Spicy Gingerbread with story problems

and presenting the next of RantWoman's 12 days of Christmas  offerings.

RantWoman, as readers may recall, is a bit of a nerd. Today's nerdliness achievements have to do with story problems, multiplying, fractions, and culinary chemistry. RantMom's approach to kitchen pedagogy is partly to blame also, though she gets credit for kitchen safety fanaticism just for coping with two half- blind little kids, RantWoman and RantBrother not to mention Little Sister who always insisted on doing what the bigger kids were doing,

But never mind RantWoman's sibling issues festively summoned along with the holiday recipes. Get back to the story problems and the spicy gingerbread.

RantWoman's college housemate Curmudgeon of the Week Whackin Wenches, lately sucked into the vortex of Facebookistan, brought Spicy Gingerbread to a Thanksgiving potluck. RantMom asked for the recipe and we learned we have it because it comes from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen.

Here is the recipe, with annotation about quantity of fresh ginger and RantWoman's comment that  the end product turns out to be a little dry.

Preheat oven to 350
Grease 8 inch square pan (or equivalent).
5 Tbs butter
3+ Tbs freshly grated ginger (the cake I made had 5 Tbs)
Saute 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
Beat at high speed for 5 minutes. Beat in ginger with all its butter.
1/2 cup yogurt
1 large egg
Beat until smooth.
Add to above mixture.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cloves or allspice
1/2 tsp  cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
Make well in dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredients. Mix minimally to combine.
Spread into nicely buttered pan.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Apparently RantWoman is not the only person who finds the product a little dry. RantWoman's search engine served up another version online. RantWoman thought she had saved the link but no. The main substitution RantWoman remembers was replacing the butter with 6 Tbsp of oil, useful both on fat choice and moistness grounds.

RantWoman and RantMom were so charmed by Thanksgiving leftovers, with a scoop of eggnog ice cream alongside that RantWoman resolved to bring for Christmas dessert too. RantWoman also needed something dessert-y for another potluck AND RantWoman does not own an 8"x8" square pan or anything that would be adequately comparable. RantWoman though DOES own a 9"x13" inch pan. This is where the story problem part comes in.

If one wants to make enough batter to fill the 9"x13" pan, what proportions should one use?

RantWoman did a small amount of mental arithmetic. RantWoman almost instantly  decided it made no sense to try to figure things out to teaspoons and fractions of teaspoons. Instead, RantWoman decided basically to double the recipe, but not quite.

Here is what RantWoman did

Preheat oven to 350
Grease 9"x 13" pan (or equivalent).
1 stick butter
1/4 cup olive or canola oil. RantWoman used Olive because it is time for fresh canola.
generous 1/2 cup of grated ginger. Be sure to collect the liquid and add both to the butter and Oil.
Saute 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup molasses
(RantWoman is cheap and did not want to run out of either)
Beat at high speed for 5 minutes. Beat in ginger with all its butter.

1 cup yogurt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
Beat until smooth.
Add to above ginger and oil mixture.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tbsp. baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cloves or allspice
1+ tsp  cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
Make well in dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredients. Mix minimally to combine.
Spread into nicely buttered pan.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

RantWoman and numerous culinary groupies were well pleased; RantWoman especially liked having enough gingerbread for small adhoc Christmas presents and for leftovers RantWoman is still savoring.

Next stop: RantWoman will either veganize this recipe or summon something already vegan. RantWoman is feeling pretty cavalier about substitutions despite having NO experience with vegan baked goods. Stay Tuned.