Saturday, December 06, 2008

Gifts of Gingerbread


I have loved and used this recipe since last year. It's from the fine folks at Cooking Light. This morning I thought I would try making and gifting it in small loaves. I found the mini foil loaf pans in Target's baking aisle. They are made by Hefty (?!) and for about $1.25 you get a set of five measuring 5 3/4" x 3 1/4".
I tried unsuccessfully to find more holiday-ish ones, but shoot, wrap it in Saran Wrap, slap a red bow on top and you're done. Probably for a lot less. And the red bow hides the checking-if-it's-done knife poke mark.
This recipe nicely divies up into three loaves. I rotated the pans at 5-6 minute intervals. If you have a small baking sheet, I'd advise putting the loaf pans on that to avoid burns. (I did well until the third rotation.) You may need to lower the temperature to 340 for the last 10-15 minutes to avoid overbrowning the edges. The baking time stayed about the same - 25-30 minutes - as when using a 9" square baking dish.

I plan to eat one, gift one and freeze one today. Easy, affordable, tasty and healthy way to celebrate the holidays.


GINGERBREAD SQUARES
1 1/4 cups flour...1 teaspoon ground ginger...1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*...1/2 teaspoon baking soda...1/2 cup sugar...1/2 cup low fat buttermilk...1/2 cup dark molasses...1/3 cup butter, melted...1 large egg, lightly beaten...powdered sugar to sprinkle on top when cooled
Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, ginger, cinnamon and baking soda, stirring with a whisk. Combine sugar and next four ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Stir in flour mixture. Pour batter into 9" square baking pan coated with cooking spray (or 3 mini loaf pans). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Sprinkle gingerbread with powdered sugar.
From Cooking Light Desserts - page 56
*Penzeys Cassia Cinnamon

1 comment:

  1. I needed gifts for the neighbours and came upon this gingerbread recipe in your blog. DH bought all the necessary ingredients on saturday and I set to work this aftrenoon between putting the baby to bed for her nap and picking up my son from playgroup. Since I'd also read the pecan bar recipe, I decided at the last minute to chop up some pecans (around 100g) and add them to the batter. Good idea! Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe, the result tastes heavenly and I'm sure the neighbours will be delighted.

    Julia

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