Gingerbread with Fresh Ginger & Chocolate
Everyone's doing it!
Baking recipes from Dorie Greenspan's new book, Baking: From My Home to Yours,
that is. There's so many awesome recipes in this book, so why not make a start!
Greenspan describes this chocolate gingerbread as Xmas fare, but it was the perfect rainy day after-school snack for my constantly hungry children. I skipped the chocolate frosting to avoid anyone (literally) hitting the ceiling, and this cake was beautifully light and gently spiced. I wasn't sure how "hot" it would be with the fresh ginger, but it was actually quite mild. Studded with chocolate, it was fabulous without the whipped cream...until we tried it with the whipped cream.
I carefully followed the recipe, except I adjusted the spice to no ground cloves (vs. 1/4 tsp) and cinnamon to 1 tsp (vs 3/4 tsp). I used mini-chocolate chips, but they still sank mostly to the bottom of the cake (which reaches an impressive 2" in height). I skipped the optional stem ginger in syrup and the chocolate frosting.
Don't wait for Christmas to make this! This yummy gingerbread makes a fabulous anytime fall snack cake, or frosted (or not), a lovely Thanksgiving dessert.
Oh, and those other Greenspan recipes in the bloggersphere?
Gingerbread with Fresh Ginger & Chocolate (adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
):2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp sugar
11 tbsp butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
6 oz semisweet mini chocolate chips, 2 oz melted
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the fresh ginger and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
In a standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy ( about 2-3 minutes on med-high). Add the eggs one at a time, beating one minute in between. The mixture will look curdled, but don't worry. Add the molasses and beat for a couple of minutes until well combined. Add the melted chocolate and the sugared ginger.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon. Add in 1/3 portions of the mixed ingredients, alternating with 1/3 the buttermilk. Mix very gently, just enough to mix ingredients.
Butter a 9" square baking pan and place on a baking sheet. Pour the batter into the pan and even out with a spatula.
Check at 40 minutes. Remove when a sharp knife in the center comes out clean. The cake should be pulling back from the sides slightly. (Mine took 50 minutes.) Slide a sharp knife around the edge of the pan. Wait 10-15 minutes and then loosen cake from pan. If you meet with resistance, wait until cake has cooled further to remove. Serve with whipped cream.
World Peace Cookies (a.k.a. Best Chocolate Cookies)
posted by Catherine at 6:42 PM
6 Comments:
Looks wonderful. I've been very please with everything I've made out of the Baking book. I also have her waffle book and really like it!
OK, now I really have to buy the book!
tanna et al - if you've posted recipes from this book, please feel free to post your link here in the comments.
Lydia - I think its a classic!
Beautiful gingerbread Catherine! My mother used to make us kids gingerbread then cut it into squares, split the squares through the middle, pile some applesauce on the bottom half, cover it with the top half and then top the whole thing with a dollop of whipped cream.
Your photo really took me back!
Hi Christine,
I like the applesauce idea! We used to have hot lemon curd on ours!
The gingerbread and the cookies look so delicious! Ms. Greenspan is doing a cooking class at my local market in a few weeks and she's going to bake the World Peace Cookies. I've seen lots of her recipes posted - your photos are gorgeous!
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