Gingerbread Loaf
Makes over 20 slices
Dark, sticky and moist, a loaf of gingerbread is the ultimate afternoon tea treat. As it cooks, it fills the kitchen with a tempting sweet and gingery, browned butter smell. Resist eating it straight away if you can because it is so much better after three or four days, by which time the crumb softens, becoming lovely and moist, and the outside becomes wonderfully sticky. It will keep for 5-7 days - not many cakes keep that well!
Gingerbread Loaf Photo: Julie Biuso
Ingredients
- 330g standard flour
- 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 50g crystallised ginger, chopped
- 125g butter
- 170g brown sugar
- 75g golden syrup
- 120g black treacle or date syrup
- 1 medium (size 6) free-range egg
- 300ml milk
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp milk
Method
1. Set a shelf in the oven so the loaf will be in the middle of the oven in its tin. Preheat oven to 175°C (regular bake, not fan bake).
2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir in crystallised ginger.
3. Warm butter, sugar, golden syrup and black treacle or date syrup in a small pan until dissolved; stir often and don't boil.
4 Beat egg and milk together. Pour melted ingredients into dry ingredients, add egg and milk and mix gently; don't beat. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in milk, add to batter and gently mix everything together until combined but DON'T BEAT.
5 Turn into a loaf tin (23cm long x 12-13cm wide x 7cm deep) lined with baking paper on the bottom and up the sides.
6 Bake for about 1½ hours, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn onto a cooling rack. Store in a tin wrapped in baking paper.
Recipe Notes
Crystallised ginger adds a sweet gingery bite to the loaf but you can omit it if preferred.
I used date syrup in place of treacle in the loaf pictured. It has way less sugar than treacle and although it doesn't make the loaf as dark, it still has the rich, treacley-molasses flavour.