Bridge over the river in Grasmere Village
I recently had a wonderful day in Grasmere with the daffodils in bloom in the memorial garden by the churchyard where William Wordsworth – whom John Mortimer described through the mouthpiece of my hero Horace Rumpole as the Old Sheep of the Lake District lived.
Beside the links with English poetry Grasmere is known in the culinary world for Grasmere Gingerbread. As you may know Grasmere Gingerbread is a secret recipe handed down the owners of the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop for around 150 years and the original recipe is a closely guarded secret which is locked away in a bank vault somewhere. I couldn’t see anything very much like the original recipe from a quick google search - however there is nothing like saying secret recipe to get an enthusiastic cook experimenting in the kitchen is there? At this point perhaps I should thank the people at the firm of Sheffield Printers I own for helping me to eat the various trials as I brought this recipe along!
Here is my take on the wonderful confection which I hope you enjoy and which might inspire you to visit the shop and try the original too…
Ingredients
8 oz Wholemeal Plain Flour
4 oz Light Soft Brown Sugar
3 teaspoons – heaped – Ground Ginger
1/3 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1/6 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
3 1/2 oz Butter
1 1/2 oz Molasses
Method
Mix the gingerbread until you have a fine crumb
Mix all the dry ingredients together
Then add the butter – chop this roughly and mix until you have a fine crumb – there’s a picture to show what I mean…
Now add the molasses and mix again – the crumb shouldn’t change too much and you should end up with something like the mixture in the 11″ x 7″ baking tin here.
Just before the Grasmere Gingerbread mixture goes into the oven to cook
As soon as the Grasmere Gingerbread comes out of the baking oven cut it into 24 pieces – a 6 x 4 pattern whilst still hot and still in the tin.
I found that the aga can give a result which isn’t quite as crisp as might be desirable – see my notes on Highland Shortbread – so I once again used the simmering oven to crisp the final product.
Once cooled put the cut Grasmere Gingerbread onto a baking sheet and place it in the simmering oven for about half an hour. This will crisp the gingerbread beautifully but will reduce the visible darker band at the bottom of the final product.
I have produced a printer friendly recipe for my gingerbread.
Just one word of warning though – this is a very crumby recipe so I defy you to eat it elegantly!
Bite-size pieces of Grasmere Gingerbread
