During Top Chef season 5, I absolutely loved Carla Hall.  I thought she was the sweetest chef to ever grace the show, and her quirkiness was so endearing.  She seemed like someone I’d like to cook with, unlike some of the people on the show.  She’s now on The Chew, a daytime foodie talk show that I almost never watch, mostly because if my television is on when my kids are awake we are watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Peppa Pig or Umi Zoomi.  I happened to catch a part of an episode recently where she made gingerbread sandwiches, a gingerbread loaf with a couple of different fillings, lemon cream cheese and a cranberry compote.  The next day I bought the necessary ingredients.  But it took me a while to actually make the gingerbread.  I finally got around to it this week.

This gingerbread isn’t sweet.  There’s no sugar other than what’s in the ginger beer and the molasses.  It’s very spicy and dense, so it pairs well with the light and sweet cream cheese glaze.  The candied ginger provides texture and makes the mini muffins especially lovely.  While this wasn’t what I was expecting when I made this bread, it is a nice cold weather treat and would be perfect paired with hot chocolate and eaten in front of the fire.  Have I mentioned that it’s 76 here with 80% humidity?  I won’t be sitting in front of a fire anytime soon, but if your weather permits it, please sit in front of a fire and drink hot chocolate for me.

I ran into some issues when I made this bread, so be warned.  If you go to The Chew’s website and follow the instructions for this bread without reading the comments you will be a sad and sorry baker.  And possibly an angry baker, if you’re anything like me.  Shouldn’t they have people whose job it is to read and test the recipes they post on their site?   After mixing up the batter I thought that it looked like an awful lot for one 9 inch loaf pan (which is what the original recipe calls for).  So I filled my pan about 3/4 full and still had a ridiculous amount of batter left.  I could have easily filled another loaf pan, but instead opted to make some mini muffins.  Then I looked at the comments and realized that almost every person complained about the same thing, way too much batter for 1 loaf.  I still had some batter left over, but had made such a mess of my kitchen by this point that I didn’t want to get another thing dirty.  Remember to ALWAYS read comments on a recipe before you make it.  I’m glad I read them before pouring all the batter into one pan.  It would’ve been a disaster.

 Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Glaze and Candied Ginger

From Carla Hall on The Chew

Makes 2 9-inch loaves or 1 9 or 10-inch loaf and 24 mini muffins

Ingredients

For the Gingerbread

• 2 cups dark molasses
• 1 cup butter
• 1/4 cup strong Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer
• 4 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sour cream or buttermilk
• 4-5 pieces of candied ginger, chopped, for garnish

For the Cream Cheese Glaze

• 4 ounces of softened cream cheese
• 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons of milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

For the Gingerbread

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour your pans.
2. Combine butter, molasses and ginger ale in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture boils.  Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
3. Sift flour, salt, spices and soda together in a large bowl and set aside.
4. Transfer the molasses mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if you’re using a handheld mixer.
5. Beat the eggs into the molasses mixture until well combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream/buttermilk in 5 total additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Continue to mix on medium low speed until thoroughly combined.
7. Bake loaves for 45-55 minutes.  A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.  Bake mini muffins for 10-12 minutes.
8. Let cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

For the Cream Cheese Glaze

1. Beat cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth.
2. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
3. Spread onto cooled gingerbread loaves or mini muffins.
4. Use candied ginger to garnish loaves and muffins.