Just a quick post for TWD this week, I am feeling under the weather with a head cold. The recipe of the week is Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread, from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking From My Home To Yours, picked for Tuesdays with Dorie by Heather of Sherry Trifle , thanks Heather :)
I've had my eye on this recipe for a while and couldn't wait to give it a try. Everything came together easily and I decided to use a 10 inch springform pan instead of the 9 by 9 because the amount of batter was more than I am used to using in a 9 by 9 and I didn't want any over flow. The 10 inch springform was perfect! I baked for 40 minutes exactly and the cake tested done.
The taste was wonderful, it was so moist and spicy and just a wonderful flavor combination. The texture was wonderful as well and it made me remember the Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake we did for Tuesdays with Dorie last October, and what a dry disapointment that one was. I was thinking...if you adjust the spices on this chocolate gingerbread, I'm sure it would be a wonderful brownie cake base.
Changes I made to the recipe were minimal, vanilla instead of coffee in the frosting and semisweet instead of bittersweet chocolate in both the cake and frosting. In our family we prefer semisweet over bittersweet in most recipes. I can see making this again for the holidays, maybe decorating with some crushed peppermint candycanes. I would leave out the fresh ginger though, it seemed like when I got a piece in a bite of the gingerbread it was just too much and clashed with the comforting warm spice that is gingerbread -- it just kind of bit you back if you know what I mean and I just didn't care for it in this recipe, even though I really thought I would. Other than that, I loved this recipe and will more than likely be making it again :)