Parliament Gingerbread (1915)
Reader ratingsParliament gingerbread in thin, crisp oblongs of treacle, ginger and mixed spice, printed in The Suffrage Cook Book of 1915 “With apologies to the English Suffragists.”
- Recipe makes
- About 40 oblongs
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Mixing, rolling and cutting take about 30 minutes. Each sheet bakes 10 to 14 minutes, so two sheets take about 30, and the gingerbread crisps as it cools for 15 minutes.
Parliament gingerbread, thin crisp oblongs, one snapped in half.
The story behind the recipe
Parliament Gingerbread is a thin, crisp treacle gingerbread cut in oblongs, and The Suffrage Cook Book of 1915 printed it with a bow across the Atlantic: “With apologies to the English Suffragists.” The recipe is unsigned and sits among the book’s gingerbreads.
An old name with a new joke
The name was older than the joke. “Parliament cake” was a Scottish name for a crisp, rectangular gingerbread biscuit, recorded by John Jamieson’s Scottish dictionary in 1825 and shortened in speech to “parlie.” The Pittsburgh recipe is that kind of gingerbread: rolled “quite thin,” cut in oblongs, and baked a quarter of an hour.
The apology was topical. In 1915 no British woman could vote for Parliament; the first, all over 30, did so in December 1918.
The proportions are as plain as the name. By weight there is as much treacle as flour, half a pound of each, against a single ounce of butter and half a cup of sugar.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Treacle is the British word, and the recipe keeps it. We use unsulfured molasses, or black treacle where it’s sold, weighed like the flour. The recipe’s dessert spoons become 2 teaspoons each of ginger and mixed spice, and the half “small spoon” of soda becomes ½ teaspoon. Its “about ¼ hour” bake is our 10 to 14 minutes at 350°F (175°C) for pieces rolled ⅛ inch thick.
What Did the Suffragists Cook? has the book’s other jokes, from a pie for a doubting husband to Anti’s Favorite Hash. For a savory start before the gingerbread, Anna Howard Shaw’s Bacon and Cheese with Toast (1915) is in the same book.
(With apologies to the English Suffragists)
½ lb. flour ½ lb. treacle ...
Recipe makes: About 40 oblongs
Ingredients
For about 40 oblongs. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 40 oblongs.
- All-purpose flour8 oz
- Butter, cold1 oz
- Sugar1/2 cup
- Ground ginger2 tsp
- Mixed spice2 tsp
- Baking soda1/2 tsp
- Hot water1 tbsp
- Unsulfured molasses or black treacle8 oz
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 8 oz all-purpose flour
- 1 oz butter, cold
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp hot water
- 8 oz unsulfured molasses or black treacle
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Rolling pin
- Sharp knife or pastry wheel
- 2 baking sheets, lined with parchment
- Wire rack
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line the baking sheets with parchment.
Put the flour in the bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until no lumps remain. Stir in the sugar, ginger and mixed spice.
Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and stir it into the flour.
Pour in the molasses and mix, then knead with your hands into a smooth paste. It will be soft and sticky; dust it with a little flour as you knead.
Roll the paste out between two sheets of parchment to about ⅛ inch thick; if it is too soft to roll, chill it for 20 minutes first. Cut it into oblongs about 3 by 1½ inches and lift them onto the baking sheets, ½ inch apart. Gather the scraps and roll again.
Bake one sheet at a time for 10 to 14 minutes, until the oblongs are firm at the edges and a shade darker.
Let them cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then move them to the rack. They crisp as they cool.
Nutrition
52calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 40 oblongs
- Servings
- 40
Estimated per piece from USDA FoodData Central values for flour, molasses, butter and sugar.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
A double batch is easiest rolled in two or three pieces.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Eight ounces of molasses is about ⅔ cup. With as much treacle as flour, the paste is softer than a modern rolled cookie dough. If you have no mixed spice, use 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon allspice and ½ teaspoon nutmeg. Stored airtight, the gingerbread keeps crisp for about 2 weeks.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Parliament Gingerbread in The Suffrage Cook Book, comp. Mrs. L. O. Kleber (Pittsburgh, 1915)
Recipe details
- Course
- Bread & baking
- Dish family
- Breads & Cakes
- Source decade
- 1910s
- Main ingredient
- Spices
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Season
- Winter