January 26, 2009

Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread (with pears)


This week's selection for Tuesdays with Dorie is a dark, chocolately gingerbread. Many gingerbread recipes rely simply on powdered ginger and molasses for their spiciness, but this one calls for a handful of chopped fresh ginger as well. Dorie recommends adding some stem ginger in syrup or candied ginger but I decided to add some poached pear chunks instead, just for something different. I had saved the poaching liquid from the French Pear Tart, which quickly sweetened and softened a couple of pears.


Dorie's gingerbread incorporates chocolate in two forms - melted and chunked. I loved the chunks - ginger and chocolate are such a great combination. I skipped the chocolate frosting that she also recommends, as it just didn't seem necessary to me (and I was being lazy).

As for the cake itself, I found mine to be almost too molasses-y - it verged on a licorice flavor that was just a bit too strong for me, even though I like licorice. Mine also looks darker than Dorie's and some other bloggers'. I wonder if my organic molasses was too dark, perhaps. But nevertheless, I liked it and it was a hit with my taste-testers.


I made Dorie's ginger-infused whipped cream as well -it was fantastic! You just steep some fresh ginger into heavy cream, let it cool, then whip with some sugar. I have added maple syrup, vanilla beans and other flavors to whipped cream before but the ginger was so good. I can't wait to try it with pumpkin pie. I really think gingerbread calls for whipped cream - the cream provides a nice contrast to the spices and makes the whole experience much more divine than just a piece of spicy cake.


Thank you to Sherry of Sherry Trifle for choosing this week's recipe and reminding me how much I love gingerbread, especially when it's "mitt schlag." You can find the recipe on Sherry's blog.

I'd like to leave you with a recent picture of one of my kitties, Go Go Boots. I just love this picture (and its subject, too!).

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boots is beautiful and so is your gingerbread!

Anonymous said...

Your gingerbread looks great. I'm glad to know that the ginger infused whipped cream was tasty. I wanted to try it.

chocolatechic said...

oooooOOooooo

Pears!

Perfect!

Cooking for Comfort by Jennifer said...

Oh wow! This sounds heavenly with pears!

Boots is So cute!

Love the cake stand!!!

Anonymous said...

Poached pear chunks?! Wow that is amazing! That looks so good!

farah said...

Oh yum, it must be really good with the pears!

Anonymous said...

Oh My! Your gingerbread looks gorgeous on that pretty cake plate!
I'm sure it tasted heavenly with pears too. Ooooh! And I'd love to take Boots home with me. He would be the perfect boat cat! He could listen to Chris Isaak cd's with me.
"Kitty Did a Bad, Bad Thing!"

Mary said...

Your cat might be even cuter than mine is :)....

TeaLady said...

OOUU!!! Pears. Nice addition. Sounds tasty.

AmyRuth said...

What a pretty, sweet little furball. Love that! Oh yea, also I love the powdered sugar on the gingerbread.
AmyRuth

Jacque said...

Oh my gosh, your cat is so pretty! Love those eyes.

Your gingerbread looks like it would be good warmed with a little butter.