Orange Gingerbread and Bourbon Custard

This recipe is actually from the winter section of the Beekman cookbook, but the gingerbread is used in another recipe from the fall section. I figured it would be easier to kill two birds with one stone and make enough gingerbread for both desert and the recipe. So, I'll be showing you desert long before dinner, which was everyone's wish as a child.

I did find the recipe on the internet here.

Ingredients:


Gingerbread

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1 cup orange juice

        *You do this by spooning the flour into a measuring cup and then leveling it off with the back of a knife.

       

Custard

• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar 
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon bourbon

Directions:

Gingerbread:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9-inch square baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, mustard powder, cloves, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together your orange juice, zest, molasses, and egg. 

4. Combine the two into a far less icky looking blend that looks like it'll actually turn into gingerbread. 

5. Pour the batter in the baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (When I baked it, I actually had to leave the cake in for longer since it was still sticky in the center. It took an extra 5-7 minutes until a toothpick came out clean.)

6. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn the cake out onto a rack to cool completely. (Either I turned my cake too early, or my cake was not meant to be flipped. Eventually, when I did flip it, it came out in two parts. This worked in my favor since the other recipe I needed it for needed crumbled gingerbread.)

Custard:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until well combined. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk over medium-low. Be careful to stir it while it heats to avoid the formation of skin on top .Whisk about half the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture; then whisk the yolk mixture into the milk in the saucepan. Cook, whisking constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. This should take 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the bourbon. (We used a maple whiskey.) Cool to room temperature, and then chill until ready to serve.

Drizzle that goodness on your gingerbread and enjoy.

Variations

• For a dairy-free cake, swap in a total of 8 tablespoons oil such as walnut, coconut, etc in place of the butter. You could do a combination of two nut oils, or perhaps some olive oil. The book suggests 3 tablespoons walnut oil and 5 tablespoons vegetable oil, but I don’t recommend using vegetable oil – best to avoid those trans fats.

• Make buttermilk gingerbread by swapping in buttermilk for the orange juice.

HAVE SOME ACTION SHOTS OF FURIOUS WHISKING: