Blog-checking lines: For the month of December, Andrea from 4pure took us on a trip to the Netherlands. She challenged us to take our taste buds on a joyride through the land of sugar and spice by baking three different types of Dutch sweet bread Gingerbread.
Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Gingerbread ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X
When I was at school, we were taught in our mother tongue language (English for me) up until Grade III and then we were taught the second official language, Afrikaans. Now, we are a rainbow nation and have 11 official languages. Schooling still begins with the mother tongue language, and then extended so that 3 of the official languages will be covered. English and Afrikaans are still the primary languages and in the Western Cape, Xhosa is the 3rd mother tongue language that is taught. For a lot of my school friends, Afrikaans was not their second language. I grew up in Little Italy, and most of my friends spoke Italian. My grandparents spoke German and I learned to speak Hebrew before I learnt to speak Afrikaans. So by now, you are all wondering why I am telling you this? Well, this month for the Daring Bakers’ we had to make peperkoek. In Dutch, that translates to gingerbread. Afrikaans has some of its roots in Dutch and I even studied Nederlands at university when I started doing a law degree. I just wrote down on a piece of paper peperkoek and did not think more about it until this weekend. Now, peper in Afrikaans is pepper and I was wondering in the literal translation why on earth we had to make a pepper cake. As Afrikaans is not my first language, I am sometimes known to make funny translations. Thankfully for Google I did not attempt to make up a recipe using pepper as the spice. I have never made gingerbread before and was quite worried when I saw how thin the batter was once poured into the tin and how long the baking time was. I confess to opening the oven twice before the time was up to make sure the gingerbread was not burning. It came out of the oven having risen slightly, and it is so full of ginger. I am going to make this again as it is an easy recipe to follow and I am sure I can change the spices to suit my mood. And no, I won’t be trying pepper 🙂
Gingerbread
Ingredients
- 100 g butter
- 200 g honey
- 150 mls milk
- 200 g flour, sifted
- 5 mls mixed spice
- 10 mls ground ginger
- 5 mls bicarbonate of soda
- 50 g fructose
- 2 eggs
Method
- Place the butter and the honey into a sauce pan
- Place onto the stove on a low temperature
- Leave until the butter has melted
- Add the milk and set aside to cool completely
- Preheat the oven to 150° Celsius
- Place the flour, speices and bicarbonate of soda into a stand mixer bowl
- Add the honey mixture, fructose and eggs
- Beat on a slow speed until combined
- Pour into a lined square tin
- Bake for 75 minutes
- Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
I am on leave until the 8th of January. I will start replying to blog comments then.
What I blogged:
- four years ago – A Foodie Quiz Thingy
On Facebook we have all become nostalgic for our very first Daring Baker challenges back in the day. It is still going strong and the sweets are just as delicious as always.
Bellini, thanks so much for the visit and the comment. Somehow this ended up in my spam folder, and I am so glad that today of all days I did not just empty it, but actually looked at it!
Ha! I have actually seen black pepper used in gingerbread…but i think I prefer your version without it!
I might just give it a try!
Hi Tandy, love the spices that you used in this beautiful looking gingerbread. Wondering how many languages you speak? Happy New Years to you and Dave!
I am not fluent in all the languages I ‘speak’ but if I tried and practised it would be 6 🙂
Nothing quite like a good gingerbread – Tandy – this one looks wonderful – I can almost smell it cooking.
Thanks Rachel 🙂
This looks really delicious, Tandy. I love gingerbread. It’s very strange that it’s called pepper cake. 🙂
I thought it strange as well!
I can’t believe you got the gingerbread to look so darn moist. And I’ve never liked gingerbread but I will have to try this out :).
It was perfectly moist Kay 🙂
I really enjoyed this month’s challenge because it was so simple which I really needed after Christmas! Great job Tandy 😀
Thanks Lorraine, it was perfectly simple indeed!
That ginger bread is a must for the new year. Thanks!
my pleasure, and thanks for the visit Tom 🙂
Gingerbread is one of my favorite holiday treats and flavors. Happy New Year!
And a happy new year to you as well Amy 🙂
I am Belgian & Flamish! we speak Dutch And peperkoek is not exactly the same as gingerbread. in gingerbread they use ginger & in most peperkoeken not at all, not in the Belgian ones!
Thanks Sophie! I was talking about the literal translation of the words 🙂
I meant Flemish! X
It has always been a source of fascination for me, the words of Afrikaans I have heard since I discovered the community of SA bloggers. There is such poetry in it. And the recipe looks, as always , lovely. Tandy, amy you and yours have a fabulous 2015, from all of us at the Shrewsday household in the UK xxx
Thank you so much for the message Kate! I wish you all the best for 2015 🙂
Oh now, this sounds lovely! Happy new year, dear friend xo
And a very happy New Year to you too Liz xox