I wrote about Dutch ginger biscuits yesterday which were made using Dutch gingerbread (of course!) and in the same Dutch cookery book from the Brabant province I found a recipe for that too. Dutch gingerbread is called peperkoek, which actually means pepper cake, but looking through the recipe I notice that there is neither pepper nor ginger among the ingredients, so maybe it means it’s more of a spice cake. It certainly is very delicious and we always bring some home with us when we go to visit!
Here is the recipe
Ginger/pepper/spice cake/bread
- butter and flour for preparing a loaf tin – grease the tin then sprinkle with flour
- 9 oz self-raising flour sieved with the following 4 ingredients
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon (I’m not keen on cinnamon so I’d defy tradition and have ½ tsp of it and 2 tsp of nutmeg!)
- 1½ tsp ground clove
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 4 oz brown castor sugar
- 4 oz honey
- 5 fl oz milk
- add the sugar, honey, and milk to the flour, salt and spices
- stir well to make a smooth mixture
- pour into the prepared loaf tin and cover with a sheet of buttered grease-proof paper
- 160º C, 325º F, gas mark 3 for 1¼h, taking off the grease-proof after 45 mins
- cool on a cooling rack then serve with coffee
Sounds so sticky and delicious! It might not be traditionally Dutch but I would be tempted to add chopped stem ginger!
Lois Elsden 