Paul Hollywood's Welsh gingerbread recipe

This delicious tray bake by the King of baking Paul Hollywood is sweet, soft and very addictive! He says: "Strangely enough, many old recipes for Welsh gingerbread don’t include any ginger. It seems to have been a general name for cakes sold at festivals and fairs. I’ve added ginger here, but you could leave it out if you like. It’s kidology – the black treacle adds lots of flavour and tricks you into thinking the cake contains ginger. It’s worth buying the large pieces of candied peel that you cut yourself for this. They have much more flavour than ready-chopped candied peel and it really makes a difference to the end result."

Ingredients

• 350g self-raising flour
• 3 tsp ground ginger (optional)
• 100g unsalted butter, diced
• 150g demerara sugar
• 50g mixed candied peel, chopped
• 50g black treacle
• 80g honey
• 150ml milk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170°C/Gas 3. Grease and line a 27 x 20cm baking tin (or tin with similar dimensions).
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the ginger, if using. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and candied peel.
3. Put the treacle, honey and milk in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the treacle and honey have melted into the milk. Pour onto the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for 30–40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5. Leave to cool completely, then cut into squares. Store in an airtight tin. The gingerbread will mature and become stickier with keeping.