What to Cook This December — The Dark Molasses Gingerbread Loaf That Belongs to Everyone

The tree went up Saturday. We do it the first weekend of December, which is both tradition and deliberate -- in a three-year-old household, four weeks is the maximum sustainable tree-to-Christmas window, and even that is pushing it. Sean and Liam selected the tree at the lot on Route 3A that has been there since before I was born. Liam treated it as a matter of state. He walked down every row. He put his mittened hand on three different trees. He then turned to Sean with full conviction and said "this one" about a tree that Sean privately considered mediocre but which Sean accepted because the decision had been made by the buyer. Sean paid. Liam helped carry it which is to say he held one branch with one finger as Sean carried the rest. On the drive home Liam narrated the tree's feelings about leaving the lot.

Nora, at nearly twenty-two months, is having her first conscious Christmas. 2020 she was nine months and the tree was a chewable threat. 2019 she was not born. This year she understands the tree is a Thing and she understands the Thing contains ornaments and the ornaments come off. She removed four before we finished putting them on. Sean and I relocated every glass ornament to the top half of the tree. The bottom half is now decorated in felt, wood, and items I do not mind losing. Functional triage. Every parent of a two-year-old has performed this operation. Nora regards the adjusted tree with the skepticism of a consumer who has not been served her full menu.

I made gingerbread on Sunday -- not a house, a simple loaf, the dark molasses one with the crystallized ginger and the big crumb. Maureen's recipe. Maureen does not actually make gingerbread, she buys it, but she gave me a recipe from her mother that I have been making since my twenties. There is a genealogy in certain recipes that bypasses whether the person who gave them to you ever used them. I inherited my great-grandmother's gingerbread through my grandmother through a card I have never seen through my mother who never baked it. It is still mine. It is still hers. The loaf came out of the pan. Liam ate the end piece warm. Nora ate the middle piece warm. Sean ate the other end. I ate nothing because I was standing at the counter drinking tea and watching, and sometimes watching them eat what I made is better than eating with them.

We walked two houses Thursday after Sean's day. The first was fine. The second was a colonial two blocks off Hancock Street, four bedrooms, a yard the size of a small blanket, and the specific smell of an older home that has been maintained properly for decades. The realtor said the owner was a retired teacher. I noticed Sean in the kitchen. He was not saying anything. He was looking at the cabinets and running his hand along the counter and I saw him do the quiet breath he does when something is landing. I did not say anything either. In the car on the way home we did not talk about it for six minutes. Then I said "Sean" and he said "I know." We are going back Sunday.

The loaf I made Sunday is the one I want to leave here, because it is December and because it is Maureen’s mother’s and because Liam ate the end piece warm without being asked and that is really all a recipe needs to do. It is a dark loaf — molasses-forward, with crystallized ginger stirred through the batter and a crumb that is just open enough to feel substantial. It keeps for days, it slices cleanly, and it smells like the entire point of having a kitchen in winter.

What to Cook This December: Dark Molasses Gingerbread Loaf

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 10 slices

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 3/4 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

Instructions

1. Heat the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and line the bottom with a strip of parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and salt until evenly combined.
3. Combine the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the melted butter, molasses, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition, then stir in the buttermilk.
4. Bring it together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently with a rubber spatula until just combined — a few streaks of flour are fine. Fold in the crystallized ginger. Do not overmix.
5. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50–55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. The top should feel set and spring back lightly.
6. Cool before slicing. Let the loaf rest in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. The flavor deepens the next day.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 285 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 44g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 280mg