2020 Joyful Holiday Baking (Gingerbread Loaf w/Caramel Sauce)

We all know 2020 has really been quite a year, to say the least, and I am not going to attempt to say much more. What I can say is I am praising God we finished our first term of offically homeschooling my kids and I think we all learned something. We celebrated what we learned this past week through 'exams', but it was a whole new concept of exams for me...because they were all about celebrating and seeing what we HAD learned not what 'we hadn't.' And to finish our week we ate yummy icecream sundays with homemade salted caramel sauce and all felt joyful for at least a few moments!

Yesterday I woke up determined to crank up the Christmas music in my kitchen and kick off some holiday baking by experimenting with a new gluten-free gingerbread loaf, drizzled with some of the leftover salted caramel that Mason and I had made the day before. I love gingerbread and molasses and all those warm delicious spices, and I was feeling determined to put my new flour mill to work grinding up some of the sprouted oats I have enjoyed baking with lately.  And even though it is costly, I also love adding almond meal or pecan meal wherever possible to cookies, quick loaves or pancakes which brings flavor and moisture and a little protein.

Anyhow, I was very pleased with how it turned out and thought I would share the recipe. I was even MORE pleased that the car wouldn't start (one of my darlings left the lights on again) and it meant we had to tell the friends we were planning to meet at the park to just come on over to our house. This meant I could actually serve this gingerbread spice cake with caramel sauce to dear friends that we had not seen in ages, and if you know me...you know food means nothing without people gathered around it to enjoy! 

Not only did I kick off the holiday baking, I could not help myself from getting personal and posting about it on social media - hopefully it felt like a joyous 'Leila post' celebrating some daily life instead of just sharing about Patty's Hope and foster care(which is also my daily life), but you know what I mean, a different topic! 

Okay here ya go, I based the recipe on a gf bundt cake recipe I found on another blog and made a few tweaks using the flours I wanted and dropping the sugar levels a bit. This can also be made in a bundt pan as a cake, but I decided to split it into two loaves.

Gingerbread Spice Loaf with Salted Caramel

DRY INGREDIENTS:

• ▢1.5 cups oat flour (or other GF flour of choice)
• ▢1 cup almond flour
• 2 Tablespoons tapioca flour/starch
• ▢1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢3/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢2 teaspoons ground ginger
• ▢1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ▢1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• ▢1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢1/4 teaspoon allspice

OTHER:

• ▢1 cup brown sugar (a little more if you want a sweeter cake)
• ▢1 stick butter, (8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup)
• ▢2 eggs
• ▢2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 cup hot water 
                                                                                         
  

  Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease 2 loaf pans (or use parchment paper to line) or use a 10 to 12 cup bundt pan.
  • In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the brown sugar and butter. Mix until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Mix in the lemon juice and molasses. Mix well to combine, scrapping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
  • Add the flour mixture in three additions alternately with the water starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
  • Bake for 35-45 minutes if doing two loaves otherwise 50-55 minutes if bundt cake, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with, at most, a few moist crumbs.

    Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

  
  

• OTHER:

• I drizzled mine with salted caramel sauce but you could do a lemon glaze or it would pair nicely with a cream cheese frosting. Here is the link to the recipe I followed for the caramel sauce. Enjoy!

•  

•