Peperkoek with Rum Glaze

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.

Andrea describes this festive bread as such:

"Peperkoek or Kruidkoek is a Dutch sweet quick bread made with warming spices. While we eat this bread for breakfast and lunch, we also have some at our tables for all meals... The recipes listed in the challenge use gingerbread spices. The gingerbread spice blend I use is the one common in the Netherlands."

For this challenge, I followed the recipe fairly close to the original, but rather than using ground ginger in the dry spice blend, I added a good amount of fresh grated ginger to the batter.  I also cut the wheat flour with some white flour and replaced some of the brown sugar with molasses.  And while I expected this sweet bread to be more of a cake, it turned out to be what I would consider the perfect gingerbread.  It is slightly dense and chewy, slightly sweet and entirely festive and warming on a cold Christmas morning.



For the rest of Andrea's Dutch bread recipes, see the original challenge PDF here!

Peperkoek

Servings: 12

Gingerbread Spice Blend  (makes 2 to 3 tablespoons)

• 3 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (I used black pepper, actually)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mace

Peperkoek:

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 tablespoons ground gingerbread spices
• 2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Rum Glaze (via Sprinklebakes):

2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
Drizzle of milk or cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a 10 inch bundt pan with baking spray.

Put the eggs, molasses, water, ginger, spices and brown sugar in a bowl. Whisk until everything is dissolved.

Add the flours and the baking powder into the bowl and mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon until the flour is wet. There may be some lumps left- do not over mix.

Pour into the baking tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Take the cake out of the oven, allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes

After the 5 minutes take the cake out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool down to room temperature.  

For the rum glaze, combine the powdered sugar and rum in a medium bowl. Add milk a few drops at a time while whisking. When the mixture is thick and drops from the whisk in a very thick ribbon back into the bowl, then the correct consistency has been achieved. If the glaze is thinned too much, add additional powdered sugar. Try to keep the glaze quite thick (I wish mine would have been a bit thicker).  Place the cake on a wire rack set on a sheet pan.  Pour the glaze over top of the cake, allowing it to run down the sides.

Let the cake stand uncovered until the sauce hardens.  Serve sliced into wedges.

Enjoy, and happy holidays to you and those you love!