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Cream Blueberry Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread loaf studded with blueberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cream Blueberry Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the molasses and sour cream together, reserving ¼ cup of the flour to mix with the blueberries.

  2. Add the remaining flour, salt, ginger, and baking soda to the molasses mixture.

  3. Fold in the blueberries gently.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, until about 1½ inches thick.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pastry flour
Provides the structure of the cake, with lower gluten for a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, dark colour and a deep, robust flavour.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Blueberries
Add moisture, bursts of fruity sweetness and acidity, and colour throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the blueberries gently. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which toughens the crumb, and vigorous stirring crushes the berries, bleeding colour and juice into the batter.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, cream):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, cream. 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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