How to Make Gingerbread

Co-authored by Ross Canter

Last Updated: November 28, 2022

Gingerbread cake is flavorful and easier to make than gingerbread men. A fresh loaf of gingerbread will last five to seven days. It can be served as a breakfast or spicy dessert.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (100g) white sugar
1/2 cup (113g) butter
1 cup (237ml) molasses
1 egg
2 1/2 cups (312g) all-purpose flour/alternative flour
1 1/2 tsp. (7g) baking soda
1 tsp. (1.8g) ground ginger
1 tsp. (2.6g) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. (1g) ground cloves
1/2 tsp. (3g) salt
1 cup (237ml) hot water

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Creaming Wet Ingredients

1
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius). Old-fashioned gingerbread doesn’t take long to mix up, so your oven should be ready.
2
Add the sugar and softened butter into your mixer. Turn it on a medium setting until creamed.

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3
Crack the egg and add it to your mixture. Mix until it is thoroughly combined.
4
Add the molasses and mix for one to two minutes.
- The key ingredients for gingerbread are molasses and a mix of spices.
- You can use grandma's molasses. It's got a nice balance of sweet and smoky molasses flavor but does not have the bitterness of blackstrap molasses.
- For the spices, use a lot of ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and a few cloves.
- You can substitute one cup (237ml) of honey and four tbsp. (47g) of brown sugar for the molasses and white sugar to make a traditional Alsatian gingerbread. Melt the sugars together on the stovetop before adding.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Sifting Dry Ingredients

1
Measure the flour, salt, baking soda and spices into a bowl.
- To make Alsatian gingerbread, replace the all-purpose flour with rye and whole-wheat flour in equal measure.
- To increase the complexity of the flavors, halve the cinnamon and add one-half tsp. (0.9g) of ground anise, one-half tsp. (1.1g) of ground nutmeg and one-half tsp. (0.9g) of ground allspice.^{[1]
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2
Sift them into another bowl to add air.
3
Add the dry ingredients slowly into the wet ingredients while mixing.
4
Pour one cup of hot water into the gingerbread batter. Mix until combined.^{[2]
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Baking Gingerbread

1
Butter your cake pan or two loaf pans.
2
Pour the batter into the pan.
3
Place the pan in the oven and bake for 50 minutes to one hour. Adjust baking time for a hot or uneven oven.
4
Insert a butter knife into the center to test if it is done. If it comes out clean, take it out of the oven. Place the pan on a cooling rack for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I make gingerbread for a gingerbread house?

Luke

Top Answerer

Check out How to Make a Gingerbread House . The gingerbread recipe in this article is unsuitable for making gingerbread houses with due to its cake-like nature.