Sticky Gingerbread

Asked by Park. Answered on 25th July 2012

Full question

Whenever I make the sticky gingerbread recipe from Nigella Christmas I always get lumps of flour in my batter which won't mix in, I have to push the mixture through a sieve before baking. Am I doing something wrong? I follow the recipe exactly!

Our answer

When a large amount of liquid is added to flour sometimes the flour will tend to form the odd small lump. In some recipes, such as muffin recipes, this is considered to be a positive as the batter is not overmixed and the resulting muffins are usually light in texture.

If the gingerbread batter has just a few small lumps then you can usually ignore them and they will tend to disappear as the cake is baked. If they worry you then you can either whisk the mixture with a wire whisk to break down the lumps or you could start off by adding enough liquid to the flour to make a thick paste and then stirring in the remainder.