Getting Festive With Gingerbread

Hey all,
I hope everyone is feeling festive this holiday season. The holidays are the perfect time to reconnect, recharge, and reflect. Doing these things are made tastier with some holiday treats in hand. Nothing screams holiday season quite like gingerbread. It’s fluffy but retains a nice chew. It has a ginger kick, slight sweetness, and a molasses forward flavor.

This gingerbread comes together easily. This recipe comes courtesy of Jenn Segal at Once Upon A Chef. The original recipe can be accessed here. You will begin by sifting together the dry ingredients in one bowl, and whisking together the wet ingredients in another. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet until smooth Add the batter to your prepared pan and bake. The smell as the gingerbread bakes is utterly intoxicating.

You will be quite pleased with how beautifully fluffy the gingerbread bakes up. You will be dying to share a piece with friends and family. You can also munch on a piece solo as you reflect on this past year. 2019 is right around the corner. Eat some gingerbread and think of all the goals you will achieve, experiences you’d like to have, and relationships you want to nurture.

Happy holidays! Eat, drink, and be merry.

Gingerbread
Recipe mildly adapted and courtesy of Once Upon A Chef

Ingredients
1.5C All-Purpose flour
1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
2tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp ground cloves
4T (1/2 stick) butter, cubed
2/3C light or dark brown sugar
2/3C molasses (preferebly Grandmas’s Original, NOT Robust or Blackstrap)
2/3C boiling water
1 large egg

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a 8x8 or 9x9 inch square pan with parchment paper and spray parchment paper with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves
3. In a large bowl, add the cubed butter, brown sugar, and molasses. Add the boiling water and whisk ingredients until butter is melted. Once butter is melted, let mixture cool for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, whisk in the egg.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Whisk until the ingredients are just combined and there are no lumps of flour in the batter.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes but begin checking around the 28 minute mark. The gingerbread is finished baking when it is set in the middle and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out with NO wet batter, but still has a few moist crumbs hanging on.
6. Let gingerbread cool completely before turning out of pan and slicing into squares.