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Dessert

Soft Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, eggs, flour, cloves, ginger, brandy, baking soda, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soft Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, brown sugar, and butter until well combined.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, and baking soda.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

  6. Stir in the brandy until the batter is smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30‑40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the gingerbread.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the crumb sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the gingerbread's crumb together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift the batter and soften the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich mouthfeel.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the crumb stay soft.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients with the milk. Adding flour and liquid in alternating portions lets the batter blend smoothly. Adding everything at once can overwork the gluten or leave lumps, which toughens the crumb and weakens the rise.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, butter, egg, flour, clove, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, egg, flour, clove, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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