Recipe excerpt from:
A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook
by Jessica B. Harris

Serves: 8

Gingerbread was a special-occasion treat for many of our ancestors. The molasses, a by-product of sugar production, was usually available and the spices were either received as gifts or “liberated” from the Big House kitchen. Many years ago, when this book first came out, I was making book-promotion rounds and visited Dr. Betty Shabazz’s radio show with a sample for her to taste. I was astonished and delighted when after one bite, she smiled and said that hot-water gingerbread had been one of her husband, Malcolm X’s, favorite treats and that she had prepared it for him frequently. Now, I think of her and of el Hadj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X) whenever I make the dish.

• 1 tablespoon butter for the baking pan
• 1 cup molasses
• ½ cup boiling water
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons melted butter, melted
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• Molasses Whipped Cream (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. In a heatproof medium bowl, combine the molasses and boiling water. Sift the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, and salt into the molasses mixture. Add the melted butter and brown sugar and beat well either by hand or with an electric mixer. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan. Then cut into squares and serve with dollops of molasses whipped cream.

Molasses Whipped Cream

Makes about 2 cups

This is a simple way to make whipped cream that adds a little something to anything
it goes with. Later, I learned that there is an old Southern recipe for this khaki-hued
deliciousness that is called Creole Fluff.

• ½ pint heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons molasses

In a medium bowl, whisk the cream with a wire whisk, slowly drizzling the molasses
into the cream. Whisk until the cream is whipped into firm peaks. (Alternatively, you
can use an electric mixer.)

Excerpted from A KWANZAA KEEPSAKE AND COOKBOOK by Jessica B. Harris. Copyright © 1995, 2024 by Jessica B. Harris. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.