That being said.
So yesterday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts. The Wikipedia entry for Patriot's Day is here. It is to commemorate the first battles of the Revolutionary War, namely the battles of Lexington and Concord. When you grow up in Mass., the names Lexington and Concord are drilled into your head, along with Plymouth and Salem. They are historically important to a Massachusetts upbringing, along with the fact that it WILL snow up until Memorial Day, you ALWAYS have the right of way when driving, and that Dunkin' Donuts kicks Starbucks' ass. (That last is actually false. Personally I can't stand the coffee from either one.) Anyway, it's a civic holiday so everyone gets the day off, and that means everyone is able to tune into the Boston Marathon on television.
I ran the Boston Marathon in 2005, my senior year at Wellesley. It's tradition that when you run cross country and track you do the marathon senior year. I did mine in blue body glitter. Wearing my racing uniform. With WELLESELY XC written on my abs in bright blue sharpie. Wearing my invisible yet no less important bright blue lucky racing underpants. School spirit raaaaahhh.
But obviously Patriot's Day is not just Marathon Day. It's also a day to celebrate being from Massachusetts. On April 19, 1775, my revolutionary forebears were just setting the tone for future generations, namely that being argumentative and scrapping for a fight is always the way to go. Hey, we're called Massholes for a reason.
And on Patriot's Day what better way to celebrate, apart from starting an argument (check and check), than making a traditional Massachusetts food? I know! I thought so too.
I was going to make Boston Brown Bread, something I've always wanted to try, but according to my Down East cookbook, it needs to boil for an hour and a half and yesterday the thought of that made me a bit faint. I will do it at some point, but I gotta psych myself up. I flipped through Johnnycakes, baked apples, Indian Pudding (again! soon!), and Boston Cream Pie. But eventually decided that what my revolutionary ancestors would want to eat before they faced the British was . . . GINGERBREAD.
Now, when I say "gingerbread" I am of course speaking of New England gingerbread, which is NOT in the form of a hairless man or his equally hairless wife who is only distinguishable by her long skirt. That kind is all well and good, but proper New England gingerbread is a cake. It's essentially molasses in cake form. Squishy and tense and treacly and really, really spicy. It's almost black in colour. Light bends around it. You get my point. Dense and rich and musky and awesome.
My recipe is one I've fashioned from about 6 different ones, and perfected through painstaking yet delicious trial and error. If I was about to march on the blasted Redcoats I would totally want a huge slab of this sitting in my stomach. Actually, come to think of it, I bet you ANYTHING that that's part of the reason we won the war. Booyah.
PATRIOT'S DAY NEW ENGLAND GINGERBREAD
- 1 stick butter
- 1 cup liquid agave (preferably dark agave)
- Generous 3/4 cup molasses
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs, beaten in their own bowl
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups flour
Melt the butter, agave, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a saucepan on the stove. Turn off the heat and add milk, beaten eggs, and baking soda. (Note: when you add the baking soda it will foam up. Normal. Don't freak.)
Measure out the flour into a large bowl. Pour the liquid ingredients in and mix until combined. (This is one of those you can do without an electric mixer. Which, if you REALLY want to pretend to be a New England housewife, is great fun. Times like those I wish I had a mob cap.)
You have your choice of pans here. I've made this in a spring form, in two layer cake pans, and also in a square brownie pan. Grease the pan if it's not nonstick, and pour in the batter.
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| This is what the finished, un-topped, cake will look like. See what I mean? DENNNNSSSSEEEEE. |
Bake in a 325 degree oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour. When a tester comes out clean, yadda yadda you know the drill. But err on the side of pulling it out early because you want this to be as sticky as possible.
BEETLE NOTES
A word on toppings. There is nothing wrong with eating this as is, no icing or anything required. But if you want to jazz it up a bit there are a few ways. In the past I've done the following:
- Whipped cream (slightly sweetened or not)
- Lemon icing. See Hot Non Denominational Cross Buns icing recipe, just jazz it up with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
- Once, awesomely, I did two layer cake pans and put lemon curd between the layers. That went down a TREAT.
- Powdered sugar
There are a ton of possibilities, but all of those work wonderfully well. I did powdered sugar this time, figuring that my Revolutionary Boys wouldn't want to go into battle with lemon curd on their coats. Just dust it on. And DON'T FREAK OUT when you unwrap it the next morning and it's been absorbed into the cake. The cake is damp. The powdered sugar will have sunk in. You do not have little powdered sugar elves that are secretly stealing the powdered sugar off your cake yet leaving the rest of it intact. Although that would be kind of awesome.
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| Dusted with powdered sugar. Which is then eaten by elves. |
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| Beetle Bakery Strikes again. |
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This version has no refined sugar. It will, in it's next making, also have whole wheat flour, and I will replace the butter with butternut squash or pumpkin puree. I want to see what that tastes like. Also, when I do that, it will be 100% Beetle Friendly and then BRING OUT THE PARADE FLOAT. Also the fat crane. I should note that when I explained this plan to Mum for healthy-izing the gingerbread, the response was "I don't want you to make it healthier. I want it with butter. I like butter."
Works for me, I'll just have to eat the whole damn thing.
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