If you like ginger snaps, you'll love this. If you don't like ginger snaps, try this anyway. You won't be sorry.
This recipe comes from the cookbook I got at Hell's Backbone Grill during our trip to Boulder, Utah last year. I had this for dessert both nights we ate there, and I still dream about it! I decided to make some this year to include in the "goody basket" I'm putting together for our neighbors. Sorry the picture is so lousy. It was taken at 6:30 this morning when I was trying to wrap it up. Seriously, you need to try this stuff.
Ingredients:
3 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon Chimayo chile (leave out if you can't find it)
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups dark molasses
1 1/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup diced pear
1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9x13" baking pan.
2. Sift or stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
3. In large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and eggs and beat on high speed until batter is light in color and texture. Slowly beat in molasses.
4. Add flour mixture and stir with spoon just until combined. Don't overmix.
5. Stir in boiling water and mix well, then add pear and crystallized ginger.
6. Pour into pan and bake for about 40 minutes (toothpick in center will come out clean and cake springs back when lightly pressed).
Best enjoyed warm with butterscotch sauce and whipped cream, but it's also just as fantabulous when enjoyed cold at 6am with morning coffee!!
First thing in the morning, yeah! ;)
ReplyDelete(Pumpkin pie is great that way, too.)
So ... does this recipe work as-is at 5,000' ?
Or did you have to make any modifications?
ps The first time I tried to make an 8' square cake using a regular recipe at that altitude, it resulted in the 1" perimeter of the cake nicely baked ... and all the rest in the interior looked like the home of the Loch Ness Monster! I've since learned how to make up some of my own recipes and alter others to work. :)
We're at about 4,700 feet and I didn't make any modifications. The restaurant that makes this is at 6,700 feet and they didn't have a note in their cookbook about modifications for high altitude.
ReplyDeleteThis stuff always turns out sort of like a brownie, with the edges crisper and fluffier and the inner part a little flatter and denser. I think you can sort of see that in the photo. But I'm not the type to try to tweak a recipe to fix that. If I can shovel it into my mouth and it tastes good, that's all I care about! :D
PS. I was so sad that I wrapped up all of yesterday's batch for the neighbors that I just made another batch of this for me and the husband. You can't believe how good the house smells right now! :D
....Oh boy...I think I can smell your gingerbread house from here!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas from our gingerbread house to yours!