Gingerbread Loaf
Tastes of Lizzy T participates in affiliate advertising programs. We may earn a commission when you make a purchase through links on our site.
Soft, moist, molasses quick bread is perfectly seasoned with ginger and nutmeg. Gingerbread Loaf gives that classic holiday flavor that you love!
Gingerbread Loaf Recipe
I know what you’re thinking……it’s kind of early to post a Christmas recipe. We love sharing Christmas recipes, but usually we wait a little bit longer before we completely dive into those comforting Christmas treats. But trust me, we have a good reason to share this Gingerbread Loaf with you today.
I’ll tell you why.
It took us a full year to finally perfect this recipe. We put a lot of time and ingredients into making this the perfect gingerbread loaf of bread. Both of us, at times, felt like we needed to just give up on this bread. Like when it’s your fifth loaf of the day, you’ve trashed three already, and as you take the bread out of the oven, the unstable middle sinks right down to make a little dip in your bread. Bye bye, perfect gingerbread loaf. But we both also felt like we couldn’t part with the idea of an actual soft, sliceable “gingerbread”. It was too delicious of an idea to give up on.
After ditching recipe after recipe, we dug through all of our old cookbooks to seek out the perfect (or almost perfect, anyway) quick bread loaf to revise into our own Christmas-y version. I couldn’t ever describe how happy I was when mom looked through the oven door and announced, “This looks pretty good!” We had the best gingerbread recipe we could possibly get. And we did it for all of you. 🙂 You are so welcome.
This gingerbread loaf is probably going to be one of my favorite holiday breads, just because of all its familiar spices and it smelling just like gingerbread cookies that I love so much. Since I have braces, I won’t be able to eat real gingerbread cookies because they’re just a little too crispy. But I’m okay with that because this is just as good! There is nothing better on a cold winter morning than a warm buttered piece of gingerbread loaf and a hot drink. Like a warm, smooth, spiced cranberry cider…
Soft Gingerbread Quick Bread
We’ve posted many quick bread recipes before, but I’m going to remind you again like my mom always reminds me, you should not overmix the batter. I like to use a rubber spatula to scrape and fold the batter together over and over. Then, as soon as it’s blended all the way, you stop mixing immediately. Trust me, the more you make quick bread, the easier it is to remember and the more natural it becomes. I love mixing ingredients together so I was kind of frustrated I couldn’t overmix, but now I don’t really care. If you’re afraid of getting flour chunks in your bread, you can always sift the flour before adding it in. It really works and gets your flour incorporated well.
Enjoy this recipe a lot, and be thankful that you weren’t the one trying to perfect this recipe over the past year!
Gingerbread Loaf
Soft, moist, molasses quick bread is perfectly seasoned with ginger and nutmeg. Gingerbread Loaf gives that classic holiday flavor that you love!
Servings 10 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 240 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk*
- powdered sugar for dusting the top if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a mixing bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until well combined. Add the molasses and vanilla. Mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.
- Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk, stirring just until blended after each addition.
- Spoon the batter into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the pan and cool.
Video
Notes
*In place of buttermilk, you place one tablespoon of vinegar in the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup. Fill the rest of the cup with milk. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes before using.
Nutrition
Calories: 264kcal
Absolutely delicious recipe! I up the spices a bit and add some cinnamon, clove and allspice as well! Was thinking of using this as a base for like a fruit cake, do you think it can handle the addition of a lot of dried fruits?
I wrapped the loaf tightly and waited patiently for 3 days before tasting. How delicious! I did make a few additions: ground pepper and cardamom. Do you have a “shelf life”/time limit for keeping, as I’m thinking they will make great Christmas gifts .
Seriously delicious flavor. Very moist and not very sweet which is to our liking. Only problem was that I made two smaller loaves and they both sunk a lot in the middle even though the texture of the crumb was uniform throughout. It tasted so good I tried it again and had the same result.
Taste was great but mine was doughy throughout the middle. Could be my oven wasn’t hot enough somehow. I double checked the recipe thinking maybe I had added an extra egg or something. I only baked for 45 minutes but am trying again baking for 55 and adding a little extra flour. The dough seemed a little more liquid than I expected. I’m out of nutmeg so I used a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. ground cloves instead and I thought it was the right amount of spice and sweet.
I made two doubled batches in tiny loaf pans. The first batch seemed bland, so thought I possibly forgot to double the ginger when putting it together. Made a second batch, doubling the recipe, and it was also somewhat bland. Not a strong gingerbread taste. Very mild. I would also add cloves a cinnamon if I were to make it again. Easy recipe though. Wonderful texture, too.
After reading through the comments it looks like the posted recipe has been tweaked a little. The version I’m seeing now has 1/2 cup brown sugar. If I want my bread to be in sweeter side should I add more sugar? And did you use light brien sugar or dark brown?
Made this and it was really moist! It was a hit! I used fancy molasses and you really taste it so next time I might use a better quality one or try blackstrap.
Is that light or dark brown sugar???!
Hmmmkay, so I followed this to the letter and, it is still in the oven 40 mins and is LIQUID still, and has overflowed like crazy!
Looks like I missed where it says to add the butter milk, I added it in after the eggs…? Hope it turns out!
Made this tonight- excellent. It did take a full sixteen minutes longer , partially because I only had a longer and shorter pan so used the shorter one.
Very moist and very molasses- forward. Which I love, but if you don’t like soft molasses cookies, you will not like this. Look for a recipe without molasses and just heavy on spice for a lighter cake. I love the moist crumb! But can’t decide whether to ice the top, or not. I don’t want it to compete with the flavour.
Love this recipe! Made them as mini loaves for gifts for friends. They raved on how the flavor and texture was on point. This recipe is a keeper!
So this recipe batter tasted delicious. I subbed a little fresh ginger into it as well, which is a nice touch. The two problems I had were 1) the prep time is longer than written, but that’s not really any big deal. The second issue is I used the pan size called for and about 25 mins into baking, I started smelling burn. When I opened to inspect, there was a huge mound of batter on the floor of my oven and dripping down the loaf pan. This recipe is waaaaaay to big for the pan size it instructs you… Read more »
This was wonderful, even though I did not add any brown sugar, and used freshly ground spelt flour (added an additional cup of spelt flour). Love all the spices.
I just made this tonight. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfect. (It didn’t want to leave the pan though. My fault, I’m pretty sure.)
I used to make the gingerbread where you add the hot water. It’s been so long ago that don’t remember the difference. The difference between regular gingerbread and this quick bread? I have no idea, but I like this one and will make it again and again. Thank you for this recipe.