Rich Ginger, Apple & Raisin Tea Bread

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Rich Ginger, Apple & Raisin Tea Bread

Teatime!

Ginger, Apple & Raisin Bread, Frontal View

Especially for the serious ginger addicts (myself included) amongst us. Soft, rich and moist with a deep, aromatic ginger punch slightly mellowed with intensely sweet raisins.

Ginger is quite similar to owning a cat: she doesn’t really need you. You need her. Basically, she’s a steel fist in a velvet glove... The serious ginger fans will understand.

Allow the bread to age one day (if able to maintain steely self control) to fully develop the flavours. Paradoxically, the loaf doesn’t age (nor freeze) well and needs to be consumed within 48 hours. Toast any leftovers in a flatbed toaster on day three and serve drenched with thick vanilla custard & maraschino cherry on top for a pleasant surprise.

RICH GINGER, APPLE & RAISIN TEA BREAD

– PRINT RECIPE –

Recipe yields:

± 10 Slices

Preparation time:

± 30 minutes

Baking time:

60 min

Difficulty level:

Easy

Ginger, Apple & Raisin Bread Ingredients

Special Equipment Required:

1 x Loaf pan, ± 1.4L capacity (22cm long x 11cm wide x 6cm high)

1 x Electrical hand mixer

Ingredients:

Butter or full fat margarine	100g
Caster sugar	100g
Blackstrap molasses	50g
Golden syrup	50g

Extra large eggs, beaten together	3

Pitted raisins	100g
Fresh ginger, peeled & finely grated	30g
Granny Smith apple, cored, peeled & grated	1

Bread flour / high gluten flour	300g
Baking powder	10ml
Ground, dried ginger	30ml
Ground cinnamon	5ml
Salt	5ml
Ground cloves	1.2ml
Fine black pepper	1.2ml

Full cream milk	100ml

Whole blanched almonds, halved lengthwise	6

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves and black pepper together once. Set aside until needed.

2. Combine the fat, caster sugar, syrup and molasses and beat with the hand mixer until creamy and thoroughly combined. The mixture will not become light and fluffy.

3. Beat the egg liquid – by adding small portions – into the fat, sugar, syrup & molasses mixture. It will appear grainy when all the egg is incorporated. This is in order.

4. Add the raisins, fresh ginger and grated apple to the above mixture. Mix well.

5. Add the flour mixture and milk in two batches to the above mixture. Mix well with a rubber spatula between flour and milk additions. Be careful not to over mix the batter or the loaf will be dense and contain multiple gas pockets.

6. Scrape the batter into the well greased pan and level it with an offset spatula. Draw a deep, lengthwise furrow into the batter to ensure even rising in the oven and prevent excessive surface cracking in the baked loaf. Evenly arrange the halved almonds along the length of the furrow.

7. Bake 60 minutes at 165°C (330° Fahrenheit) in a preheated convection oven or 70 – 75 minutes at 180°C (355° Fahrenheit) in a normal, static oven. The bread will be ready when it starts to pull away from the sides of the pan or a bamboo skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

8. Cool the bread 30 minutes in the pan. Use a small, thin bladed utility knife to loosen the bread from the sides of the pan. Carefully turn out and allow to cool to room temperature.

Baked Ginger, Apple & Raisin Bread in Pan Comments:

¨ Use a large aperture, micro plane grater to grate the peeled ginger – normal box graters are not sharp enough to efficiently grate fibrous ginger. Be careful as these micro plane graters will easily remove skin from the finger tips or palms.

¨ The molasses adds a dash of robust, caramel-ly bitterness to offset the pungency of fresh ginger. Fine black pepper and ground cloves support and extend the flavour of dried, ground ginger – which tends to be a spot one dimensional.

Blackstrap Molasses:

This is a by product of sugar cane refining and has quite varied uses; which include sweetening and flavouring of baked goods and sauces, the production of various brown sugars, beer brewing, the manufacture and distillation of rum and as an animal feed additive.

Blackstrap molasses is the result of the third boiling of sugar cane syrup in the manufacture of white sugar. Surprisingly it sometimes contains very little sugar, but may be rich in vitamin B₆, calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. Thus it is frequently sold as a dietary supplement as well.