Heather, of Sherry Trifle, chose this week's recipe, and I'm so glad she picked this one. I love gingerbread, and I love chocolate with ginger. I didn't make the frosting, however, because I just like my gingerbread all by itself - no frosting.
Anyway, the recipe was easy to follow and easy to put together.
Julia helped out with the mixing, as she often does.
I made a couple other small changes - I didn't have the ginger in syrup called for in the recipe, so I substituted candied ginger, and I baked the whole thing in a 10" square pan. I don't have a 9" - just a couple of 8 inches and a ten. I figured with the ten I'd end up with more gingerbread, sort of. (Yeah, okay Jayne. Interesting logic you've got there.)
The gingerbread smelled heavenly while it baked and looked gorgeous when it came out of the oven.
I should have let it cool longer, or lined the pan with parchment (lazy = sticking issues) because some of the chocolate chips and bits of ginger stuck to the bottom of the pan, but oh well - the taste was not affected in the least.
I loved this. In fact, I may go get a piece to have with my coffee in a moment. Alex ate most of a large square while he did homework that day (Monday). Julia didn't like it. She wasn't nuts about all the varieties of ginger. And when Alex got home from school yesterday, he regretfully informed me that he didn't really like the gingerbread any more. Too gingery. Ah well. I think it's an acquired taste, and maybe things will change as they get older. Bill liked it, and I, as I said, loved it. Chocolate and ginger - such a wonderful combination.
Thanks again to Heather for picking this recipe. If you'd like to give it a try yourself, she's got the recipe posted on her site, or you can buy Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours and look on pages 212-213.
To see what all the other TWD bakers thought of this one, check out the miles-long blogroll on the TWD site!
