This recipe just showed up today in my inbox in an email from Whole Foods so I haven’t tried it yet. The quantities seem a little fiddly to me – I am always scratching my head over a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of something plus 2 tablespoons – always figure I can skip the 2 tablespoons and usually it turns out fine. Anyway – I liked the idea of apples and gingerbread, so I’m going to give this a try. But probably with a little more apple and with regular whole wheat flour rather than the pastry flour called for.
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for greasing 3/4 cup slivered almonds, divided 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons lowfat buttermilk 1/3 cup unsulphured molasses 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 1 egg 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1 tablespoon ground ginger 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 Fuji or Gala apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch loaf pan with butter.
Put 1/4 cup almonds in bottom of pan and then rotate pan to distribute them around the bottom and sides (they’ll stick to the greased pan); set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, molasses, sugar, butter, vanilla and egg. In a second large bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda and remaining 1/2 cup almonds. Add apples and toss well. Stir flour mixture into molasses mixture and then spoon batter into pan. Bake until cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes and then invert onto a plate and serve warm or at room temperature.