(Almost) According to Delia: Dark Jamaican Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a very wintry sort of cake. There will probably be several more ginger recipes in the coming weeks.

Also, I really like gingerbread.

This one is very suited to an afternoon tea. It’s a very dense sort of loaf, best served with butter. Or maybe chocolate spread or a jam, if that takes your fancy. Thinking about it, marmalade would probably work well.

M made this for us, and his adaptations involved considerably more ginger than Delia’s single tablespoon.

There were several excellent reasons for the extra ginger. One: the only syrup we had was the sort in a jar of stem ginger. Two: we had both stem and crystallised ginger in the cupboard, so some of each got chucked in.

You Will Need:

175g plain flour

1 level tablespoon ground ginger

1 level dessertspoon ground cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp bicarb. of soda

2 tbsps milk

75g treacle

75g ginger syrup

75g sugar

75g butter

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Opt. chopped ginger of some description.

To Make:

Sift flour and spices into a bowl. Mix bicarb in the milk and set aside.

Measure treacle, syrup, sugar and butter into a saucepan with 75ml of water. Heat and stir gently until melted together. DO NOT BOIL.

Pour the syrup mix into the flour and beat vigorously until smooth. Add the egg a little at a time, followed by the bicarb and milk. Mix in any chopped ginger.

Pour into a lined 2lb loaf-tin and bake at 170C/gas mark 3 for 75-90 mins (until well risen and firm to touch). Allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins before turning out. If you can resist, keep for 24 hours in an airtight tin before serving. Serve in slices spread with butter.