This is another one of those recipes that has evolved over time from the original. I've been making gingerbread, the cake/bread version, for as long as I can remember. There was never a written recipe, Grandma just made it and it was my job to stir.
I asked her once, and she said she'd started from her grandmother's recipe but it was in her hands now. That's...not particularly helpful, Grandma.
A few years ago, I went looking for a gingerbread recipe that worked in a sheet pan rather than a loaf- I was catering for 200 and had access to full sheet pans and an oven that could manage them. A lot of modern recipes are built for loaf pans or Bundt pans or even 9x13 pans- things with real sides. Put them in a standard jelly roll or sheet pan and they have a major overflow issue. So I pulled out my '52 Joy of Cooking and started modifying it to taste more like Grandma's recipe. This can be made with either 2 c of my standard recipe for gf flour (by weight: 2 parts sorghum flour, 1.5 parts brown rice flour, 1 part tapioca starch & 1 part potato starch) + 1/4t xanthan gum, or 1c Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose & 1c Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 backing flour. Ok, it can probably be made with 2 c of any of the GF flour blends besides Namaste - if you're working with any of the extremely hydrophilic gf flours that make everything taste dry, add half a cup of unsweetened applesauce.
Triple ginger gingerbread:
1/2 c butter
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c white sugar
2 eggs
Dry:
1 t dried lemon or zest of one lemon
2 c gluten free flour blend
1t cinnamon
1t soda
1t salt
2 t ginger
2-4T grated ginger
1/4-1/2 c candied ginger, minced fine
Wet:
1/2 c water
1/2 c molasses
Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter & sugar until fluffy, then add eggs Alternate adding wet and dry ingredients to butter/sugar/eggs, mixing after each addition. Line 1/4 sheet pan with parchment paper. Bake approx 30 min or until done.
(This also does work nicely in 2 loaf pans or a Bundt cake pan, actually, you just have to bake it a little longer, and wait until a toothpick comes out clean, 40-50 min)
