Stout Gingerbread
This inviting recipe from Ruby Tandoh mixes rich stout with the warming flavours of ginger. This stout gingerbread blends treacle, brown sugar and root ginger.
Introduction
This isn’t the brittle, biscuit type of gingerbread — this one is moist, cakey and deliciously dark. It’s a very wet batter, easier to pour than to spoon into the tin, so don’t be alarmed. The smooth, almost chocolatey stout rounds the flavour of the cake and keeps it beautifully tender. You can use milk instead, if you prefer, but the result won’t have quite the same treacly depth.
This cake tastes even better in the days after baking: a little self-restraint will really pay off if you can bear to leave it untouched for a day or two. That said, it rarely lasts longer than a few hours in our house.
Ingredients
| 60g | unsalted butter |
| 80g | treacle |
| 60g | soft dark or light brown sugar |
| 5-6cm | piece root ginger, grated |
| 100ml | stout, porter or brown ale |
| 1 | large egg, lightly beaten |
| 120g | plain flour |
| 2 tsp | ground ginger |
| ½ tsp | bicarbonate of soda |
| ¼ tsp | salt |
Essential kit
You will need a 20cm round cake tin.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4. Grease and line the tin with baking parchment.
Combine the butter, treacle and sugar together in a pan over a low heat just until the butter is melted. Stir in the fresh ginger and ale. Using a whisk or fork, beat in the egg.
Mix the flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients to this gradually, whisking all the time, and continue to mix until the mixture is combined and clump-free.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. It’s done when the top is springy and a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
