Ellens Gingerbread Tea Loaf
"Ellen says "This is by far one of the best gingerbread recipes I have ever made. It is so easy to make." I think she's right!"
- Ready In:
- 1hr 10mins
- Ingredients:
- 22
- Yields:
-
1 loaf
ingredients
- 1 2⁄3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1⁄2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1 pinch ground fennel
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch ground star anise
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped to the size of chocolate chips, divided
- 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1⁄2 cup firmly-packed golden brown sugar
- 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 extra-large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 1⁄2 cup nonfat milk (or buttermilk)
- 2 tablespoons nonfat plain yogurt (or sour cream)
-
Garnishs
- whipped cream
- seasonal berries
directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Prepare a 8 1/2- x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (or Nordicware gingerbread loaf pan) with a non-stick baking spray.
- Using some light brown sugar (or plain granulated sugar), dust the bottom and all sides of the pan, leaving a thin coating of the sugar.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, pepper, cloves, fennel, nutmeg, star anise, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix in 3 tablespoons of crystallized ginger; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer with a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until light and creamy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.
- Add the vanilla extract and the fresh ginger.
- Slowly mix in 1/2 of the flour/spice mixture; then add milk and yogurt.
- Add the remaining 1/2 of the flour/spice mixture; blend just until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Sprinkle the remaining 3 tablespoons of crystallized ginger over the top surface of the batter, pressing the ginger lightly into the batter.
- Bake approximately 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, let pan cool on a wire rack for ten minutes, and then turn cake out out of the loaf pan onto the wire rack to cool completely. When completely cool, using a fine mesh strainer, dust the top lightly with confectioners (powdered) sugar.
- If desired, garnish with whipped cream and seasonal berries.
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Reviews
-
I loved this bread, though my friend said it wasn't what she was expecting - tasted like something from India with the Cardamom and Black Pepper. I used whole herbs and ground it up myself, so I may have used more spice than it called for. I also made Crystallized Ginger a few weeks ago and one of the by products is this wonderful ginger syrup so I used 1/2 cup of that in place of the 1/2 white sugar. I think next time I will reduce the Brown Sugar by 1/2 cup and keep the white sugar and the ginger syrup. The butter needs that extra friction to cream up nicely. I didn't like the Crystallized ginger on top of the cake, so I think I'll mix that in a little more. Thanks for the great recipe... I'll be taking it out a lot this holiday season.
