A HARTE APPETITE: GINGERBREAD RECIPES OFFER TASTE OF COMFORT

"And I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread," says Costard in the last act of Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost. Though Costard was a clown, I take seriously the implication that gingerbread is something on which it is worth spending one's last cent. Served warm from the pan it is for me the quintessential comfort food.

Gingerbread was a well-known confection by Shakespeare's time. There's even a reference to "gyngebreed" in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In fact, Rombauer, Becker, and Becker in the latest edition of the Joy of Cooking maintain that gingerbread "can be traced back further than any other baked good with the exception of bread."

Tarla Fallgatter, a California caterer and restaurant consultant who was the first foreign woman allowed to cook in the kitchens of Maxim's in Paris, points out that the term "gingerbread" originally meant merely "preserved ginger" (and in Medieval Europe ginger was the second most coveted spice after pepper). Today, however, the term usually refers either to dense molasses cookies cut into whimsical shapes such as gingerbread persons (the politically correct term now in use at some markets) or, typically in this country, to a moist spice cake usually baked in a square pan. (By the way, Queen Elizabeth I supposedly invented the gingerbread man which can take a number of shapes as demonstrated by gourmet food purveyors Dean & Deluca who at their Georgetown outlet once sold gingerbread Bill Clintons.)

Though I have decorated and eaten my share of gingerbread cookies, it is the cake that I have in mind here. And I recall vividly the best version of it that I have ever eaten. It was some years ago on the Big Island of Hawaii at a little bakery and cafe in the renovated Aloha Theatre. It was mid-morning and the cake was served warm from the oven, redolent of fresh ginger. I spent the next several years trying to duplicate that cake at home.

And in the process I discovered several techniques and hundreds of recipes (Fallgatter, for example, contends that the U.S. has a larger repertoire of gingerbread recipes than any other country), a few which I share in this column. One particularly useful technique for infusing that marvelous ginger flavor throughout a cake is one I ran across about five years ago in an issue of Bon Appetit magazine. It involves mixing chopped fresh ginger with a little sugar (two parts ginger to one part sugar is a good ratio) and letting it sit for about 30 minutes to form a syrup which is then incorporated into the cake batter. I've also learned that because of its assertive flavor, gingerbread is one baked good that adapts well to low fat cooking. In almost any recipe you can successfully substitute applesauce for half or more of the fat.

But the main conclusion I've come to is that there are few things in this world more satisfying, particularly on a cold February day, than sitting in front of a roaring fire with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and eating a slice of gingerbread simply dusted with powdered sugar or, for real decadence, slathered with whipped cream. The following recipes, I trust, will demonstrate the validity of that conclusion.

Johanne Killeen's Gingerbread Johnnycakes

I saw Johanne Killeen of Al Forno Restaurant in Providence, R.I., demonstrate this recipe on a recent episode of Julia Child's new television program, Baking with Julia, and ran to get a pad and pencil to copy it down. Julia pronounced it the best gingerbread she had ever eaten, though I personally prefer versions with less molasses and more ginger. But there's no denying that this recipe, with its use of coffee, cocoa, and ground pepper and calling for the batter, which is thicker than most, to be baked in individual molds, elevates plain gingerbread to opulent heights.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/4 cup instant espresso powder

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

4 eggs

3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

2 cups molasses

Directions:

Whisk together dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add grated ginger to butter/sugar mixture and mix in. Add molasses and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients. Bake in greased and floured 4-inch molds or souffle dishes at 350 degrees until tops crack and cake springs back when lightly touched (25-35 minutes). Do not overbake.

Fresh Ginger Cake

This recipe comes closest of any I've found to that wonderful gingerbread I had at the Aloha Theatre in Hawaii. It's based on a recipe in the new edition of the Joy of Cooking, but I prefer to use light brown rather than dark brown sugar and light corn syrup instead of anything darker so that the full flavor of that whole half cup (yes a half cup!) of fresh ginger dominates.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup light molasses

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 egg

1/2 cup packed finely minced fresh ginger

1 stick butter

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Whisk together flour, soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, molasses, syrup, and egg. Melt together butter and water and add to molasses mixture. Stir in flour mixture just until incorporated. Bake in greased and floured 9-inch square pan at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Gingerbread Cheesecake Swirl

If you like to gild the lily, this is the recipe for you. Originated by cookbook author Linda Merinoff, I clipped it out of an issue of Food and Wine magazine many years ago.

Ingredients:

1 pound cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup light molasses

4 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup flour

Directions:

Cream butter until light and smooth. Beat in vanilla and 2 of the eggs, one at a time. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Heat molasses until it starts to bubble, remove from heat and stir in butter 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Stir in spices, add the brown sugar and beat until smooth. Let cool to room temperature and beat in remaining 2 eggs one at a time. Stir in baking soda, then beat in flour a third at a time until incorporated. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dollop half of gingerbread batter in tablespoons on bottom of pan. Fill in empty spaces with 1/4 of cream cheese mixture. Dollop remaining gingerbread batter on top of cream cheese mounds. Fill in with another 1/4 of cream cheese mixture. Swirl to marbleize. Smooth remaining cream cheese mixture over top and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes until top of cake begins to crack. Cool and refrigerate before serving.

Got a recipe you'd like to share with our readers? Are you looking for a recipe for something in particular? Send your recipes and requests to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.

~Tom Harte is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University and writes a food column every other week for the Southeast Missourian.