Chocolate Gingerbread
This is adapted from a Nigella recipe. Adapted as in I left out what I didn’t have in the cupboards or deemed one of Nigella’s very sweet tooth indulgences that the rest of us could live without! I also left off the icing she has in her recipe figuring that this makes a nice tray bake without the need for any additional stickiness.
I normally use oz but her recipe was in g and I couldn’t be bothered to convert!
175g butter
100g brown sugar
2 tbsp caster sugar
100g ish of golden syrup (I say ish cos it’s all but impossible to measure!)
same amount of black treacle
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda dissolved in 2 tbsp warm water.
2 eggs
250 ml milk
275g plain flour
40g cocoa
75g plain chocolate (Nigella said more than double this, so mine is not hugely chocolatey, I might up this a bit next time. She also said chocolate chips and I used cooking chocolate chopped up)
A handful of glace ginger (I found this next to the glace cherries in the cooking aisle at Sainsburys and have been dying to use them ever since, so added them to this recipe which they really suit)
Oven to GM3, line baking tray with greaseproof paper or grease really well.
Melt butter, sugars, treacle, syrup and spices in a large pan.
Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the eggs, milk and water/bicarb.
Stir in the flour and cocoa with a wooden spoon.
Add the chocolate and glace ginger.
Pour into the baking tray and cook for about 45 minutes. The finished gingerbread should be risen and firm with a softness under the surface. Leave to cool before cutting into about 12 slabs.
We had this as cake with tea / coffee but actually I think it would be really nice with cream or ice cream as a dessert, especially if served warm.
