Dark Molasses Gingerbread With Whipped Cream Recipe (2024)

BTW, a 12-ounce jar of Grandma's Unsulphured Original Molasses contains exactly 1½ cups of the stuff.

Okay, just made as dessert with Sifton's chicken paprikash. I wish I were a food scientist to understand why this cake was so light and absolutely delicious. One I will forever make. My amendments: instinct told me 1.5 c molasses would be too much, too wet. I used 1 c. Also, I followed the original spicing -- the full amt. of ginger, which this cake can take + cinnamon + clove. Outcome = cloudlike perfection! It is worth picking up Lewis/Peaco*ck cookbook, subtle stunners throughout.

Try adding some finely chopped candied ginger for a little extra ginger taste.

This is pretty heavy on the molasses, but still works. Be very careful not to use blackstrap molasses. You want unsulphured molasses, which has no bitter taste.

Friendly correction for RDCollins comment that molasses is made from corn, it is not. While some brands may include corn syrup (so check your molasses if you are allergic or sensitive to corn) molasses is typically from sugar cane. There is dark corn syrup, but that is a different product.

Keeper recipe. Did increase the ginger to 1 teaspoon - not sure I would increase to a tablespoon. Also finished it with a Lemon Zest Glaze (also from NYT Cooking). Interesting aside, as I was buying the molasses, the cashier, a young woman about 20, looked at the bottle and asked "What is this?". She did not know what molasses was or what it was used for.

The molasses was so overpowering that it drowned out the ginger and cinnamon. Cake was certainly moist. I will not retry unless I cut molasses by 1/3. Instead will probably just continue my hunt for a good spicy gingerbread recipe.

Actually, jlsnyc, in the cookbook you cite, Edna Lewis's "The TASTE of Country Cooking," which was published in 1976, she calls for the same spicing as in her book cited in the article ("The GIFT of Southern Cooking," written with Scott Peaco*ck, published 2003), but there are two differences: in the earlier book, she calls for a mix of butter and lard, and she specifies sorghum molasses. I think the newer version sounds better. BTW, I have both books in my collection.

I was craving a cozy, comforting dessert on an icy Christmas Eve heading into yet another snowstorm, and this looked like the answer. I took the suggestions of several of my fellow cooks here and cut back to 1 cup molasses and increased the spices (1 T ginger, 1 t cinnamon, 1/2 t cloves) and threw in some chopped crystallized ginger I happened to have on hand. (There can't be too much ginger for me--my favorite ice cream is ginger!)

The difference between your experience and others' may well be the molasses -- different kinds of molasses will give very different results here. The color you described suggests that you used blackstrap. Unless you love bitter flavors, blackstrap molasses will give a profoundly bitter, "burnt" sort of flavor. If that's the case, you might try the recipe with something like Brer Rabbit "mild flavor" molasses or Grandma's "original."

I prefer it warmed and topped with vanilla ice cream. OINK! ;-)

Reduced molasses to 1 and 1/4 cup and added half a cup of brown sugar. Sweetness was perfect for me. Very moist. Also added a ginger lemon glaze. I took other commenters advice and doubled the spice. My one gripe with the recipe is the note to whisk the water into the flour - impossible and I ended up with so many tiny lumps that I had to work the prepped batter through a sieve before baking. Maybe if you are using a mixer or something but I wouldn’t recommend using a hand whisk.

This gingerbread is very good. I served it to someone allergic to dairy, so used oil rather than butter and it was delicious. I love gingerbread and this tastes mostly of molasses (as expected from the ingredients). I doubled the spices as suggested but think it could use even more spice. If I make it again, I’ll add crystallized ginger.

Doubled the spices and used 1 cup molasses, 1/2 cup brown sugar. Batter tastes great!

Made with gluten free flour, some chopped candied ginger and the spice changes recommended in a helpful note. (It needed 55 minutes in the oven.) It was very good, yet with a strong flavor. I will try it again without the recommended changes.

So right after assembling all the other ingredients I discover that the jar in the cupboard I thought was molasses was actually honey. What to do? I substituted 1.5 cups of brown sugar. I also doubled the cinnamon and the ginger. It turned out great— not dark but light and moist. I topped it with some powdered sugar. It was tasty! Once it was served with whipped cream— Oh my gosh—it was sublime. A keeper!

Add 1/2 top ground cloves 1 tbp cinnamon 1 tsp ginger Reduce to 1 cup molasses Add 1/4 cup brown sugar

Made this as written, except ran short of molasses and had to top off with a half cup of honey. My oven is slow, so needed to bake a tad longer. Loved it! (If you have a good heavy pan well-greased no need to flour it, so you can save yourself that step.)

this is a deep, dark gingerbread, moist and delicious. There is no other sugar, only that which is in the molasses. It is easy to make and keeps well. This is my new go-to gingerbread recipe .

Increased recipe by 1/2 for a 9x9 pan. Served with whipped cream. Family loved it, but next time, more spices.

Thought this would be too molassesy given the comments but it baked up beautifully (and in a 9” square pan on the lower end of time recommended). Agree the spices need some oomph so added finely chopped raw ginger to the batter at the end and it was perfect!

Solid recipe, good texture. I agree that it needs to be a litte sweeter and more spice forward. Next time I will reduce the molasses, add 1/2 sugar and double the spice, plus 1/2 top of ground cloves.

Raisins. Next time Imma add raisins. Perfect denseness and moisture, punched up the spices as others have noted. Killer!!!

Instead of ground ginger I bashed fresh ginger in a mortar and pestle and squeezed out the juice. since the recipe calls for 1c water I just added the ginger juice to this portion of the recipe. I find powdered dry ginger to have a bland taste. If you have older ginger this will not work, but young fresh ginger yields an almost floral note along with the nice tingle.

My guests raved about this! Will definitely make again. After I replenish my supply of molasses, of course.

My great aunt’s version of this, that I grew up on, is similar but with 1t cinnamom, 1t ginger, 1/2t cloves and used Crisco instead of butter. It has to be better with butter rather than Crisco, as in this version, a substitution that I intend to try

This is absolutely delicious and with no refined sugar and instead molasses (which is a super food!). Is now my regular sweet tooth indulgence.

Two bakes, both different fails. First time, eggs weren't room temp;I suspect that's why there were little lumps in the baked cake, or perhaps the butter/water combo too warm, or both. Second fail more mysterious. I cooled the butter/water combo until it was room temp; had room temp eggs before mixing it in with the dry ingredients and molasses. Kind of a gelatinous texture, more than moist. Not sure what I did wrong the second time, but maybe it was the vagaries of my gas oven temp. Any advice?