Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book: A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping

ginger and baking-soda, the last dissolved in a little hot water. Bake in two loaves in a moderate oven. Hard gingerbread In a double boiler heat a cupful of New Orleans molasses, and add half a cupful of melted butter to it. Pour into a bowl and when blood-warm add a tablespoonful of ginger, a half teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water, and stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Turn upon a floured board, roll thin, cut out and bake in a hot oven. Soft gingerbread Sift one teaspoonful of baking powder and a half teaspoonful of salt twice with two cupfuls of flour. Stir to a cream half a cupful of butter, the same of sugar and the same of molasses. Warm the mixture slightly and beat light before adding a well-whipped egg, a half teaspoonful of ground mace and a tablespoonful of ginger. Dissolve half a teaspoonful of baking soda in a tablespoonful of hot water; stir this into half a cupful of sweet milk; lastly, stir in the flour; beat hard for one minute, and bake in two shallow pans, well buttered, or in pâté pans. Raisin gingerbread Mix as above, adding at the last half a cupful of seeded raisins cut into halves and well dredged with flour. Aunt Nelly’s gingerbread Sift half a teaspoonful of salt and an even teaspoonful of baking-soda in one and a half cupfuls of flour. Rub to a cream half a cupful of butter, with an equal quantity of brown sugar and of molasses. Beat smooth and light, adding, gradually, half a cupful of milk. Now stir in a cupful of prepared flour, after which add more flour until you can knead it as you would bread dough. Work it hard for one minute, roll into an even sheet, and cut to fit your baking pans, which must be well greased. Cut into squares with a jagging iron as the sheet lies in the pan, and bake in a good oven covered for twelve minutes. Then uncover and brown. Gingerbread, “such as mother used