Skip to main content
Bread

Chocolate Ginger Bread

A moist bread made with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chocolate Ginger Bread

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.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix molasses, sour milk or cream, ginger, cinnamon, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in a little cold water and add it along with melted butter to the mixture.

  3. Stir in sifted flour until combined.

  4. Melt Baker's chocolate with 1 tablespoon of butter, then add to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into three well-buttered deep tin plates.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for twenty minutes.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 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
Adds dark color, moisture and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness typical of gingerbread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or cream to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Sour milk or cream
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Baker's chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavor and darkens the crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in water before adding it. Baking soda needs to be evenly dispersed in the wet mixture to react with the acidic sour milk or cream; clumps leave bitter, uneven pockets and poor rise.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, cinnamon, butter, flour, chocolate):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, cinnamon, butter, flour, chocolate. 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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes