{"id":4923,"date":"2010-01-06T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nybg.org\/wordpress\/?p=4923"},"modified":"2010-01-06T11:14:45","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T15:14:45","slug":"emily-dickinson%e2%80%99s-gingerbread-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2010\/01\/exhibit-news\/hts\/emily-dickinson%e2%80%99s-gingerbread-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Dickinson\u2019s Gingerbread Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrating the Season and Looking Ahead to Our Spring Exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Garden staff members have been busy learning all they can about Emily Dickinson and her poetry in advance of the Botanical Garden\u2019s spring exhibition, Emily Dickinson\u2019s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers<\/em><\/a>, May 1\u2013June 13, 2010. We take note wherever and whenever we see her name.<\/p>\n

So when we saw in a datebook, by chance, a gingerbread recipe by Emily Dickinson, we decided to blog about it, since the Garden currently is presenting Gingerbread Adventures<\/a> in the Everett Children\u2019s Adventure Garden as part of the Holiday Train Show<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ed-cookbasket140bw\"<\/a>With a little digging around I learned that Dickinson had a bit of a reputation as a baker in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts. In fact, she was particularly known for her gingerbread (and Rye and Indian bread), and would lower a basket of it to children below (photo by Lewis S. Mudge, courtesy of his estate), according to Emily Dickinson: Profile of the Poet as Cook, with Selected Recipes<\/em><\/a>, by Nancy Harris Brose, Juliana McGovern Dupre, Wendy Tocher Kohler, and Jean McClure Mudge, and published in 1976. We have a copy of this 28-page booklet in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library<\/a>, where in spring 60 objects that tell the story of Dickinson\u2019s life will be on view in the Rondina and LoFaro Gallery. (Complementing this will be a re-creation of her garden in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and a poetry walk throughout the Garden\u2019s grounds.)<\/p>\n

My intention was simply to post the recipe here, with permission from Jean Mudge<\/a>, and let you try it out for yourself. However, I got caught up in the \u201ceverything Emily\u201d mood, and to celebrate her 179th birthday (December 10), I decided to try making the recipe myself to share with co-workers.
\n<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t often bake, but the recipe looked simple enough, and I had on hand all but one of the seven ingredients\u2014for the missing cream I substituted milk.<\/p>\n

From the selection of the baking pan\u2014should I use a square glass Pyrex\u00ae or a metal pan\u2014I found myself wondering what Dickinson would have used (metal, as Pyrex\u00ae wasn\u2019t introduced until well after she died). With this thinking, I knew I wouldn\u2019t use an electric mixer either.<\/p>\n

The batter, mixed by hand, was dense and sticky, and even before entering the oven it looked like baked fudge brownies. I was surprised that an egg was not called for, and a quick Internet search shows that most old-fashioned gingerbread recipes, except Ina Garten\u2019s<\/a>, do use an egg. I suppose I was envisioning the very different look and texture of a gingerbread cookie.<\/p>\n

The consistency made it difficult to tell when it was cooked through. The trusty toothpick test let me know that 25 minutes as the recipe called for was not enough in my oven. It needed 35 minutes.<\/p>\n

The end result looked good, but the real trial would come when I offered it to colleagues at work. Would they try it? Would they like it? I\u2019m sure the intrigue of sampling an Emily Dickinson baked good, and on her birthday, led many here to grab a piece\u2014even over my tried-and-true cornbread, which I had also made as a backup.<\/p>\n

The verdict? The basket was empty before day\u2019s end. Please try the recipe yourself and tell us how you like it. We\u2019re waiting to hear from you\u2014and hope to see you at our Emily Dickinson exhibition later in the year. Sign up for Ticket Alert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Emily Dickinson\u2019s Recipe for Gingerbread:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 quart flour
\n1\/2 cup butter
\n1\/2 cup cream
\n1 tablespoon ginger
\n1 teaspoon soda
\n1 teaspoon salt
\nMake up with molasses (a little more than a cup is about right)<\/em><\/p>\n

Cream the butter and mix with lightly whipped cream. Sift dry ingredients together and combine with the other ingredients. The dough is stiff and needs to be pressed into whatever pan you choose. A round or small square pan is suitable. Bake at 350 degrees for 20\u201325 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrating the Season and Looking Ahead to Our Spring Exhibition Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden. Garden staff members have been busy learning all they can about Emily Dickinson and her poetry in advance of the Botanical Garden\u2019s spring exhibition, Emily Dickinson\u2019s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers, May 1\u2013June… <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n