I baked: Grasmere Gingerbread (MasterChef)

So far, I have been cooking and baking stuff from MasterChef Australia for this "Cook Like a Star" event. Long before the MasterChef Australia series started, I was already watching MasterChef UK, which is the original series. I was hooked to the show and would watch it every night without fail.

So I browsed the website to find something I could make - most of the recipes on MasterChef UK seem to be a lot harder (quite technical too). However, I found this recipe for Grasmere Gingerbread on BBC UK website, by Jackie Kearney - one of the semi-finalist in the 2011 show which seems to be very easy to make. I love gingerbread and Grasmere Gingerbread is reputed to be one of the best in the world. Jamie Oliver describes it as "the best gingerbread I've ever eaten in my life".

Grasmere Gingerbread are supposed to be "flaky, crumbly as well as soft and slightly chewy". However, using this recipe (actually I cut down baking time from 40 minutes to 30 minutes), it turned out to be more like flapjacks than gingerbread. They were still a nice treat - we still enjoyed them nonetheless but not what I envisaged them to be. The texture was crunchy and I liked how strong the ginger taste was. I did like how enticing the kitchen smelt during and after the bake -the aroma of spices is heavenly. Everytime I walked into the kitchen, I would take a deep breath and suck it all in!

Kids still loved it

What I think went wrong: Baking time is definitely too long, which is way the texture was quite crunchy like a flapjack. Based on other recipes, I think you may only need to bake it for 10-15 minutes. I may attempt this again, using either this BBC Good Food recipe or Jamie Oliver's. 

Grasmere gingerbread

Recipe adapted from MasterChef UK - Jackie Kearney

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6

"A gingerbread in a class of its own, flavoured with heaps of ground ginger and given texture by oatmeal."

Ingredients
125g oatmeal

125g plain flour
4 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

175g butter

130g soft brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup


1. Preheat the oven to 180C/365F/Gas 4. Grease and line a baking tin or tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Mix together the oatmeal, plain flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar in a bowl.

3. Melt the butter over a low heat in a small saucepan, then add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in the sugar and golden syrup until well combined.

4. Pour the mixture into the tin in a thin layer and press down lightly with the back of a wooden spoon. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden-brown. (I took them out at 30 minutes cos they were already golden brown and looking crunchy!)

5. Allow to cool slightly, then mark into 3cm/1½in squares. Leave to cool before slicing into squares.

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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like a MasterChef" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Anuja of Simple Baking. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe (from the contestants, judges or even sponsors) from any MasterChef websites or cookbooks (any countries) and blog hop with us for the whole month of September 2012.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in September 2012 - please do not link older posts.

Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Anuja of Simple Baking and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 26 Sept 2012.

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here.