SC - gyngerbrede help

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Ann Sasahara wrote:
> 
>> I've been going through the Hampton Court Cook Book and am having trouble
> w/ the redaction of Tudor gyngerbrede.  I have followed the original
> recipe and the redaction to the same result: incohesive squares of gooey
> crumbs.  My question to the list, "is it supposed to be this friable or
> is my book missing a line, like bake at 350?"

As far as I can tell, the texture you're looking for is somewhere
between a slightly sticky fudge and commercial sesame halvah.
 
<snip>
> 1 lb honey, heatd to be runny
> 1 lb white bread crumbs
<snip again>
> variation: add red food colouring or saunderys during the mixing.  Arrange
> both white and red squares on the serving platter.
> 
> I tried both methods.  The red "dough" had more moisture from the food
> coloring.  That meant it pressed into the brownie pan more evenly than the
> drier white mix, but both fell apart during the cutting and cloving phase.
> I tried adding more crumbs, but that made a drier dough that fell apart as
> it was turned out onto the cutting board -- after having been in the
> freezer for 3 hrs.  Batch number 4, I added more honey.  It stuck to my
> fingers while I was pressing it into the pan.  Wetting my fingers w/ water
> helped.  Refrigeration did not help.

Considerations: altitude, humidity, and the biggie, since this recipe
was redacted, in theory, by Europeans, did you use the "industrial
standard" of fresh white bread crumbs as are commonly used in Europe, or
did you use the dry, slightly toasted crumbs in a bag or tin found in
the USA? If the latter, you might try getting one of those unsliced
white "Pullman" loaves from a bakery (you know, the ones Florence
Henderson always used to fry in the oil commercials on TV?), cutting off
the crust, and pulverizing the whole thing in a food processor. Not only
is this product obviously moister, but the proportions of bread mass to
honey mass would differ greatly as a result. I'm sure you could do it
with dry bread crumbs, but the proportions in your recipe might have to
be altered. Also, as I mentioned, the humidity levels of wherever you
live could well be a factor. Altitude somewhat less so.

Oh, you might also consider trying to find some saunders: it's a powder,
so it wouldn't drastically affect the moistness of the gingebrede.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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