I was very excited to get a phone call from my sister-in-law about the gingerbread that she had made from my book. (I know I ought to get out more!).
Rosanne works at Cafe Oakmeeds at Oakmeeds Community College in Burgess Hill. Cafe Oakmeeds is the in-house catering service which provides home made nutritious food by a team of 8 people headed by Sue Everest.
The lovely staff there can bring in their own ideas for baking, especially cakes or biscuits that have a lower sugar content and Rosanne chose the Gingerbread recipe from my book Recipes From An Unknown Kitchen.
The Gingerbread went down a storm apparently and whizzed of the shelf. This is also a bit personal as this was the school I attended from 1960 -1969.
Gingerbread
As this recipe was from the German recipe notebook, the home of gingerbread. I just had to include it. It is a light cake made with golden syrup rather than treacle.
250g plain flour
250g golden syrup
60g butter
15g caster sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger (if you like things a bit spicier make this 1 teaspoon)
½ teaspoon ground mixed spice
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150ml milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 175C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a square tin 25cm / 9”. The mix needs to go straight in the oven after mixing so everything needs to be ready.
Warm the milk and golden syrup in a small pan, gently this does just needs to be warm to the touch not hot, just enough to melt the syrup in the milk. Rub the fat into the flour then add the spices and sugar. Add the mix and syrup mix. Add the soda and mix as quickly as possible. Transfer to the tin and put in the oven at once. Bake for around 40 minutes. Remove from the tin and cool on a rack.