Biscuits of flour, treacle, sugar and butter flavoured with ample ground ginger, allspice, coriander seed and, optionally, cayenne. Especially associated with the 19th Century Edward Binn's store in Sunderland.


Sunderland Gingerbread Nuts
Image: Alex Bray... "These are jolly nice - but Mrs B’s measures yielded hundreds of biscuits!"


Original Receipt in 'The Book of Household Management', 1861, edited by Isabella Beeton (See Mrs.B)

SUNDERLAND GINGERBREAD NUTS.
(An Excellent Recipe.)
1761. INGREDIENTS: 1-3/4 lb. treacle, 1 lb. of moist sugar, 1 lb. of butter, 2-3/4 lbs. of flour, 1-½ oz. of ground ginger, 1-½ oz. of allspice, 1-½ oz. of coriander seeds.
Mode: Let the allspice, coriander seeds, and ginger be freshly ground; put them into a basin, with the flour and sugar, and mix these ingredients well together; warm the treacle and butter together; then with a spoon work it into the flour, &c., until the whole forms a nice smooth paste. Drop the mixture from the spoon on to a piece of buttered paper, and bake in rather a slow oven from 20 minutes to½ hour. A little candied lemon-peel mixed with the above is an improvement, and a great authority in culinary matters suggests the addition of a little cayenne pepper in gingerbread. Whether it be advisable to use this latter ingredient or not, we leave our readers to decide.
Time: 20 minutes to½ hour.
Average cost: 1s. to 1s. 4d. per lb.
Seasonable: at any time.



Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough - Saturday 29 April 1893