SHF 7: Gingerbread

My 4-year-old daughter was jumping with joy when I told her I was making gingerbread. She thought people-shaped cookies would come out of the oven. I had to explain that it's gonna be as name implied - a bread. Good thing she 'helped' me in the baking nonetheless. First time for me to create this dark, smoky, rich bread. I actually was not very hopeful of a good outcome but other than the slightly burnt crust it was great. Admittedly the taste's not for everyone though my friends loved it. It's not very sweet and the tiny morsels of sultanas and ginger provides islands of pleasing jelly-like sugary nuggets. Brian Turner's Favourite British Recipes cookbook (where I adapted this recipe) suggested that it's very good served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and indeed it is!

Oh by the way, before I forget this is my entry to the Sugar High Friday #7 - the food blogging event currently hosted by Derrick of Obesssion with Food. Theme for this edition is molasses. Derrick said we could substitute treacle and thank god for that 'coz molasses is not very common in the supermarkets of this island. The ones I often come across is black treacle which I thought was just the British name for molasses. But I found out that technically there is a difference. See, molasses is created from the drainings of raw sugar during refining while treacle is obtained from syrup made from the sugar (whatever that means). A good website explaining this is in here.


Gingerbread

115 g  unsalted butter - softened (scant 1/2 cup)
225 g  plain flour (1 2/3 cup)
115 g  golden caster sugar (1/2 cup)
2 eggs - beaten
225 g  black treacle, lightly warmed (1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp)
55 g  sultanas - finely chopped (1/3 cup)
85 g  preserved ginger - finely chopped (1/3 cup)
2 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp double cream (heavy cream)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1. Butter and flour well a 2 lb (9 x 5-inch) loaf pan. Preheat oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Cream (beat) butter and sugar in a bowl.
3. Mix in eggs, black treacle, sultanas, and preserved ginger.
4. Stir in the flour and ground ginger.
5. Warm the cream slightly then add in the bicarbonate of soda and mix into the flour mixture.
6. Pour into the loaf pan and bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Cover top with foil halfway through if it is browning too much.
7. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the pan. Turn out into a serving plate. Serve slices with ice cream or whipped cream.