spiced ginger bread

I have been in a "ginger mood" lately. After I baked a batch of ginger cookies, I baked a loaf of spiced ginger bread.

If you like spiced bread, you may like to add 1/4 tsp ground cloves to the recipe below. Although I have a bottle of cloves at home, I omitted the inclusion of ground cloves this time as I would have to grind the cloves, something I was loathe to do just for the sake of adding 1/4 tsp of ground cloves. When I have the time, I shall get round of griding the entire bottle of cloves so that I can use it in my baking in the future.

What I like about the spiced ginger bread is that the ginger flavour is not overpowering although you can smell and taste the ginger. Asians tend to like strong ginger flavours in their food and as such, when I bake ginger cookies, the feedback from the older folk is that I should have added more ground ginger while the feedback from the younger folk is that the amount of ground ginger is just nice.

I added 1 tsp ground ginger when I baked the spiced ginger bread. If you prefer a strong flavour of ginger, you may want to add more ground ginger.

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk
3 tbsp molasses
1 egg 2 tbsp butter
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast

Method

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour and the yeast) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the dough cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough about 5 times.

6. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.

7. Cover the loaf pan with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 35 minutes.

post-script

I have today crossed the one-month mark in this recipe blog! This is awesome! I thank the Lord for continually putting desires in me to cook this, bake that, create new recipes and the like so that I can share with others what the Lord has blessed my hands to make.

I hope that you have found this blog interesting and the little tips useful. Cooking/baking is all about trial and error and about enjoying the ingredients that are placed in your hands. I pray that you will continue to have the love for creating dishes that speak volumes to others without you having to say a word. Be blessed always.