Spicy Gingerbread Bundt #BundtBakers

Add depth of flavor and warmth to spicy gingerbread Bundt with Guinness stout, fresh ginger and cayenne, along with all the usual spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. This mini Bundt makes the perfect dessert for your holiday meal or a welcome snack.

Gingerbread at Christmastime is a wonderful tradition in many families, ours included. In fact, when my girls were still living at home, gingerbread was one of their favorite after school snacks in the weeks before the Christmas holidays. There’s just something about the smell of gingerbread baking that tells you Christmas is coming!

This month my Bundt Bakers are sharing Christmas Bundts so I had to make gingerbread, boosting the flavor with the addition of Guinness Stout and fresh ginger. And since I want things extra spicy, a little cayenne!

Ingredients 
1/2 cup or 120ml Guinness stout
1/2 cup or 120ml dark molasses or treacle
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup or 75g butter, plus extra for buttering the pan
1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour, plus extra for coating the pan
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves
1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 large eggs
1/2 cup packed or 100g dark brown sugar
1/2 cup or 112g golden caster sugar (or sub fine sugar)
Optional: confectioners' sugar for dusting

Method
Butter a 6-cup Bundt pan well and dust liberally with flour, tipping the excess out. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Cut the butter in cubes and set them by the stove, at the ready.

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan with the grated ginger. Remove from heat. Whisk in the baking soda. Add in the butter cubes and stir till they have melted then leave the pan to cool.

Sift the flour together with the spices in a large bowl.

In another small bowl, whisk together your eggs and both sugars.

Whisk the cooled molasses mixture into the eggs and sugar.

Add the whole lot to the flour bowl and fold until just combined.

Pour the batter into your prepared Bundt pan. Lift the pan and set it down hard on the countertop to get rid of the air bubbles.

Bake in the middle of oven about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.

Cool the Bundt on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes or until it pulls away from the sides slightly. Invert on the wire rack and leave to cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar, if desired.

Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!

Check out the Christmas Bundts the rest of the Bundt Bakers have baked for you today! Many thanks to our host Sneha of Sneha's Recipe.

• Almond Nougat Bundt Cake by Nunca es demasiado dulce
• Bundt de Noel by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Baileys Hot Chocolate Bundt Cake by Making Miracles
• Chestnut Praline Coffee Bundt Cake by The Queen of Scones
• Christkindl Gluhwein Bundt Cake by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Eggless Semolina Tutti Fruity Cake by Sneha's Recipe
• Gingerbread Bundt Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Italian Cream Bundt Cake by Palatable Pastime
• Mini Chocolate Ganache Bundts with Peppermint Crunch by Cookaholic Wife
• Maple Walnut Bundt Cake by Bizcocheando
• Pineapple Upside Down Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Polenta Bundt Cake by Katin špajz
• Sorrel Mini Bundts by Passion Kneaded
• Spicy Gingerbread Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Xmas Bundt Cake by La mejor manera de hacer

 

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

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Fried Sausages and Apples + #Giveaway

Nothing goes better with fried sausages, especially ones made with pork, then apples. The recipe for this classic combination comes from the newly released book, chock full of information, The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton’s World by author Laura Kumin.

Hamilton the Musical debuted on Broadway in August 2015 but by Christmastime that year, both of my daughters were completely smitten and knew every single word. Each time we got in the car to go somewhere, Bluetooth automatically hooked up to their phones and the sing-along began. The tunes are catchy, the story engaging and I was drawn in as well. I can’t sing along as rapidly or as accurately as they can, but I thoroughly enjoy the music and lyrics.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this past August my daughters and I traveled the width of the United States in a rental car, from the east coast of Massachusetts to the shores of the Pacific near Los Angeles. The Hamilton soundtrack accompanied us along the way.

Much to our delight and surprise, when we reached LA, we were able to buy last minute tickets to a performance of Hamilton at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre where it had just opened. Sure, we were in the very back row, but who cares? We were ecstatic to be in the audience at all!

This is all to explain why I jumped at the chance to review Laura Kumin’s newly released The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton’s World. With her background in research and skills in the kitchen, I knew that Laura would be the perfect author to combine two of my favorite things, cooking and Hamilton.

Aside from the 30 recipes, Laura shares a whole lot of historical information on the life and times of Alexander Hamilton. If you are a fan of the show, or the man, you are going to love this book. The publisher did send me one book but (keep this hush-hush, please!) I had already preordered another for my son-in-law as a Christmas gift way back in October. I was that excited about this book!

Fried Sausages and Apples

From The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton’s World. Recipe reprinted by permission. The Hamilton Cookbook takes you into Hamilton's home and to his table, with historical information, recipes, and tips on how to prepare and serve the food that our founding fathers enjoyed. It's on sale now at Amazon (<affliliate link) or your favorite bookstore.

Adapted from “Fried Sausages,” Hannah Glasse,
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.
Serves 2 (as a main dish)
This dish is great for a weeknight dinner; it is quick to prepare and uses just one large pan. It makes a full meal with just a salad and a loaf of crusty bread.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 to 3⁄4 pound thick country or other similarly spiced chicken, turkey, or pork sausage (about 1-inch in diameter) 350g German Weiss sausage

4 to 6 apples, preferably of mixed varieties, peeled and quartered. Any apples that keep their shape will work (e.g., Granny Smith, Yellow and Red Delicious, and Fuji). Quarter, and thinly slice half of the quartered apples.

1. In a large, heavy pan, start the sausages cooking under medium-high heat. As soon as the sausages begin to render their juices, add the thin apple slices. Turn both the sausages and the apple slices so that they brown evenly.

2. Once the apple slices begin to brown, add the apple quarters, and stir occasionally. After 2 to 3 minutes, cover the pan for a few minutes. That helps the apples soften and brown. It will also allow a bit of liquid to accumulate in the pan. Uncover the pan and continue cooking until the sausages are fully cooked. (The time required to cook the sausages depends on their thickness, typically about 10 to 15 minutes. You can ensure that the middle cooks thoroughly by cutting the sausages down the middle vertically to butterfly them after 10 minutes, laying them flat to continue cooking for another 3 to 5 minutes.) The thin apple slices will slightly disintegrate into a chunky applesauce, while the quarters will remain whole.

3. Serve on a platter with the sausages in the middle along with the applesauce, surrounded by the apple quarters.

Want to win your own copy? Enter below. Entrants must be 18 or older with a shipping address in the continental United States. The winner will be randomly chosen at the close of the entry period. He or she will be notified by email and must respond in 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Spelt Banana Bread #BreadBakers

This delicious spelt banana bread is made with plenty of brown sugar, ripe bananas and nutty tasting spelt flour, for a treat that tastes decadent enough for a holiday snack.

Spelt is one of the so-called ancient grains, which are supposed to be healthier than their modern counterparts. It’s not gluten-free but it is lower in gluten than normal wheat with a nutty flavor that works well in baked goods. If you like baking with spelt, you might also like to try these wonderfully fudgy brownies, coconut energy muffins or a nutty, spiced yeast bread.

You’ll notice that by weight, this banana bread is equal parts brown sugar and spelt flour. This is deliberate. The brown sugar is what pushes it into the treat category, beyond just banana bread. It’s super easy to make, using what I like to call the modified muffin method: Wet ingredients (plus sugar) in one bowl, dry in the other. Fold together and bake.

Spelt Banana Bread

The decorative sprinkle of pearl sugar is not essential but it sure does make the spelt banana bread more festive.

Ingredients
3 very ripe bananas
1 cup, packed, or 200g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml (4fl oz) buttermilk
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups or 200g spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional (DO IT!) to decorate: Pearl sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a loaf pan (9 x 5 inch or 13 x 23cm) with baking parchment or grease it thoroughly with butter then flour. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash your ripe bananas with a fork. Add in the brown sugar, eggs, buttermilk and butter. Whisk thoroughly to combine.

In another small bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Tip the dry ingredients into the bigger bowl. Fold until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Those are brown sugar lumps you are seeing.

Sprinkle the top with pearl sugar, if using.

Bake in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the center of the bread. If it starts to brown too much, you can cover the top with foil.

Leave to cool in the bread pan, then turn out and slice to serve.

Enjoy!

This month all of our Bread Bakers are using whole grained flours to bake our holiday breads. Many thanks to our host Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds for this great theme.

• 100% Whole Wheat Bread from Cook's Hideout
• Eggless Whole Wheat Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls from Spill the Spices
• Gingerbread and Oatmeal Bread from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Kamut Cloverleaf Rolls from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Key-Shaped Challah with Finger Millet from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Khameeri Puri from Sneha's Recipe
• Oats Whole Wheat Bread from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Santa Lucia Buns from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Slovak Pasca from Ambrosia
• Spelt Banana Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Whole Wheat Grissini from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Whole Wheat Stollen from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Wholewheat Garlic Flavoured Monkey Bread from Sizzling Tastebuds

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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