All things gingerbread, just like all things pumpkin, becomes obsession for me once there is the slightest hint of cool in the air. (Which we wait expectantly for in Texas every year…) I can’t get enough of it, and I can’t understand anyone who doesn’t feel the same way!

It is an obsession my family doesn’t necessarily share. I can understand. Gingerbread can be peppery. It can be gingery. It can taste too much of molasses. (All of which I have no problem with…)

But not so with these – rich, dense and kinda gooey, the flavor is all about cinnamon and nutmeg and tangy buttermilk. With lemon glaze topping it all off, these “bites” will ease you into gingerbread season.

And please believe me, these are “bites.” By the time the glaze sets up, gingerbread sensory overload may drive you to try to devour a humongous square! If you can finish it, you are a better woman than me! Consider urself warned!

Gather Up:
1 ¼ cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
½ cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup buttermilk
1 egg

For the lemon glaze:
1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8x8x2 inch metal baking pan.

Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and baking soda.

Combine molasses, sugar, melted butter, buttermilk and egg in large bowl. Whisk to blend.

Add flour mixture to bowl and mix. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack. Turn out on to serving platter.

To make glaze mix powdered sugar and lemon juice together until smooth. Spoon on cake and gently smooth. Let glaze harden about 2 hours.

Cut into small squares.

From Bon Appetit, November 2000