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Dessert

Katie's Molasses Gingerbread

A quick gingerbread cookie made with molasses, butter, salt, boiling water, baking soda, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,123 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Katie's Molasses Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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 the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine molasses, butter, and salt.

  3. Stir in boiling water and baking soda until well mixed.

  4. Add spices to taste.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

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 + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the main sweetness, dark color, and rich flavor of the gingerbread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and hot water to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Stir in boiling water and baking soda. Baking soda reacts quickly with the acidic molasses, so it should be mixed in promptly and evenly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter and cause uneven rising.

“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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