of being assembled. If it sits around for a week or more, it will be stale.
The general rule of thumb is a couple of weeks. It depends how its prepared and if you used a lot of icing. Also, gingerbread like any other bread turns stale quite fast.
“Edible” is a loose term, apparently. A gingerbread house is about as edible as play-dough—you can eat it, but should you? These houses are usually left out for days (more on that later), drying out and crusting over.
Food that has passed its best before date is safe to eat. Best before should be considered a rough guide rather than a strict rule. There is no reason to throw away food that goes past its best before date, it is perfectly safe to eat and will often taste just as good.
When cookie dough is too sticky, you may have an imbalance of wet and dry ingredients. You can fix this by adding a teaspoon of flour or cornstarch at a time until your dough is just how you want. The added flour or cornstarch will absorb the excess liquid and reduce the dough's overall stickiness.
If your dough is too crumbly: mix in 1 tbsp of milk until the dough is soft and pliable again. Be sure to chill your dough for at least 3 hours. This will help the flavor of the dough and consistency so it doesn't spread when baking.
If you have a high hydration dough, it's going to be sticky. That's all there is too it. If you add more flour, you'll end up with a really tough, dry loaf, so don't add more flour! First thing you can do is set the dough aside after you've added your water and mixed it together.
Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.
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Gayle says
