English Gingerbread Recipe

Delicious. There are certain things I make only at Christmas, so they are always special, never 'everyday.' This is one of those.

English Gingerbread (more like shortbread than cake)

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (don't substitute!)

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

1/4 cup sultanas (golden raisins)

2 tablespoons finely diced crystallized ginger

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan.

Sift flour with the baking powder and ginger. Put into a bowl and add the pieces of butter, blending until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

Stir the brown sugar, sultanas, molasses and ginger into the above mixture - it will be very short and crumbly - not like dough or batter. Press into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until a knife blade inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a rack 10 minutes, then cut into narrow wedges. Transfer wedges to the rack to finish cooling.