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Gingerbread Recipe

In my search to find things my son will eat that I can make from scratch I’ve tried all sorts of recipes for tea breads and quick breads.  He likes cornbread, which is great, but nothing else passed muster until I made the gingerbread cake from “The Family Baking Book” by America’s Test Kitchen.  This surprised me, actually, but pleased me.  I made changes to the recipe based on my own tastes such as omitting allspice which I don’t care for.  I reduced the sugar a bit and also used blackstrap molasses instead of light molasses because blackstrap is more nutrient dense.  I also played around with using whole wheat flour but the result was not good – it was slightly bitter, so I went back to using all purpose.  The original recipe calls for buttermilk but I never have that sitting around so I use regular milk.  I offer you my version of gingerbread, Max approved.

Gingerbread Recipe

Makes 2 Loaves

Gingerbread Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp Dutch processed cocoa
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup blackstrap molasses
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 8 Tbsp butter (1 stick), melted and cooled
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup milk (I usually use 2%)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Generously grease two small loaf pans.
  3. Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
  4. In either a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer (I use my stand mixer for this one) beat the molasses, sugar, and melted butter together. Beat in the egg until well incorporated. Add the milk and mix until combined.
  5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until well combined, don’t beat into a pulp. Divide the batter between the two loaf pans and shake gently to distribute the batter evenly.
  6. Bake the bread until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Let it cool completely before removing from the pan.
  7. If you’d like to ice the gingerbread, as I have done in the picture above, put 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar into a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons of milk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and stir vigorously until the sugar is completely dissolved, . If it gets too thin, add a little more sugar, if it’s too thick add small amount of milk to thin it.
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