Moist, aromatic, and savory Gingerbread with Blood-Orange Sauce appeals to your sense of touch, smell and taste. If you're used to traditional cakes made with eggs and milk, this vegan creation will surprise you and have family and guests asking for seconds.
Myra Kornfeld and George Minot wrote The Voluptuous Vegan (Random House 2000), a collection of two-hundred recipes for meat-free, dairy-free and egg-free soups, entrees and desserts. Whether your food choices are restricted because of allergies or you made a conscious choice to not eat any animal products or byproducts, you'll find the recipes in this cookbook to be just what you need.
For those who have no such restrictions and normally partake of meat, egg and dairy products, give this dessert recipe a try. You'll be pleasantly surprised and ready to give the world of healthy vegan eating further consideration.
GINGERBREAD WITH BLOOD-ORANGE SAUCE
Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2-teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2-teaspoon ground cloves
1/4-teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2-cup canola oil
1 cup pure maple syrup
1/2-cup molasses
1 cup original flavored soy milk (Note: this means "plain" flavored)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Blood-Orange Sauce (recipe follows)
Chopped orange segments, for garnish
1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit. Oil a 9-inch springform pan or a cake pan. Line it with a parchment circle. Or, oil and line ten 3-inch individual cake molds.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Whisk to combine.
3. In another medium bowl, combine the oil, maple syrup, molasses, soy milk, vinegar and vanilla. Whisk vigorously until ingredients are totally mixed. You can do this with a blender.
4. Pour liquid ingredients into dry, whisking together just until all liquid ingredients are absorbed. Batter will be quite wet.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and place on middle rack of oven. Bake about 55 minutes, or until cake is springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If using individual cake molds, put them on a baking sheet. These baby cakes take less time to cook, so start checking after 35 minutes.
Serve the cake warm or cool atop a pool of the blood-orange sauce. Sprinkle chopped orange pieces around the place.
BLOOD-ORANGE SAUCE
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons orange juice, preferably from blood oranges which are more intensely flavored than regular juice oranges
1 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, unpeeled and cut into 3 slices
2 tablespoons maple sugar, date sugar or Sucanet
1 heaping tablespoon arrowroot or 1 tablespoon kudzu
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons ginger juice (To make 2 tablespoons of ginger juice, grate a 2-inch piece of ginger, skin included. Squeeze the juice out with your hands over a small bowl, or place ginger in cheesecloth and squeeze through the cheesecloth.)
1. In small saucepan, heat 1-1/2 cups of the juice to a boil with the ginger and sugar.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve arrowroot in remaining 2 tablespoons of orange juice to make a slurry.
3. When the juice reaches a boil, stir in the slurry. (Give the slurry a stir at the last minute right before adding, to dislodge any arrowroot that might have settled at the bottom of the bowl.) Stir continuously, lifting your spoon to look every so often for the first bubbles to appear. The liquid will have lightly thickened.
4. Immediately turn off the heat when the first bubbles appear and stir in the orange zest and ginger juice. Remove ginger slices.