This month’s Recipe Redux challenge is quickbreads! And seeing as how I can’t ever get over both molasses and candied ginger, I quickly decided to do an easy gingerbread.
I’ve been baking since I was around 6, and by baking I mean both with and without recipes. I’m always surprised though when I manage to develop a recipe that’s super delish and that actually works. I mean, baking seems so precise – which is so not my nature at all, in cooking and everywhere else. I’m completely slapdash in my cooking technique, and though I’ve had to reform that somewhat so I can publish recipes on my blog instead of pictures, I still prefer my cooking method to be a bit loosey goosey! Amazingly, a vast number of my recipes turn out well. Sometimes I surprise myself!
When I think of gingerbread, I think of a dense, ‘damp’ texture with a distinctly strong molasses flavor. I made several versions of this gingerbread, but in the end preferred the first try, which rose a bit light but then as it sat, became a lot denser. It doesn’t need icing (like Starbucks gingerbread, which I admittedly look forward to all year, but now I can say that mine is better), just a sprinkle of candied ginger to top it off.
Part of this month’s challenge was to show how we would wrap our quick bread up to gift it. Here’s what I did (before I unwrapped it and ate it myself, ha ha!!):
Make this cake in a standard loaf pan or a 9×9 square. I did both, as you can tell from the photos.
Makes 10 servings
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour – can be whole wheat
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup candied ginger, chopped, plus 2-3T
1t ginger
1t cinnamon
1t baking soda
1/2t cloves
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, using a mixer, cream the butter and the sugar together, then add the egg and molasses, then the boiling water.
In another bowl, mix all of the other ingredients together except for the candied ginger.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Gently fold in the 1/3 cup candied ginger.
Grease and flour the pan you choose to use, then pour in the batter. Sprinkle with the rest of the candied ginger and put into the oven.
Bake for around 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the gingerbread comes out clean.
Let cool before slicing. The longer the gingerbread sits, the denser it will get.
Enjoy!
