Looking at the recipe, Chocolate Gingerbread didn’t strike me, which is a little puzzling because I love the individual components. It’s a recipe I have  flipped right past for no good reason, but thanks to my Tuesdays with Dorie weekly baking group I am once again challenged to evaluate a baseless presumption, in this case, that chocolate and gingerbread are anything less than a perfect match. Maybe it’s that gingerbread is so darn good it seems pointless to muddle it up with chocolate.  The reality is there is no muddling going on with this gingerbread. It is rich, moist, and not overly sweet and delivers a bold gingerbread flavor that is beautifully complemented by chocolate.

photo by David Peterman

I really love the texture of this cake. It is dense, but not heavy, and really moist. In addition to the chocolate frosting, there are chocolate pieces mixed throughout the cake that add a lovely gooey factor to the texture. The only change I made to the recipe is I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I think most desserts are improved by a touch of salt and with all the spices in this cake, I was really surprised it didn’t call for salt, so I tossed in a bit for good measure. The frosting is good, but a nice dollop of whipped cream in its place would be equally good.

I bought a huge piece of gorgeous fresh ginger when shopping for this recipe and after mincing up the 2 tablespoons I needed for the gingerbread; I had plenty left to play with. I made a big batch of Spiced Crystallized Ginger by adding a vanilla bean, cardamom, and cinnamon to the process. It was a successful experiment that will probably become my standard. Click here for the recipe along with my tip on the best way to peel such an oddly shaped item as ginger.

photo by David Peterman

Continuing my ginger binge, I made ginger-flavored seltzer water. (That is actually a piece of crystallized ginger on the glass, not a shrimp.) Get ready for the recipe: place a couple of hunks of fresh ginger in seltzer water and let it infuse for 24 hours in the refrigerator. It’s that easy and it makes a lovely beverage.

Over the summer we bought a Soda Club machine to make our own seltzer and I have been experimenting with all kinds of interesting flavors. The best thing is you don’t need to make your own seltzer to play with the infusions. I will post some of the successful combinations I have come up with separately at some point, but for now give the ginger a try. I like to skewer the ginger so I can remove it easily once the flavor is strong enough.

If you are now craving chocolate gingerbread, you can visit Heather, who selected this week’s recipe, at Sherry Trifle where she has it posted. Even better, pick up a copy of Dorie Greenspans’s Baking: From My Home to Yours and you will have this recipe along with whole book of great things to bake.