Nigella's Sticky Gingerbread

With the start of December, it's now officially the Christmas season...so bring on the Christmas baking! I'm so excited to have finally made this Sticky Gingerbread...I've only been waiting a year! I just couldn't resist the little deer and the spruce trees...the perfect festive touch.



This is also a recipe from Nigella's Christmas book, so it's ideal to get the ball rolling for this month's Forever Nigella which I'm thrilled to be hosting.

This gingerbread is full of gorgeous flavours including fresh and ground ginger, cinnamon, ground gloves, black treacle and golden syrup. Not only does it taste delicious but it will also fill your house with the wonderful aroma of Christmas.

This is a really easy recipe, all you need to do is melt all the ingredients listed above in a saucepan, along with some dark muscovado sugar and some butter. Once it's all melted together, milk, eggs and some bicarb of soda dissolved in warm water is added and the whole thing bubbles up a little. This mixture is then poured into a bowl containing flour which all gets mixed together...et voila!

It's a very runny batter but that just adds to the lovely sticky nature of this bake. It's soft and light when baked and all the spices come through a treat! Nigella also suggests a frosting of 175g icing sugar, a tablespoon of lemon juice and one of warm water if you're going to make this for a bake sale or some such thing...although she prefers the simplicity of the un-iced version.

If you're making any festive Nigella recipes this month then do enter them into Forever Nigella #21. As mentioned I'm hosting this month but the home of Forever Nigella is at Maison Cupcake. We'd love to see your creations both sweet and savoury!

Ingredients

250g butter
200g golden syrup
200g black treacle
125g dark muscovado
2 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp bicarb of soda, dissolved in 30 mls warm water (2 tbsp of water)
250ml full fat milk
2 eggs, beaten
300g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas 3 and prepare a 20 x 30cm baking tray by lining it with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a large bowl ready for later.

Next melt the following in a medium sized saucepan: butter, sugar, golden syrup, black treacle, cinnamon, cloves and the fresh and ground ginger. When this mixture has melted take it off the heat and add the milk, bicarb of soda with water and the beaten eggs.

These wet ingredients can then be poured on to the flour and the whole mixture should then be beaten until well combined. I ended up with quite a few pockets of flour which I had to beat out. The mixture will be extremely runny but don't fear this is how it is supposed to be. Pour it into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes. Mine only took 45 minutes, you don't want to overbake otherwise the gingerbread may lose it's stickiness.

When ready, remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack to cool. This recipe will cut into about 20 squares and will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight tin. You can also freeze it for  up to 3 months should you so wish.

* Adapted from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson