This is an old family recipe. I haven’t had this anywhere else so I’m not sure if my grandma invented this. It’s extremely easy to make. It’s traditional Dutch boterkoek with a twist. It looks like “butter cake” is a common translation for boterkoek but it’s not completely right. In Dutch, cookie = koekje and koek is basically a large cookie, the size of a cake. You make a dough, not a batter, and it won’t rise.
Oma’s gemberkoek
Ingredients:
350 gr flour
250 gr butter, room temperature
200 gr sugar
Little bit of vanilla essence
125 gr shredded stem ginger in syrup (for Dutchies: half a jar of AH Bakgember)
A few more pieces of stem ginger to decorate
Put all ingredients except the pieces of stem ginger in a bowl. Knead into a ball. Transfer the ball to a buttered pie/quiche/brownie pan or spring form, I use an 11" quiche pan. Flatten with your hands into a round shape. Bake 20 minutes at 180C.
Leave to cool before taking it out of the pan, like a cookie it’s soft at first. It’s very rich so you’re supposed to eat small slices. The cake can be stored in an airtight container for quite a long time (I’ve never seen one that had gone bad).