1803 Flat Ginger Cakes! Low Sugar Gingerbread Cookies

 

The incredible simplicity of making these along with their addicting flavor has made these my favorite sweet of this season. I was skeptical when I found a recipe calling for gingerbread that had no added sweetener besides just molasses however these are plenty sweet and have a delightfully soft texture. 

These are called "short gingerbread" because they are intended to be cooked short like cookies instead of high like a cake. I am borrowing the recipe from the 1803 book The Frugal Housewife. Two options are given for how to make these short cakes. We can either use sugar as our sweetener and opt out on adding molasses or we can use only molasses and forgo any extra sugar. Most gingerbread recipes call for the addition of both molasses and brown sugar so this seemed unique not to mention economical. Let's try making them using only molasses. 

Mix together half a pound of melted unsalted butter with 1.5 cups of molasses. Your mixture should look like melted dark chocolate. 

Once your butter and molasses are mixed well add 3 and 1/3 cups of flour along with a tablespoon of ginger powder. Stir well. Optionally you may also add a spoonful of caraway seeds. If you decide to add them toast them first on a hot pan until they darken. The cakes taste great both with and without the caraway. 

Our cook was amazed by how simple the recipe was

Mix until your white flour is no longer visible

Roll your dough into balls and flatten onto a cookie sheet with your hands. If they are sticking rub flour on your hands before pressing. 

the kitchen smelled of molasses

 

Today we will bake these in both our reflector oven and our wall oven. You may bake these cookies in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Do not surpass 10 minutes. They will be soft to the touch once you take them from the oven. That is normal as gingerbread tends to slowly harden once removed from the oven. Not only are these simple to prepare they are also fast to cook!

half went inside of our reflector oven while the other half into the wall oven

If the above Youtube video does not work follow this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnkQeZzyy7Q

Ingredients:


3 & 1/3 cups of flour
half a pound of unsalted butter
1 tablespoon of ginger powder
1.5 cups of molasses

Directions: 

Mix your melted butter and molasses together. Add a tablespoon dried ginger to your flour then mix well into your molasses and butter mixture. Roll into balls and flatten with your fingers onto a cookie sheet. If the dough is sticking to your fingers rub flour on your hands. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Do not exceed 10 minutes. They should remain soft to the touch once you take them out of the oven. Gingerbread will harden once you take it from the oven. Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes before enjoying.