Sweet and Spicy Ginger (2024)

Freshly juiced ginger adds bold snap to your winter baking.

You’ve got to admire the sticking power of gingerbread. One of the oldest traditions in the holiday canon, most of us think of it in the form of cookies shaped like little people, or houses decorated with colorful icing. Others know it as a loaf—which I tend to prefer, as it plays well as a proper after-dinner dessert, midday snack, or even as a sweet breakfast pastry. But let’s not forget about ginger snaps, the crispy cookie with a spicy finish.

The origin of gingerbread is a hard one to pinpoint, but we do know that it was introduced to Europe by an Armenian monk who settled in what is now France in the 900s. To find origins before that, it’s easiest to trace the trade of ginger. Indigenous to China, ginger didn’t find its way into Europe until the medieval ages, winding its way through the Middle East by way of Sri Lanka in the first century. But by the 14th century in England, a pound of ginger cost as much as a sheep, and by the 15th century, gingerbread had become an indulgent treat, lauded for its stomach-soothing properties.

The shift from fresh ginger to dried spices seems to have taken place in most gingerbread recipes sometime around the 17th and 18th century as trade routes shifted across the Atlantic—a move that, in my opinion, makes for gingerbread that doesn’t really taste like ginger and just ends up smacking of molasses. In our recipe, we’ve tried to bring back that ginger kick.

A spicy flavor like ginger needs a foundational flavor to play off of, and most recipes lean on molasses. But blackstrap molasses is far too overpowering, and even most sugarcane molasses can be domineering. Fortunately for us, in Southern cuisine, sorghum is king, and its grassy nature just so happens to play perfectly with ginger.

To amplify the flavor of the ginger, we use both the dried spice and ginger juice. Most major grocers should sell ginger juice, but if yours doesn’t, try calling around to the local Asian markets. If you have a juicer, it is perfectly easy to juice ginger yourself, and ginger juice freezes easily, so it’s a good idea to make more than you need and have some in the freezer for another time.

Ginger Recipes

Gingerbread Loaf

Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup Demerara or cane sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sorghum molasses
• 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup hot water
• ¼ cup ginger juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a baking pan with butter and dust with flour.
3. In a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy on medium speed. Then add sugar and continue beating for a few minutes until it starts to get fluffy. Pour in the egg and the sorghum and mix until it becomes smooth.
4. Sift flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt into a bowl, adding the mixer gradually and mixing on medium to low speeds as needed. Add the ginger juice and water in stages and mix until it forms a smooth batter.
5. Add the batter to the pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for up to 30 minutes. Test the center of the cake with a toothpick or fork. If the toothpick/fork comes out clean, the cake is done. If the batter is still wet, put it back in the oven and allow it to bake for 15–30 more minutes, checking every 10 minutes.
6. Let the cake stand for 20 minutes before slicing it into squares. Garnish with confectioners sugar immediately before serving, top with whipped cream, or just serve it as-is.

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup shortening or room temperature butter
• 1 cup Demerara (a type of raw sugar) or cane sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 large egg
• ⅓ cup sorghum molasses
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ cup ginger juice
• 2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground clove
• ½ tsp nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F, and line your baking pans with parchment paper.
2. Beat shortening/butter, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a stand mixer until creamy.
3. Add the beaten egg, molasses, vanilla extract, and ginger juice and continue to mix.
4. Pour in the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg and beat until it forms a stiff dough. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Form the dough into 1-inch balls and roll them in granulated sugar until they are fully coated. Then place them onto the baking sheet with at least 2 inches of elbow room between them, and gently press them with the bottom of a flat mug or bowl until they form a puck.
6. Bake for between 10–14 minutes, depending on how crunchy you like your ginger snaps.

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