17 Comments

Cool story!!! I always wondered why in all the bread books I ever read, they waste all that flour. I never really "wasted" mine. Even my first starter "Fred" who was born with Beer wort back in 2009 never had his discard "chucked" but lovingly composted. And then I ran across the "scrapings" method on @bakewithjack and have stuck mostly with it. Fred is still in the fridge, but only 50g of him. Together with Sir Bobby Farts-Alot and The Gardengnome (grown outside last summer) we survived the pandemic healthy so far. I'm still baking with beer and lots of spent grain. I hate waste, and spent grain bread is just awesome.

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I *love* gingerbread!

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This rings all my bells

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sourdough starter can be very light and fluffy, or much denser if you stir it (as you would when packing into a cup). It would be helpful if you gave a weight for the starter.

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Try 240g.

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Looking forward to trying the recipe! What do use for the weight of a cup of sourdough starter? From my limited experience, it can vary depending on the age of the starter. Thanks!

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Try 240g.

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Looks delicious, can’t wait to try it! I like to add some orange zest to my gingerbread, too.

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Made it last night—delicious!!

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Is using discard an option?

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That's exactly what I mean! I just tend not to use that word anymore, because then people think they can't use fresh levain.

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Great! I thought so, but I wondered if you also meant that it could be made of any flour combo - which I suppose would be "varietal" and not "vintage."

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Why do you prefer blackstrap molasses here?

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for its intensity of flavor. The bitterness pairs well with the ginger. If you only have regular molasses that will work too.

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I made this recipe again. Gosh so good. I reduced the brown sugar to 185 grams vs 200 grams. I used the indicated amount of molasses. I like sweets to be not so sweet. What’s the lowest level of sugar/molasses for this recipe that would still make everything turn out ok?

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FYI, USDA says 1 cup of molasses is 337 g. And water is normally 237 or 240. Are you using less because it's boiling? I went with the volume measurements and it turned out lovely :)

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Marcia - glad you liked. I'm constantly updating my w/v conversions, but the water one was a conversion from 8 ounces, though I do usually use 240g per cup. As for molasses, sources do differ, probably because molasses density differs from brand to brand and style to style. But I think the cake can stand to have more molasses, so I updated it.

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