Recipe: Old-fashioned gingerbread muffins (vegan)

Gingerbread cookies are fun to make, but I was never too fond of eating them. Fresh, moist gingerbread, on the other hand — with it’s cake-like texture, pungent ginger tones and earthy molasses flavor, it’s hard to get enough of it. As with gingerbread cookies, you can add raisins or dried black currants by pressing them into the tops or mixing ¾ cup into the batter. I didn’t have any on hand for this batch, so I skipped that option

I use sorghum molasses (also called “sweet sorghum syrup”) in my gingerbread. It’s a sweetener derived from the juice of crushed sorghum, a grain grown throughout much of the United States that looks a lot like corn when it’s in the field. It has a milder flavor than regular molasses, which is made from boiling the juice of the sugarcane or sugar beets. If you can’t find sorghum molasses, you can substitute regular molasses. Look for one labeled “Barbados molasses” or that says it comes from the “first boil.” Steer clear of anything labeled “blackstrap,” which is too bitter for most people’s taste. (I did make this recipe once with blackstrap in a pinch and it was incredibly beloved by a 5-year-old who tasted it, but most of the other tasters did not opt for seconds.)

Sorghum and molasses have about as much sugar per teaspoon as white table sugar, so this muffin is definitely a sweet treat (and with a little iced sugar on top would probably qualify as a cupcake). Have fun indulging in this old-fashioned dessert!

Supplies

• measuring cups and spoons
• 2 mixing bowls
• mug or heatproof bowl for hot water
• mixing spoon or electric mixer
• muffin tin with 12 2 ½-inch cups
• cooling rack

Ingredients

• ¾ cup sorghum molasses
• ½ cup applesauce
• ¼ cup of oil
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• handful of raisins or dried black currants (optional)

Directions

1. Mix together flour, ginger, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together sorghum molasses, applesauce and oil.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the sorghum mixture until well blended.
4. Dissolve baking soda in the hot water
5. Beat the hot water into the batter a little bit at a time until smooth.
6. Spoon into muffin tin.
   
7. Sprinkle raisins on top, if desired.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until tops are firm and inserted toothpick comes out clean.