Your favorite gingerbread recipe

Cooking Discussions Baking, Sweets
1

I love gingerbread, but I rarely make it. Of course, this year I have a lot more time to cook so I’m wondering what your favorite recipe is. I’m looking for a quick bread type recipe, not for cookies. Thanks!

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2

This year, my wife is baking small gingerbread loaves with frosted whole sugared cranberry decorations after finding this recipe. She has made this recipe as muffins, cupcakes frosted with cream cheese and as pancakes.

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3

Thanks! I’d forgotten about posting this.

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4

Haven’t made it (or any gingerbread cakes) myself, but this used to be a popular recipe https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/gramercy-tavern-gingerbread-103087

5

FWIW, my mother used to make gingerbread in a 9"x13" pan, cover it with 7 minute frosting, then drizzle melted chocolate chips randomly over it. We liked it a lot then.

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6

Came looking for a recipe and I’ll wake up this very old thread rather than starting a new one.

Anyone have a favorite that you’ve actually made? The above from @Phoenikia seems promising but I’d love to hear some more firsthand experiences.

Thanks!

7

I like the following, and have made each a few times. Sue Moran is not the original author of these recipes, but the versions on her website are solid.

8

Thanks for sharing! But I’ll second the original post in the thread: This is about cake, not cookies :slight_smile: (Certainly doesn’t help that the name means anything similarly flavored.)

9

My bad - sorry!

10

The Grammercy Tavern recipe is indeed a good one. You don’t have to use beer, you can substitute pretty much any watery liquid such as tea, coffee, or fruit juice.

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11

Thank you!

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12

Thought I should follow up for the next person who finds this thread!

I wound up doing a version of the Grammercy Tavern one. I found the same recipe on Smitten Kitchen while researching, read a dozen years of mostly glowing “I made it” reviews, and made the following mods based on feedback:

  • Reduced the baking powder to 1 1/4 tsp)
  • Swapped the oil for butter, 1:1, and browned it
  • Added 1/2 tsp of salt
  • Reduced the sugars to 1/2c white and 2/3c brown

… and, drawing inspiration from the King Arthur recipe, added 1/2c crystalized ginger, which I very finely minced.

I’m not sure I actually made the Grammercy Tavern one at all after all of these changes, but whatever I did make came out really great! I baked it in a 13x9 aluminum pan for around 36 minutes. Result was a bit fluffy, a bit chewy, a bit sticky, rich, very deep and gingery. Plenty of sweetness. No sinking in the middle (a common problem mentioned with the original formula). I served it with heavily vanilla-infused and extremely lightly sweetened whipped cream. My guests this evening seemed genuinely happy eating it!

The recipe is a bit weird, involving a sort of creaming method: You whip the sugar and eggs, then add the lipid. In my experience this is usually intended to create an emulsion and some bubbles. That’s pretty normal cake territory for me, and generally you then fold in the dry ingredients and that’s that. This recipe, however, has you add a bunch of liquid first, which I think totally defeats the purpose of whipping and totally breaks down all the bubbles and emulsion. It certainly worked, but I’m tempted to try the same exact formula next time using the (simpler) muffin method to see what happens…

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