Ravings of a Textual Deviant

Thus far this weekend, we’ve had a wide variety of unpleasant precipitation, so I decided it’d be a good time to get some baking done. And wow, have I ever. So far, the count is:

1 “Madeira” cake (actuallly Nigella Lawson’s Madeira cake recipe from How To Be a Domestic Goddess, which I only just acquired, so I haven’t had much of a test-drive yet.) The cake doesn’t actually have Madeira in it BTW; and I added 1/4 tsp lemon extract to the recipe and sprinkled 1T rather than 2 of sugar atop it before baking, but it is otherwise unchanged. It’s wrapped, labelled, and in the deep freeze right now, so no reviews yet, other than it smells luscious.

1 country apple cake (Morning Bakes, one of my favorite baking books), half-eaten already as of last night, as Housemate strongly approved of it. I didn’t make any alterations to the recipe…but if I were going to, I’d use more apple slices between the cake base and the topping. Still, all in all, it’s delicious.

1 pear gingerbread cake (also from Morning Bakes), which is the only reason that we have any apple cake left. I took it to our bimonthly D&D game and served it with butter pecan ice cream. I think I probably should’ve baked it 10 minutes longer than the hour it was in, as it had some structural integrity problems. Still, quite delicious, even if it did make about 15% more than necessary to fill my loaf pan. (I ended up having to clean the oven after making it, which in itself resulted in quite a lot of smoke.) Note that if you attempt the recipe, the batter is very, very liquid when it goes into the pan. I think that next time I do this, I’ll probably acquire a mini-loaf pan and split it up, in order to reduce both baking time and mess.

1 batch orange marmalade muffins (Morning Bakes), in the deep freeze, awaiting next weekend’s houseguests.

1 loaf Irish breakfast bread (Morning Bakes), less some of the sesame seeds because I ran out. Likewise in the deep freeze, awaiting next weekend’s houseguests.

For tomorrow, I am planning a batch of peach and oat muffins, a batch of apple buttermilk scones (both from Morning Bakes; did I mention how much use I’m getting from this book?), and a batch of chocolate-chip cookies, because Housemate is so very fond of them. Maybe even a double batch…

Anyway, as promised, the Pear Gingerbread recipe, from Morning Bakes, more or less. I didn’t have corn syrup or apple pie spice, so I used 5/8 C turbinado sugar dissolved in 1/6 C water and boiled to make syrup; and 1/4 tsp. each of nutmeg, mace, cloves, and cinnamon, respectively. It’s a bit more work than your average quick bread, but worth it.

1 firm pear (I used a red Bartlett)
1 2/3 C self-rising flour (I don’t actually buy self-rising flour; for 1 C self-rising, I use 1 C AP flour, plus 1/4 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt, per Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference; this book, in combination with How to Repair Food, are priceless, I assure you. )
1 tsp baking soda
1 T ground ginger (my tablespoon measure doesn’t fit in the ginger container, and if yours doesn’t either, 3 tsp. is the equivalent amount)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp apple pie spice (I combined 1/4 tsp each ground cloves, ground mace, ground cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg)
1/8 tsp (more or less) ground black pepper
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and diced
1/2 C molasses (grease the measuring cup with butter beforehand for more accuate measurement and easier removal)
1/2 C light corn syrup (personally, I’m suspicious of corn syrup, so I substituted the homemade turbinado sugar syrup)
2/3 C dark brown sugar (I just used the brown sugar that I had. I don’t usually buy separate “dark” and “light” brown sugars. Only so much space in the pantry, y’know.)
1 1/4 C milk
1 large egg, beaten

Grease a 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 loaf pan very well. Line with waxed paper or parchment paper, if you have it handy. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F, or 175 degrees C, depending on where you’re from. While you’re at it, lay down some extra foil on the oven rack, just in case of overflow.

Melt the molasses and corn syrup together over low heat, and cool to lukewarm. Dissolve the brown sugar in the milk over low heat, and likewise cool to lukewarm. While things are cooling, core and dice the pear into approximately 1/2-inch chunks. Sift flour, baking soda, and spices together, then stir to combine. Using either a food processor or a pastry cutter, add the butter and and combine until it forms fine crumbs.

Beat the milk mixture into the dry ingredients, quickly followed by the molasses/corn syrup mixture, then the egg. When the batter is smooth, pour it into the pan. Sprinkle pear chunks on top. They’ll sink into the gingerbread as it cooks.

Bake for 45-60 minutes (or longer, depending on your oven). When a skewer or toothpick comes out clean, it’s done. Let it cool in the pan. Note that because of the fresh fruit contained therein, it won’t freeze well.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 14th, 2007 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Tales from the Kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.