Gingerbread is an inseparable part of Christmas baking. Its dense texture and spices bring warmth and comfort to the winter afternoons. This recipe has become one of my favorites. It is not only easy and quick, but it tastes exactly how gingerbread should taste (in my opinion ;)). Also, don’t worry about the beer – since it is added before baking the amount of retained alcohol is minimal. You can read about cooking with alcohol here.
Last but not least – this recipe was found and adapted from Gzik i pyry, blog that I’ve discovered recently. If you’re not speaking Polish (too bad 😉 ), it is worth to visit it at least for pictures 🙂
Ingredients:
Gingerbread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 7 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup beer (I used Guinness)
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Chocolate glaze
- ~3.5oz milk chocolate
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions:
Gingerbread
- Preheat oven to 355°F.
- Prepare a baking pan (I used loaf pan) – line with parchment paper or butter it.
- In a medium pot mix butter, sugar and honey.
- Heat it up on medium high, until butter and sugar melt.
- Add cocoa and spices, mix well.
- Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl lightly beat up eggs.
- Add baking soda, eggs and beer. Mix. The mixture will bubble for a moment.
- Transfer this mixture to a mixer bowl.
- While mixing on medium low speed add flour gradually.
- Stop mixing when batter is smooth.
- Transfer to the prepared pan.
- Bake for ~1hr – until a toothpick comes out clean (I checked if its done after 40 minutes, and then kept checking every ~10 minutes).
- Let it cool down for ~20 minutes before covering with glaze.
Glaze
- In a small pot heat up on medium high heavy cream – until it starts bubbling a little bit.
- Remove from heat.
- Brake chocolate into smaller pieces.
- Add to the cream and whisk until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.
- Cover gingerbread with glaze. You may poke few holes in the bread with a toothpick before covering it with glaze.
Yield: 10 generous slices OR 12 smaller ones.
Nutritional Info (with glaze, per slice when divided into 10 slices): Cal 366, Prot 5g, Carb 53g, Fat 15g, Fiber 1g
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