Fresh ginger, molasses & apple loaf cake – dark, warmly spiced with fresh ginger and not too sweet, studded with tender apple & topped with a lemon glaze.  Jump to Recipe 

Somehow in the last few weeks, winter has quietly settled in around us – the temperatures gradually creeping down and the days shortening. Yesterday I left for university in the dark, and got back in the dark, missing any inch of sunlight that might have occurred. It means I now wear my puffer jacket around far too often, last year’s single duvet has somehow found its way on top of my double for extra snuggle factor and my car windows are perpetually fogged up, so I spend that first five minutes with the air-con blasting, peering through the small clear areas in my windscreen. In the wet and cold (I don’t think we have had a dry day for a week), everything is getting that grey, wintery tinge that makes you just want to curl up inside your duvet and not come out until spring green starts appearing. I got up and opened the door this morning to a sea of fog, shrouding the cars and the trees in a ghostly, dementor-brought haze, the street lights like little hazy bulbs of yellow dangling in space.

Warming food is an essential. There is something about winter that changes our appetites – I’m suddenly like “give me ALL the pasta” – curries, soups, warm breads, and general carbs also fit in that category. Who wants to eat a cold salad when you can see your breath outside?! In saying that, I must admit that the need for all warm things never seems to rule out ice cream.

For weekend baking with torrential rain outside the windows (though we weren’t hit nearly as hard as Sydney here in Melbourne), I wanted a warming cake. The sort of cake that wasn’t too challenging, the sort you could sit down with a slice and a cup of tea or coffee and feel quite content, hidden from the wrath of the weather. The sort that wasn’t too pretentious either – no layers or staged components, not even requiring a stand mixer or anything but a bowl, a whisk and your oven. I decided on fresh ginger – the warm spiciness with a flavour much fresher and sharper than the ground variety.

Gingerbread is everywhere, in a multitude of combinations – with apples and pears, coconut and dates, with different spice mixtures, with walnuts and pecans, sometimes sultanas, maybe molasses or treacle or golden syrup. Maybe an upside down cake, or with grated apple. Or a spiced compote, cooked long and slow, served warm on the side with a spoon of mascarpone or ice cream. A loaf or a cake – I couldn’t decide. Icing was another question – is yet more salted caramel just too much salted caramel? Can you ever have too much salted caramel? A lemon glaze, or none at all – left unadorned with a final dusting of icing sugar might be all it needed.

I settled on a recipe adapted from the Violet Bakery in London and David Lebovitz in Paris (link)-  drawn to the quantity of fresh ginger and the almost savoury, dark richness of molasses. It was a winner. Dark, moist and not too sweet, studded with tender chunks of apple, and with a thin, crackly topping of a bright lemon glaze, it delivers a hit of fresh ginger, lightly scented with cinnamon and cloves. Strips of lemon zest and glace ginger brought a hint of warmth and sunlight indoors, and it is the sort of cake I struggle to stop at once slice. I can’t wait until later this morning when I walk down the road for my takeaway extra-hot flat white and a thick slice of left over loaf cake – it seems to improve over the next 1-2 days as well.

Although it is a loaf shape, be warned that it is definitely a cake, not a bread. It has a tender, moist crumb ill-suited to toasting, and isn’t the sort of quick gingerbread you might warm and smear with butter. It’s really a cake – just in loaf form.

Other warm baking successes this week:
– This Spiced Carrot Baked Oatmeal with Maple Roasted Pecans from Gather & Feast. My introduction to baked oats, warm and steaming, like a slightly less sweet carrot cake topped with vanilla yogurt. I’m sold.
– This Sunday night slow-cooked shredded beef brisket ragu from RecipeTin Eats – I made the sauce over the weekend and served it up the next night, tossed with thick strands of parpadelle and served with roasted broccolini and homemade ciabatta straight from the oven. Oh, and hot chocolate pudding to finish off. Comfort food central!

The post Fresh Ginger, Molasses & Apple Loaf Cake appeared first on The Brick Kitchen.

The iconic kiwi ginger crunch: an oaty, almond coconut base topped with a not-too-thick layer of warm, buttery ginger icing and chopped pistachios. Jump to Recipe 

After years of saving various recipes for ginger crunch, I finally got around to making it this summer. One of those things that always got shunted aside in favour of something newer or more elaborate, it eventually got to the front of the list on Mum’s request after we tried a few great ones at different cafes. After trialling a few variations, I think I have hit upon my favourite: an oaty base with the addition of sliced almonds and shredded coconut for the perfect crunch factor, topped with a not-too-thick layer of warm, buttery ginger icing and chopped pistachios.

Although not the traditional shortbread base, the oats and coconut mixture is reminiscent of an ANZAC biscuit and adds texture to the slice. Golden syrup is also key – it is widely available in NZ and Australia, but I know it is difficult to find in the US (I found this out for myself in the holidays!) and Europe as well. I would recommend seeking it out at specialty shops, however – it is a unique flavour. If you really can’t find it, honey might be a possible substitute, or a mix of molasses or treacle with corn syrup.

A much debated aspect to ginger crunch is the icing-to-base ratio. I personally prefer a thinner icing, mainly because I find it a bit sickly in large quantities and because I can’t face the quantities of butter and icing sugar that a thicker layer would require (I prefer to be blissfully ignorant!). If you really like it thicker though, which is how it is often seen in cafes, you could easily double the icing recipe.

On doing a little recipe research online, I quickly realised that ginger crunch is a very kiwi slice. The only recipes I could find were those of New Zealand chefs and blogs, with the original coming from Edmond’s Cookery Book – the iconic kiwi cookbook found in almost every NZ kitchen, first published in 1908 and the best-selling NZ book of all time.

So, for all you international readers out there (and all my fellow kiwis!) – make this ginger crunch! It is very easy, only needs 15 minutes in the oven, and the spicy, sweet ginger flavour is addictively good: your friends and family will love you for it.

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