Gingerbread

Today’s recipe is a guest recipe from my mom! Her Gingerbread recipe is such a hit in our family and follows my style of baking. I am grateful she let me share this recipe with all of you! The Gingerbread is light and fluffy, like a cake. It’s sweetened with dates and blackstrap molasses, and spiced up with pumpkin pie spices. Your house will be sure to smell like a Holiday bake shop after making this! 

Our family enjoys this bread so much, we actually eat this all year round- not just around the Holidays! It’s just that good.

We typically serve the Gingerbread without the Vanilla Cashew Date Icing, but if you want to make it extra fancy — add the icing and sprinkle it with crushed walnuts or pecans— it’s so tasty! I hope you and your loved ones enjoy this as much as our family does! 

If you are looking for other Holiday dessert recipes, see Gingerbread Cookies, Pumpkin Pie, Chickpea Pumpkin Pie (nut-free options), Brownie Truffles, and Peanut Butter Cookies. 

A few notes before you get started:

QUANTITY: This recipe makes a large batch, enough for a 9 X 13 cake pan. When I made this batch, I did 1/2 the recipe in an 8X8 glass dish and the other 1/2 in a glass loaf dish. If you only need a small cake or loaf, cut the recipe in half. 

LOAF/ CAKE: You can make this as a bread or a cake. If you want to serve it bread style, use a loaf dish. To make cake style, use a cake dish. 

ICING: As mentioned above, we typically don’t add the Vanilla Cashew Date Icing to the Gingerbread- this is a new addition I added when making it for the blog. I just wanted to make this extra fancy- and it tastes so good! The Gingerbread is really tasty both with and without the icing, so if you don’t have time to make the icing or don’t want it on- feel free to skip it! The icing does make a large batch. I find it much easier for my blender to get it smooth and creamy to do it in a large batch- so you might have some leftovers (I had about 3/4-1 cup leftover). You can try to cut the recipe in 1/2 otherwise make the full batch and use the cashew cream as a fruit dip (or serve it with some frozen blueberries like I do!) —or freeze it for the next time you make on of my sweet breads. 

Gingerbread

Ingredients:

4 cup rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

4-5 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup pitted & chopped dates

2 cups water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cups pure pumpkin

2/3 cups blackstrap molasses

Optional:

Vanilla Cashew Date Icing

Pecans or Walnuts, chopped 

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Add the oats to a dry, high speed blender. Blend until the oats are fine like flour. Transfer the flour to a bowl. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spices. Stir together, and then set aside. 
  3. Add the dates, water, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, pumpkin, and molasses to the blender. Blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the oat flour. Stir together until well combined. 
  4. Line a glass cake pan or a bread loaf with parchment paper, pour the Gingerbread batter into the dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 
  5. While the Gingerbread is baking, prepare the cashew date icing. 
  6. Allow the bread to cool a bit before adding the icing. Spread the icing over the top of the Gingerbread, and top with chipped pecans or walnuts. 

A special thanks to my mom for sharing her recipe!