Happy almost Thanksgiving! I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Enjoy time with your friends and family, eat lots of good food, and have a relaxing long weekend.
Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday – a whole day of cooking, eating and spending time with friends and family? I can’t ask for more – so I’m a little bummed to have missed an American version. But I know I shouldn’t complain about spending time on a Thai beach instead!
Here is a photo from our elephant adventures. (Apologies for the not great quality – downloading from my camera to my phone to my iPad isn’t great for photo quality it turns out.) Not only are blog posts challenging with an iPad, I am also trying to enjoy time away from the computer but I hope to have a longer post soon about more of our adventures. Stay tuned!
A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Brandon Weeks, a super talented Portland-based pastry chef, who is working on a new ice cream and donut shop. HunnyMilk sounds really fantastic so don’t forget to check out his Kickstarter campaign! It ends December 1st!
Brandon was nice enough to share his favorite Chocolate Gingerbread recipe. How good does that sound?! So perfect for this time of year!
(Note: Brandon provided the recipe in grams as he is a professional baker who cooks in large quantities. I provided estimates in cups and teaspoons.)
Photo courtesy: McCormick Spice. I didn’t have a photo for this cake but in my mind it will look like this deliciousness!
CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD
Yield: 1/2 sheet pan
Ingredients:
- 1/3 C (90 g) Sugar
- 1/3 C (75 g) Butter
- 2/3 C (150 g) Vegetable oil
- 3 Eggs
- 2 C (440 g) Molasses, unsulphured
- 1 C (240 g) All purpose or cake flour
- 1/4 C (60 g) Cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) Cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) Cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) Nutmeg
- 1/2 tablespoon (8 g) Ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) Salt
- 1.5 C (365 g) Half and half
- 1.5 tablespoon (25 g) Vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add the oil, eggs and molasses and beat well.
- Sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the molasses mixture until there are no lumps
- Stream in the half and half and vanilla, just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Line a half sheet pan with a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper.
- Pour in the batter and bake for 25 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch.
This tecipe does sound delicious. Chocolate with all thise yummy spices, just the right combination. I’ll have to give this recipe a try soon. Hope you gave a wonderful Thanksgiving.
That does sound like a good flavor combination!! I’m grain-free but I do get experimental with baking sometimes, and the holidays are a good time for that! Chocolate + gingerbread, yum!