Silver Palate Gingerbread with Warm Lemon Sauce...

 I've talked before about my love of cooking and how it began back in the 80's with a little jewel of a cookbook called "The Silver Palate Cookbook."

Mine is tattered and worn, I've read it countless times, cooked countless meals from it, and it's still my "go to" for fabulous, never fail, recipes.   But anyway, I decided that I need to make Gingerbread this month.  And what I call Gingerbread is not rolled cookies, but old fashioned Gingerbread Cake.  So instead of looking through my cookbooks, I simply Googled it and found a recipe that looked good.  I like cakes made with oil, not butter, as the results are more moist.

So yesterday I was talking with my buddy V, telling her that I was going to make Gingerbread. And she reminded me of my Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce from years ago, and told me how much she enjoyed it and that she had copied the recipe and would give it to me.  And the wheels started turning, I was trying to figure out where that recipe came from, and since all my good recipes from long ago were from The Silver Palate, I Googled it, and sure enough the recipe popped right up.

So, this is my gift to you today, dear hearts, perhaps you would like to make a pan of Gingerbread memories for your family this holiday season.  Especially if you have older family members, they will love this.  Gingerbread is such an old-fashioned dessert, I just bet you will bring a smile to someone near and dear to you.  

Enjoy ~ Jan

Silver Palate Gingerbread 

1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsps baking soda

1 1/2 tsps ground ginger

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9-inch square baking pan.

Sift dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl. Add egg, sugar, and molasses. Mix well.

Pour boiling water and the oil over mixture. Stir thoroughly until smooth.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Set on the middle rack of oven and bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top springs back when touched and the edges have pulled away slightly from the sides of the pan.

Lemon Glaze

2/3 cup confectioner's sugar, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.  Mix together (don't cook) and pour over warm cake.

 If you're not a fan of lemon glaze, dust your cake with confectioner's sugar and a dollop of whipped cream.

Or, if you want to take this to the ultimate level, candy some lemon zest, and top the lemon glazed cake with a dollop of whipped cream and some candied lemon zest.

Here's Martha Stewart's recipe for Candied Lemon Zest

Ingredients:

• 6 lemons, scrubbed
• 2 cups sugar

Directions:

1. Using a vegetable peeler, peel zest from lemons. Use a knife to remove any white pith; cut zest as thinly as possible.
2. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add zest; blanch for 1 minute, drain, and rinse under cold water.
3. In another medium saucepan, combine sugar and 2 cups water; bring to a simmer. Cook until sugar dissolves completely, about 2 minutes. Add lemon zest. Simmer until translucent, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat; let zest cool in syrup. When cool, transfer zest and syrup to an airtight plastic container.

Makes 1 cup

Can be rolled in sugar for sparkly zest...