13 Jan Women’s Secret Gingerbread Recipe
I just finished writing out the recipe for my iron-rich Women’s Secret Gingerbread, which is a recipe I adapted to fill it with iron for those times in a woman’s life when she needs a little boost. Having gone to the effort of writing it up, I thought I’d share it- you have to like molasses to enjoy it, but it has about 15-30% of your daily iron needs covered per slice (depending on how you slice it, natch. The way I eat cake it sets me up for the week).
Women’s Secret Gingerbread
Dark, moist, spicy and full of goodness. One recipe makes only a single 8×8 cake pan so I double or quadruple it for 9×13 pans. This is adapted from the “Old-Fashioned Gingerbread” recipe in the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking.
1/ 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tbsp ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder (you can do without this, I add it to recipes I have made heavier to give a bit of a boost)
Substituting black beans for butter: Use a food processor or blender to puree a can of black beans (drained and rinsed). You will need to add a bit of moisture- last time I used 1/2 of a banana and a splash of milk but water will do fine too. You need just enough to make them puree better. I measure and freeze the leftovers so I don’t have to do this every time I bake.
In a large bowl, beat until creamy 1/2 c black bean mixture, butter or hard margarine. I usually do a blend of about 3/4 bean mixture and 1/4 butter but the recipe will come out fine with any combination of these. Black beans are a good source of iron.
Gradually add and beat on high speed until lightened in colour and texture, 2 to 3 minutes:
1 large egg
1/2c packed light brown sugar (I halve this but you might want to try it with all the sugar the first time)
Gradually beat in:
1 cup cooking molasses
If the molasses taste is too strong for you, use half fancy molasses and half cooking molasses until your tastebuds adjust. But the cooking molasses is chock-full of iron and fancy is not.
Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in:
1/2 cup boiling water
3 tbsp finely chopped crystalized ginger (optional)
1-2 cups apple, chopped small (optional)
Your favourite nuts and seeds (optional)
Bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, 35-45 minutes.
Let me know what you think!
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