White gingerbread.

An intriguing southern adaptation by Eugene Walter of the obscure classic from Helen Edden’s County Recipes of Old England. The addition of buttermilk and vinegar to the original gives the southern version some piquancy to balance the sugar.

• 1 cup softened unsalted butter
• 1½ cups sugar
• 4 cups flour
• heaped teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons powdered ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (see the Notes)
• 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350˚.

1. Cream the butter with the sugar, them add the flour and knead the dough untril it acquires the texture of coarse cornmeal
2. Grease a 3x10x12 loaf pan or something similar and plop half the crumbly dough into it.
3. Stir together the remaining ingredients and top the mix with the rest of the dough.
4. Bake the gingerbread until just moist in the center (check with a toothpick), usually in about 20 to 25 minutes.

Notes:

-Do not use a nonfat or lowfat buttermilk made with skim milk: Either would ruin the recipe.

-Kate’s Real Buttermilk from Maine is an excellent product.

-Walter uses far too little ginger, only a teaspoon of it. This, however, is gingerbread not bland spicebread. The Edden recipe successfully specifies a whopping 4 Tablespoons for the same amount of flour.

-Walter uses more, 2 full cups, of sugar, a reflection of the notorious traditional southern sweet tooth. The Edden recipe? A cup and a third, but then she does not include either souring source.