Santa’s in the house (or, at least, in the neighborhood). It’s time to get your gingerbread on.
This recipe is a riff on traditional gingerbread. It has generous dollops of fresh cranberry sauce stirred through the batter. What you get is a taste of traditional spicy gingerbread and a hit of tangy cooked cranberries. It’s magic. Christmas magic.
If you are looking for a more traditional gingerbread recipe, I’ve written about gingerbread before on Blue Cayenne. You can find a very good recipe, sans the cranberries, here: Ginger Cake. Don’t let this one get away, though. It is very very good. In fact, one baker on the NY Times site where the recipe first appeared wrote of the cake : “Made it for a New Year’s Day party. If I could ingest nothing but this and Prosecco–and/or maybe some strong coffee–for the rest of my days, I’d be happy. Dead, but happy.” Made me laugh.
Now, where did I put that bottle of Prosecco?
- 2 C. fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1 C. granulated sugar
- 1 T. water
- 1 stick unsalted butter 4 ounces
- 2/3 C. dark brown sugar
- 1/2 C. whole milk
- 1/2 C. maple syrup
- 1/4 C. molasses
- 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 T. ground ginger
- 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. kosher salt
- 1/4 t. baking soda
- 1/4 t. black pepper
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 T. or more grated fresh ginger (from a 1-inch piece)
- Powdered sugar and/or whipped cream for garnish
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. and prepare a 9-inch square baking pan by lining it with parchment paper.
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Stir cranberries, sugar and 1 T. water together in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the cranberries begin to burst. The juice from the cranberries should be thick and bubbling when your cranberries are properly cooked. Your aim should be for a cranberry sauce where about one half of the cranberries have burst. This will take about 10 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside.
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Combine butter, brown sugar, milk, maple syrup and molasses in a separate saucepan over medium heat. Bring this mixture to a simmer and then remove it from the heat. You want to avoid having this mixture curdle, so do not let it boil.
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Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, baking soda and finely-ground black pepper into a large bowl. Using a hand-held mixer, beat in the butter-maple syrup mixture until you have a smooth batter. Next, beat in the eggs. Stir in the grated fresh ginger.
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Using a spatula, scrape your batter into the prepared baking pan. Drop generous dollops of the cranberry sauce on top of the batter. Use a knife to swirl the cranberries into the batter in a nice design.
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Bake until the top of the cake is firm and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. This will take between 40 and 50 minutes at 350 degrees F. My cakes have been ready in 40 minutes. When your cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack until it is completely cool. Dust with powdered sugar or serve with a dollop of whipped cream (or both!).
This recipe is adapted from one of Melissa Clark’s recipes that appeared in The New York Times Food Section. Here is a link to the newspaper’s site: https://www.nytimes.com.
(about)I loved the Gingerbread with Cranberries in it…I didn’t want to go to the store so I used a can of whole Cranberry sauce and it was good!…Also since I don’t9″ have a 9″ pan I used a 9×1330 and baked it for about 30 minutes and I liked it this way. Will make this again!
Thank you, Marion. I’m delighted that you enjoyed the gingerbread. I think this is a great recipe. It is good to know that you can sub in whole cranberry sauce.
Do you know what amount of time you would need to cook this at for a traditional sweet breads pan? Like a banana bread pan?
I haven’t tried baking this gingerbread in a loaf pan. I suspect that you would bake it at 350 degrees F. for 50-60 minutes. Since ovens vary in their temperature settings, it is always better to watch your baking carefully and test for doneness with a toothpick or baking thermometer. Another site, Sally’s Baking Addiction, has a recipe for a loaf of gingerbread. Here is the link:https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/spiced-gingerbread-loaf/ . She bakes her loaf for 50-60 minutes at 350. I’m also attaching a link to a King Arthur Flour piece on baking a banana bread loaf. While it is not a gingerbread loaf, the article is a good one about knowing when a loaf cake is done.https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2018/03/15/how-to-tell-when-banana-bread-is-done
Good luck to you with your baking. Thank you for reading my blog.