My aunt said my great-grandma's gingerbread was too dry, so I tried something new

I made the old family recipe for my aunt last month. She took one bite and said, 'Honey, this is the texture of sawdust, just like hers always was.' I looked back at the card and saw it called for a full cup of milk. I swapped that for a half cup of milk and a half cup of applesauce. The next batch was so much softer and kept for days. Has anyone else fixed a dry old recipe like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

leer121mo ago

Sometimes the recipe was right but the tools were wrong. My grandma's cake was always dry until I realized her oven ran way hotter than mine. Those old stoves could really change how a recipe turned out.

jamesrivera11d ago

Funny you mention that because I've been thinking about how humidity plays into old recipes too. My aunt's pie crust recipe never worked for me until I moved from the coast to a drier area, turns out she was working with wetter air naturally. Same recipe, same tools, just the damn weather around you can throw everything off.

wells.amy1mo ago

Noticed this happens a lot with old recipes. People back then just wrote things down wrong or had different ingredients. Always makes me wonder what other family classics are actually mistakes.