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
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
Nutrition
These turned out great! I used 1 cup wheat flour and 1 cup white flour. I also added 1/2 tsp ground cloves, and next time I think I’ll add cinnamon, too. I baked them in 3 mini loaf pans (5.75 x 3 x 2) for a little over 30 minutes and they are perfect! Thanks for the great recipe.
Has anyone tried making these in canning jars? I want to try that for using as gifts and am wondering if anyone else had success.
I made mini loaves with this recipe and they turned out fantastic. The only thing I have to say is that I made the recipe exactly the first time but the second time I creamed the butter and sugar before adding the molasses and the other liquid ingredients. It turned out much better the second time around. Thanks so much for this recipe!!!
Thank you for the nice recipe.
Hi! I found your blog on the BlogHer facebook group. Looks great. I like how you gave extra tips on mixing the batter. I’ve been incorporation more cooking tips into my food blog as well. Shared and connected with you on social media.
I made this loaf last night and it was just delicious! Very light and fluffy, and had just enough spice. Thank you for the great recipe – I will definitely be making this perfect loaf again! =)
Going to fix this for Thanksgiving and serve it with Apple ice cream from a local creamery!
I’m guessing it will freeze just fine, but wondering if it would bake up OK in an 8×8 pan.?
Thx
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 .
Perfect for Autumn! I am sure it makes the whole house smell so good too! What a wonderful gift for friends, family and neighbors!
This is so festive! In my opinion it is never to early for Christmas recipes. Pinned 🙂
Never too early for Christmas recipes! I love a good gingerbread and this looks delicious! 🙂
Perfect!! My boyfriend and I are on a quick bread kick lately. I will give this a try!
This sounds like the perfect holiday breakfast treat!! Yum! I make a dark chocolate gluten free loaf on www.behindtheplates.com but will need to add this recipe to my list to try!
Looks amazing! Are you using ginger powder or fresh grated ginger?
I love ginger bread and will eat it at any time of the year! This looks so yummy!
Just writing it down makes me want to try a bite! This nice and easy bread will fill my Italian home of American memories……thanks!
Hiya,
Being in the UK I’m not very used to molasses- are you using dry or liquid molasses in this? Gingerbread is my Mum’s favourite and I would love to make this!
Love ginger anything! I make a cookie with tiny pieces of candied ginger in them. I’m going to make this today and try adding some to the bread as well. Nice chewy bits of ginger, best part of the cookie, hope it works in the bread too!
Thanks so much for this recipe. I made two batches today and they came out really well, I just have a quick question. At step 3 of the instructions I could not get the butter to blend in/go light and fluffy with the molasses, sugar and eggs. Is anyone else having this problem? Both times it had a curdled look. It doesn’t seem to have affected the final cakes as they were lovely, but since it happened twice I thought I’d run it past! Thanks
Thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂 Made the gingerbread this morning and it was beautiful.
Hi Lizzy,
Do you use All Purpose Flour, bread flour or another flour mixture? Just wanted to double check. I’m making a loaf for my dad’s birthday!
I tried this recipe and it turned out pretty good. As Tara in a previous comment noted though, the butter is not going to fully blend with the molasses mixture(step 3). It’s going to have a separated look- lots of little pieces. I thought I did something wrong because the instructions say to beat until mixed well, but apparently this is as mixed as it will get. Don’t expect a smooth consistency like a traditional cake batter where you cream the butter first. In fact, I used a stand mixer but next time I might just do it by hand.… Read more »
This is a great gingerbread recipe! I made it last night and it turned out perfect. The flavor is great and it’s moist. Mine was done in less time by about 15 minutes, but maybe my oven runs hot. I’ll make this again. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
I’am very glad to recibe our recipe, I like it very much.Thank You.
Hi there! Putting this together now and I’m going to assume that the buttermilk is to be added to the ‘wet’ ingredients although it doesn’t say so in the instructions above. Just thought that I’d point that out. 🙂 Thanks for doing all the experimenting for me.