Gingerbread

[jsmeeker]

I want to make a gingerbread dessert for Christmas dinner. I don't want cookies of people. I don't want a house. What I want is a gingerbread that is like a sheet cake. The bread part seems pretty easy. Looks like it can be made like a quick bread. Cook's Illustrated has a recipe in my copy of 'Baking Illustrated'. I can use that, but am open to other suggestions.

But once I have the cake, how to serve it? I gotta do more than put a slice on a plate. I think I need some sort of sauce. And some sort of "creamy thing". Ice cream? Or maybe just whipped cream? Finally, a garnish of some sort. a sprinkle of chopped, crystalized ginger, maybe?

[JAZ]

I made this recipe for stout gingerbread cake from Gramercy Tavern a few years ago. It was great. I served it with a pear compote and whipped cream. I've also served gingerbread cake with sauteed apples before; that's good too.

[djyee100]

I like lemon curd with some whipped cream folded into it.

[tafkap4d]

I love mine with lemon curd or a dollop of fresh whipped cream - the way my Grandmother served it.

[Lisa Shock]

You can always start by decorating the top with powdered sugar sprinkled over a stencil or doilie, tat will give the entire top surface a pattern.

[CanadianBakin']

Whipped cream and homemade caramel sauce.

I make miniature Gingerbread cupcakes that have finely chopped crystallized ginger in them for a bit more bite. I top them with a swirl of Vanilla Bean SMBC and a small cube of the crystallized ginger. The SMBC is a really nice foil for the sharpness of the ginger. A sum of the parts kind of thing.

[LaurieB]

I have to agree -- this recipe is the best. The best.

[Darienne]

DL has this excellent recipe for 'Fresh Ginger Cake' in Room for Dessert. He serves it with 'a dollop of tart lemon curd lightened a little with whipped cream'.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Warmed tart applesauce and vanilla ice cream for gingerbread a al mode.

[highchef]

I too have been after the ultimate gingerbread recipe. I've tried the stout, and it is very good, but I don't use it when there are teens, tweens, or kids...or for that matter when there is a crowd of less sophisticated taste buds.

Soo, my go to this year has been from the King Arthur cookbook. the basic recipe is light and has enough ginger to warrant the name, but if you add the chopped ginger option, and use the ginger syrup (if you've been candying ginger slices, here's your chance to use that, otherwise you can make it pretty easily) option, it gives a really cool/hot kick that is awesome. It is not on the site, but if you say pretty please, I'll go grab the book and send it along before I start cooking.

btw, I love lemon curd with gingerbread, some people prefer whipped cream. usually i just fold some whipped cream into the curd and please everyone.

Merry Christmas

[JeanneCake]

And that Fresh Ginger Cake is wonderful! I love it and have been trying to persuade my favorite restaurant to put it on their menu but so far, no luck.

Anyway, as much as I love this Fresh Ginger Cake, I wouldn't call it gingerbread .... I like the recipe in the Cake Bible from Rose Levy Beranbaum for a more rounded gingerbread.

[Bricktop]

DL has this excellent recipe for 'Fresh Ginger Cake' in Room for Dessert. He serves it with 'a dollop of tart lemon curd lightened a little with whipped cream'.

That's my "go to" recipe too. Not only great flavor, but it keeps really well, willpower provided.

I'll be making it Saturday morning for Boxing Day.

[jsmeeker]

My gingerbread is in the oven. I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe in 'Baking Illustrated'. To serve with it, I am going with the lemon curd idea. I will fold some creme fraiche and some whipped cream into it. Lemon curd is great in this case because I had everything I needed to make it! I'll let you know how it goes and will try to remember to snap a pic after plating a serving.

[Lapin d'Argent]

For next time, remember you can always make gingerbread in any fancy bundt-cake type pans you happen to have. If you're like me, you probably have a whole cupboard full of assorted fancy cake pans, originally from Williams-Sonoma, that were just too cute to resist at the time, and that you never remember to use when the time comes...

[ambra]

This is very obviously way too late, but interesting all the same!

This blogger made like 5 different Gingerbread recipes, all of which look fantastic!

http://manggy.blogspot.com/

[jsmeeker]

For next time, remember you can always make gingerbread in any fancy bundt-cake type pans you happen to have. If you're like me, you probably have a whole cupboard full of assorted fancy cake pans, originally from Williams-Sonoma, that were just too cute to resist at the time, and that you never remember to use when the time comes...

Now I wish I had some of those pans!

The ginger bread turned out great. Very moist. But of course, I forgot to take a picture of it. Didn't have my camera in the kitchen where I was plating the dessert. But I have some leftover that I brought home. I'll have some for a snack a little later and I'll snap a picture and post it here. Oh.. the lemon curd with creme fraiche and whipped cream folded into it worked pretty well.

This is very obviously way too late, but interesting all the same!

This blogger made like 5 different Gingerbread recipes, all of which look fantastic!

http://manggy.blogspot.com/

I wish I had known about this the other day. I probably would have made the Spiced Pear Upside-Down Gingerbread Cake.

[ambra]

This is very obviously way too late, but interesting all the same!

This blogger made like 5 different Gingerbread recipes, all of which look fantastic!

http://manggy.blogspot.com/

I wish I had known about this the other day. I probably would have made the Spiced Pear Upside-Down Gingerbread Cake.

[jsmeeker]

OK. Here is my Gingerbread

[Lapin d'Argent]

Yummy! [Where IS that drool icon...]

Now you have an excuse to hint to various friends and relations about getting you some of those lovely pans in exchange for more gingerbread!

[Milt]

As a child, my mother always served gingerbread with nothing else. It was (IS) a great childhood memory. Recently, a friend served gingerbread with lemon curd and it was even better than what I remembered my mother making. My own gingerbread preparations will now include lemon curd.

[JeanneCake]

This is very obviously way too late, but interesting all the same!

This blogger made like 5 different Gingerbread recipes, all of which look fantastic!

http://manggy.blogspot.com/

The author of the blog is an eGulleteer - and a lovely blog it is, thanks for the introduction! Usually I don't click on links in signatures so I would have missed this for a long time, no doubt.

[nakji]

As a child, my mother always served gingerbread with nothing else. It was (IS) a great childhood memory. Recently, a friend served gingerbread with lemon curd and it was even better than what I remembered my mother making. My own gingerbread preparations will now include lemon curd.

My mother always served her gingerbread with lemon "sauce" - I haven't thought of that in years. I have a jar of nice lemon curd in the kitchen left over from the holidays - I'll have to make some now.

[jumanggy]

Darn, I am much too late to the party- thanks for the linklove, Ambra! I had gingerbread with lemon curd at Amy's Bread in New York, but I wasn't too impressed with the Gingerbread (dry!), so I never looked up the recipe in the book. As it stands my favorite way to have gingerbread is with tons of syrup and topped with cream cheese frosting. Terrible, I know.

I've still yet to post about the last gingerbread recipe in my file, from Tartine Bakery (wanted to review the cookbook first), but my favorite recipe is still Claire Clark's from Indulge.

[ambra]

You're welcome Jumanggy!

[Darienne]

This topic is ten years old now and I am currently looking for the ideal gingerbread recipe.  What I can't understand is that only one post above mentions serving gingerbread with apple sauce.  And none of my cookbooks, even the Canadian one, mentions apple sauce either.  One of the few desserts my Mother made was gingerbread and we always had it with applesauce (which she would also make...there being relatively few ready-to-eat items on the market 75 years ago).  I thought this was the way you were supposed to eat it.  But then I thought Cheddar cheese was the only thing to accompany Apple pie and it seems not to be an American tradition.  Just sounding off....