School is getting harder. Teachers say so. Students show up for 2nd grade demanding multiplication and teachers comply, multiplying math homework by two. The school day is bulging with block printing and two-part harmony and, for the holidays, molasses-thick study of “The Gingerbread Boy.” Leaving a fraction of classroom time available for making the math facts stick. That, you learn, is your responsibility.
Should your student’s grip on math facts be, say, slippery, this is not her fault. As her teacher patiently explains at conference time, it’s your fault. You are not working hard enough at 2nd grade.
Shortly after, the teacher calls for a volunteer for cookie duty. You raise your hand, all but shouting, “Me! Pick me!” You’re thinking extra credit.
The assignment sounds easy: Bake bare gingerbread boys and bring them in for frosting lab. The teacher hands out a cookie cutter. A very large cookie cutter. Ample surface area should help each student’s buttercream-and-sprinkle efforts stick. She performs a quick calculation, adding 2nd-grade lab techs to grown-up lab assistants, multiplying by huge appetites and rounding up for crumbled-cookie margin of error. She tallies and totals: 100 gingerbread boys. 100 very large gingerbread boys. Forecasting the number of sleepless nights ahead, you develop a case of math anxiety. “No problem,” you frown.
Your first gingerboys tumble out of the oven burly, brown and unbreakable. Even by 2nd-grade teeth. The next slide off the sheet pale and pliable, no match for the load of cinnamon Red Hots they must shoulder. “Can’t catch me,” the elusive, strong-but-tender cookie recipe taunts.
You consider gingerbread, perhaps our earliest cake. Sometimes sweetened with sugar and cream, sometimes pepper-flecked and fiery. Mothers have been fretting over this formula, you figure, forever. Why is it the gingerboy who always gets to run away?
You adjust and stir and bake and cool and shop and try again, all week. On lab day you turn in 100 cookies. All crisp, all whole. You expect an A for effort, but will make do with a pass. Next year, you’re not raising your hand.
STURDY GINGER CHILDREN
Makes about two dozen
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
Frosting and sprinkles, optional decoration or enjoy plain.
1. Mix: Cream butter and sugar fluffy, using an electric mixer. Beat in egg white and vanilla. Add flour, ginger, soda and salt, mixing until dough comes together.
2. Roll: Gather dough and divide in two. Roll out each portion between 2 sheets of parchment paper to about 1/8-inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, 1 hour.
3. Shape: Cut out shapes generous enough to accommodate frosting and sprinkle abundance.
4. Bake: Settle on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees until golden, 10-12 minutes. Cool. Decorate or enjoy plain.
GROWN-UP GINGER CAKES
Serves twelve
2 cups flour
1/4 cup instant espresso powder
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 cup unsulphured molasses (original style, not “robust”)
Sweetened whipped cream
1. Fluff: Sift together flour, espresso powder, cocoa, ground ginger, baking powder, salt and pepper.
2. Beat: Cream butter and sugar, using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy, several minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, vigorously. Beat in fresh ginger and molasses, 2 minutes. Mixture may look weirdly curdled. Don’t fret.
3. Fold: Gently fold in dry ingredients, using a rubber spatula.
4. Bake: Pour batter into 8 “babycake” pans (each 4 inches in diameter) or 18 muffin tins or one 10-inch cake pan, buttered. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean, 20 minutes for babycakes, 18 for muffin-sized cakes, and 50-60 for one large cake. Cool on a rack, release from pan and serve warm with whipped cream.
–Adapted from “Baking with Julia” by Dorie Greenspan
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LeahREskin@aol.com
