There are so many things about the holiday season that I just love. The decorations, the parties, and of course, the food! From soups to stews to braised meats to spiced sauces and breads to desserts, creating recipes that use rich and aromatic ingredients not only tastes amazing but will make your home smell warm and welcoming. Gingerbread is one of those treats that just feel right to eat during this time of year.
The trick with making gingerbread loaves is to find the right balance of those intense spices like ginger, cloves and cinnamon. I think this recipe achieves the sweet spicy goal. I even added finely chopped Reed’s Crystallized Ginger to the mix. The sugar on the outside of the ginger offers a little crunch and sweetness to each slice. If you haven’t tried this before, it is a really nice touch. It is also delicious to just eat straight out of the tin. You might remember as a kid when your Mom gave you some ginger ale to settle your stomach. Well, this is the grown up version. And you may be eating it even when you feel great. It’s chewy with that crunchy sugar on the outside with a little spice with each bite. So good! Try it!
Like all bread mixes, this is nice to serve with coffee, dessert, breakfast or as a snack. I will even make a couple loaves and put them in the freezer. This comes in handy when friends and family come over as it just needs to be warmed to have something delicious to serve with coffee. It also makes for a nice treat to bring as a hostess gift.
Enjoy!
Gingerbread with Crystallized Ginger
Ingredients
- 1 stick Butter, unsalted, room temperature
- 1 cup White sugar
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 Egg, large
- 1 cup Applesauce or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 tsp Ginger, ground
- 2-3 tbsp Crystallized ginger, diced into small pieces
- 2 tsp Cinnamon, ground
- 1 tsp Cloves, ground
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
Glaze
- 1 cup Sugar, powdered
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp Milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Use non-stick spray or flour and butter a loaf pan
- Lightly mix dry ingredients of flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda just till blended.
- In separate bowl, cream butter. Add sugar, egg, applesauce (or oil) and vanilla and mix together.
- Add dry ingredients to applesauce mixture. Blend.
- Add the desired amount of crystallized ginger pieces to the batter. Mix to incorporate.
- Pour into prepared loaf pan. Smooth batter to level in pan.
- Bake 50 - 55 minutes. Test to see if done by use a cake tester or toothpick to see if it comes out clean with no batter on tester. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and then remove from pan onto cooling rack.
- Cake must be cool before drizzling glaze. Use as much glaze as you prefer. You can use whipped cream instead if you desire.
- For the glaze, mix powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk. This should not be a thick consistency but easy to drizzle over gingerbread loaf. You may need to add a little more milk to achieve the desired texture.
You are so right about Gingerbread loaves and finding the right balance! The flavors can easily over power each other, but it looks like you found the perfect balance. The addition of the crystallized ginger is genius!
I’ve been looking to bake with ginger this holiday! I cannot find crystallized ginger anywhere (can you believe it!) – thanks so much for adding the product link (and a lovely recipe!) Can’t wait to fill my house with gingerbreads!
This looks absolutely perfect! What a delightful bread for the holidays…I would love a slice right now!
ginger candy in the ginger bread?! That’s ingenious. It kind of reminds me of Elisenlebkuchen or a cake during Christmas time from Nürnberg. Cool share, I am going to make this in the next days. 🙂
Love that you use crystallized ginger. I’ve never seen that brand before. Gingerbread is so classic for the holiday season. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Very good. Used an ounce of diced cystallized ginger. Did the applesauce option for the oil. Great texture. Batter is thick. So nice to have a gingerbread recipe that doesn’t require molasses. I was skeptical of a Tsp of cloves but it works.
So glad you liked the recipe. I love the flavors and the house always smells so good while it’s baking. Thanks for letting me know.
I just found this recipe and I tried it. I was a bit confused when it said to do this: “Lightly mix dry ingredients of flour, SUGAR, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, salt, and baking soda just till blended.”
So I mixed those ingredients together, and then I found below where it said to “Cream butter. Add SUGAR, egg, applesauce (or oil) and vanilla…”
Only I didn’t have any more sugar to add… I should’ve figured that I would be creaming the sugar with the butter and not mixing it with the dry ingredients, but that was already done. Just wanted to absolutely verify with you that the sugar should not have been added with the first dry ingredients, right?
Would appreciate if you would email and let me know for sure. Right now, it’s still in the oven. :-). Thanks.
You are absolutely right. Thank you for pointing this out. Your gingerbread should be just fine though. It should read to cream butter and then add sugar. But in the end, it will still taste delicious as you are mixing all together in the end. Enjoy!