I Tried Baking Gingerbread Recipes from 1887: Cozy Historical Baking Vlog

Today officially marks the beginning of the holiday season for many of us. Before we head into the kitchen to cozy up with a cup of tea and take a look at my cookbooks together, I'll bring you along foraging with me on our farm. This time of year is one of my favorites for foraging. There are so many dried things that we can use to decorate our home for winter. I love finding pine cones. Before we can use these, they need to be baked at a low temperature for about 30 minutes if you're planning to use them for crafting. I'm never very lonely when I'm wandering about the farm. There are always kitty friends nearby for company. The chickens have slowed down their laying. This time of year is when they molt, so their energy goes into making new feathers. Mom and I decided to give the studio kitchen a clean and freshen it up for the holidays. The little pantry received a wipe down and the jars were refilled with dried ingredients. With each new season, it can be uplifting to refresh your space. I have come to learn that fall or winter cleaning is just as rejuvenating and important as spring cleaning as we make room for the things that we collected and harvested and store them for the cold winter months. While we love collecting things to use for decorating, over the last few years we have adopted a more Scandinavian approach to decking the halls for winter holidays. We love the concept of bringing in fresh greens to liven the space when all of the other plants have died back. This creates a calming atmosphere. I love seeing beautiful holiday decorations, but I just don't prefer them in my own home. I love that all of this can remain up until spring arrives. Today we're having an orange spice herbal tea. In this week's episode, we will be looking at the White House Cookbook by F. L. Gillette and Hugo Zeeman. This book was originally published in 1887. The version that I have is a reprint of the 1901 edition. If you have never heard of this cookbook before, it is a truly wonderful collection. There are hundreds of recipes inside and even receipts for household cleaning and remedies for the sick, though I'm not sure I would recommend you using them today. Zeeman was the steward in the White House and previously served as the caterer to Prince Louis Napoleon, but the bulk of the recipes are by Mrs. Fanny Lemire Gillette. Fanny was born in 1828 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She did not write her book until she was almost 60 years old. The book itself was a bit of a farce at the time, a clickbait if you will, as the recipes inside really had nothing to do with the White House. It wasn't until Zeeman became a co-author that the book had some legitimacy to it, as he included several White House menus for various occasions. The first recipe I'll be making is for a soft gingerbread cake. The ingredients are fairly standard for a cake, I think, and after doing a little bit of digging, I learned that the measurement for a cup full at the time, or a teaspoon full, is the same as the standard measurements of today. This made converting the recipe much easier. Really, all I had to do was follow the directions. I decided to give the sister recipe a try for hard gingerbread. This recipe is the same as the first, but instead you omit the eggs and roll it out like a biscuit. I began by combining a half cup of softened butter and a quarter cup of brown sugar. These are stirred to a cream, which I took to mean that they are creamed similarly to how we make modern cakes. Doing this by hand takes a long time, indeed. Then, I added one cup of molasses, one cup of buttermilk, a tablespoon of ginger, and a teaspoon of cinnamon. The egg should be separated into whites and yolks and eaten separately. This style of separator is circa the 1920s to 1950s. I used a rotary egg beater to beat the whites until they came to a stiff peak. The instructions did not give any indication for how long to beat the whites, so I had to guess. The yolks I added to the batter first and whisked them in. Then, I dissolved one teaspoon of baking soda into a spoonful of water as per the directions and added that to the batter. And finally, I added two cups of sifted flour. The batter looked pretty standard for a cake batter as far as my eye could tell, so I poured it into a buttered and floured 8 by 8 inch pan and baked it at 325 for 40 minutes. I chose this temperature as the instructions said to bake in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes to an hour, and most modern cakes bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes, so I lowered the temperature and hoped for the best. While the first cake baked, I made the hard gingerbread. All of the ingredients were the same with the exception of eggs. The instructions also said to mix hard enough to roll out like a biscuit, so I took that to mean that the batter needed to be much denser by adding more flour. As you can see, the batter without the eggs is still very wet. I ended up needing four cups of flour total to make the dough hard enough to roll out without it sticking to the counter. I soon realized that this recipe was not necessarily an American biscuit, but instead was similar to a cookie. I rolled it out to half inch thick and cut out circles with a biscuit cutter as instructed. Then, I baked them at the same temperature for about 15 minutes. These were so cute and reminded me of something out of my American Girl doll accessories or Little House on the Prairie. The book recommended brushing the tops of the biscuits with molasses. I only had a little bit left, so I brushed only four or five biscuits. After 40 minutes, the cake was ready and it smelled so good. Even though it was not recommended, I dusted the top with some powdered sugar for contrast. The cake was delightful. It was soft and spongy while still warm, and after a day or two, it did become sticky and you could see the layers in the cake. It definitely has the same flavor of a gingerbread cookie. The biscuits were just as nice, they were not overly sweet, and the flavor definitely favored the molasses and spices. It's really a perfect dunking cookie for coffee, tea, or cocoa. I thought that these were both rather pleasant recipes if you're looking for a successful historical food to try. I really wouldn't change anything about them in my own development. Perhaps the cake could use some sour cream for added moistness, if anything. I hope that you all have a lovely and calming start to your winter season, and this episode puts you in the mood to bake something cozy for the holidays. As always, I hope that you have a lovely weekend baking in your own cozy cottage kitchen. If you would like to support me, our two new e-books just released on Monday and are available in our online shop. I will see you here next Friday, my dear. Enjoy your tea.