Grasmere Style Gingerbread

As well as the mountains, great lakes and stunning views there lies a rich heritage of food using unusual at first glance ingredients to our county which this gingerbread is one of them. With its deep harbor Whitehaven was a port used to import spices from the West Indies and these exotic ingredients were used in the local Cuisine i.e. Sticky toffee pudding and this Gingerbread…

We are going to make our version of this fab Gingerbread, simple to make and to make with children if they are at a loss with a great result and a guarantee it will not last long in the biscuit tin!

Recipe

• Makes 1x 32x22cm baking tray (24 slices)

Ingredients

• Shortbread or digestive biscuit 400g normally a packet
• Soft light brown sugar 170g
• Ground ginger 4 tsp
• Stem Ginger 50g
• Sultanas 40g
• Plain Flour 70g
• Baking powder 1 tsp
• Golden syrup 50g
• Treacle 40g
• Unsalted Butter 70g
• Ground mixed spice 2tsp

Chefs note – us a little of the preserved ginger syrup as well to give it a little extra gingery hit!

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and line a 22cm x 32cm baking tray with greaseproof paper
• Put the biscuit, brown sugar and 4 teaspoons of the ground ginger into a food processor and whiz to fine crumbs. Remove 100g of the mix and keep this to one side
• Add the remaining teaspoon of ginger to the processor, then roughly chop and add the sultanas and ginger, followed by the flour and baking powder. Pulse until well mixed
• Melt the syrup, treacle and butter together in a large pan. Once melted, stir in the mixture from the food processor until thoroughly combined, or tip into a mixing bowl and combine
• Tip onto the baking tray and spread out evenly. Press the mixture down into the tray, using your fingers or the back of a spoon. When the mix is a flat, dense and even layer, pop the tray in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle the hot gingerbread with the reserved crumbs, pressing them down really well with a potato masher or spatula
• Carefully cut into good-sized pieces with a sharp knife and leave to cool in the tray before eating

Chef note – the more you cook it the less sticky it will be, this goes well as part of a dessert with a lemon posit.