This recipe worked.. but the taste... ewww
I do not know if it was the molassas ... I have never cooked so much of it before. But the taste was like tangy like eating spoonfuls of baking soda (bicarb soda for australians)
Do you think this would work if I used, golden syrup, or rice syrup or any lighter syrup and say only 1/3 of the molassas?
The only gingerbread recipes I can find are for crispy cookie style.. Not the rich fudgy cake style.
Thanks
1-½ c. sourdough starter
½ c. butter
½ c. sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 c. molasses
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
½ c. flour
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together butter and sugar. Add the beaten egg and mix well. Add molasses and beat well.
Add sourdough, cinnamon, ginger, salt and baking soda. Add flour and beat 2 minutes.
Pour into greased and floured 9x9x2 pan and bake for 55 minutes. Use a toothpick to test doneness. Cool.
Top with ice cream or whipped cream.
As prepared by Gretchen Pencefor Chez Alaska Cooking School
Your recipe contains some ingrediants whose flavor can really vary depending on what you actually use. Here are a ffew things you might want to look at . . . Was your starter very active and tart (I've had some that I wondered if it would strip paint!)? Was your ginger fresh grated or ground powder? Did you use 'light' molasses or blackstrap? Sulfered or unsulfered?
One cup of molasses seems like a lot in comparison to your dry ingrediants. I think your revision sounds like it should work, but I'm certainly no expert.
I found a recipe on the bon appetit website called "New England Molasses Gingerbread Cookies." at http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2002/12/new_england_molasses_gingerbread_cookies. This may be the more cake-like texture you are after.
Good luck. Let us know how they turn out.
Scott (Phxdog).
Molasses is an odd thing for me. I loved blackstrap molasses as a kid, and used to sneak tastes of it out of the bottle. I still like it on pancakes. I can't stand it in baked goods. I think it is too strong for the other flavors in most baked goods, so that even if you like it you end up wishing it wasn't there in combinations that should have tasted, for instance, gingery. I'd replace it in your recipe with a lighter syrup, or even with honey.
Be mindful of the cookies when baking if you replace the molasses with honey. The cookies will bake faster - you may need to lower the temperature of the cookie bake by some 25 degrees or so or just watch the time so they don't burn.
Linda
Jamie Oliver's gingerbread is awesome. Not a sourdough, tho, but maybe you can figure out how to sneak some in.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/ultimate-gingerbread
go to allrecipes.com. they have hundreds of thousands+ recipes for anything you can imagine. They are rated by viewers so it is very easy to put what you are looking for in the search box, then many recipes should pop up, all rated from 5 start best to one or no stars. There are also viewer comments in many cases to including when/if someone substituted more of this or that, or more or less spice and such. you can look at three or four recipes for the same type/category and compare and pick the one you like the best.
I use this often as my first stop when hunting down a recipe. Its fun to take the best from several recipes for the same thing and tweak to come up with my own (I want it less sweet or more spicy, or use butter instead of margarine, etc). Enjoy!!
Goodmorning
The recipe I use (shared by Ruth Pretty, a much loved NZ caterer/teacher) , uses golden syrup and brown sugar, and produces wonderful gingerbread - one of those recipes that people always ask me for. I like to leave it a day or two to develop a sticky top and to slice well (still delicious fresh, but slices more like cake the first day). Note the recipe makes a large mix I get one 9x5 inch (23 x 13cm) loaf and two small 13 x 7 cm loaves from it.
When I make sourdough pancakes I use Wildyeast's (Susanfnp here on TFL) formula, and use golden syrup as the sweetener. Perhaps you could do a side by side making pancakes one with molasses, the other with golden syrup to see if the molasses flavour is what you don't like.
Anyway, I would try golden syrup in your sourdough gingerbread recipe and perhaps use brown sugar too. I'm sure you'll develop a recipe that suits your palate. Do let us know how you get on.
Cheers, Robyn
Dear everyone, I am frantically in my mind sorting and itemising your comments, which I think are helpful and cement my way of thinking that changing the syrup will do the trick
I did already use brown sugar, I omitted that in my first comment. The sourdough I used was a nice mild creamy one which I use for sweet baking. ... I feed him a lot of extra white flour than my bread starter who gets rye and never overfed.
The molasssas I used was table level, so not blackstrap i do not think, I purchased it from the health food store and not the farm animal dept.
I am keen to try the recipes provided , I am not a fan off all recipes I am afraid, too many bad experinces and waste of ingredients. I have a few sources here in Australia which I count on Womens Weekly recipes and well Jamie Oliver cannot go wrong!
I appreciate your feedback and will be trying again soon.
Making cinnamon bread/ scrolls today following a link I saw last night..
Um... blackstrap molasses isn't farm animal food. At least, it's not farm animal food in the USA. I can't speak to the regard in which Australians hold it, which appears to be very low if your comment is any indication.
I thought molassas and oats was fed to horses? Not insulting the product.
Humans eat oats in the USA, too. *laugh* Seriously, yes blackstrap molasses can be fed to livestock, but it is also available here in bottles suitable for serving at the table.
You are correct that molasses is fed to livestock, mixed in their feed or sometimes poured over hay. Here in the U.S., it's even used to attract deer. Every feed and grain store carries it in my area.
Some bakers make biscuits for their dogs. When we had horses, we'd mix the molasses with oats and shaved carrots to make horse treats. Sure made it easier to get them in from pasture!
yup we have oatmeal here too. Used mostly for breakfast foods and snack bars.
Well, so we aren't so dis-similar after all. *smile*
from a grocery store, should be on the shelf with the golden syrup which is actually a very light molasses, here in Canada I buy Crosby's brand which comes in Fancy (lightest) table and blackstrap, I use Roger's brand golden syrup as its much cheaper than the imported Lyle's brand (its made in the Vancouver area I do believe) and I don't buy at the health food stores at all for that type of stuff, I dislike the taste of the health food brands they are strong and most times nasty tasting.
There is a reason the older store brands are still on the shelf they are there because they have proven to be the ones the public wants. I corresponded with a lady who worked at the Crosby's facility in the Maritimes they get it in by ship load and package it at the factory, so its not adulterated at all.
It is like any other thing an aquired taste.