cherry-iced gingerbread
For me, autumn conjures up imaginations of all things nice…including sweetness, and, more importantly, spice. Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves…along with molasses, rapadura, demerara, sucanat, and everything else that falls into the category of warm, sweet, pungent, and spicy.
Enter gingerbread.
Nourishing Traditions is my favorite cookbook of all times. It holds a wealth of information on natural foods, health, and the human body. In fact, it’s the information contained in this book (along with others) that caused me to question whether an entirely vegan/vegetarian diet is really the healthiest way to eat. This cookbook holds tons of excerpts and findings from research done on myriad people groups. It points to the healthfulness of a variety of foods, all with one thing in common. They are whole, unprocessed, and as close as possible to their natural, unadulterated state. It’s a very interesting read, even if you never make a recipe from it. However, there is more of an emphasis on meat than I personally like. But it’s well worth the read anyway.
I’ve made several of the recipes since David gave Nourishing Traditions to me (it pays to drop hints for what you want!) but this is my first try at the gingerbread recipe. Actually, I thought it was a gingerbread cookie recipe when I started throwing ingredients together (that’s why you should read the recipe through to the end before you begin!) but I was mildly pleased along with being expectedly disappointed (does anybody get that?) when I ended up pouring the batter instead of rolling it out. I guess I just can’t help loving a surprise, in any form.
One of the main differences in NT cooking is that grains (including flours) are soaked in an acidic substance (water with whey, buttermilk, lemon, or vinegar) to break down the grain’s phytic acid so that our bodies can absorb the nutrients. It also makes the grain much easier to digest. As far as I know, brown rice is one of the only grains that is fully absorbable without soaking.
I usually use lemon or vinegar, unless I can get raw milk, culture it, and use the whey. I really don’t use dairy products at all unless they are raw, and preferably cultured. I really think there is a huge difference between dairy being raw or being pasteurized. That being said, I can’t seem to find a good source of raw milk in Colorado, so for now, it’s back to milking almonds and pumpkin seeds. 🙂
Anyway, the gingerbread turned out great. Next time I will probably make muffins from the recipe. I don’t have the rectangular cake pan called for, and the deep round pan I used caused the outside edges to dry a little by the time the center was done, as I had to bake it much longer. I frosted it with homemade cherry-flavored arrowroot/agave icing.
Delish…especially with a little creamy almond milk poured over it.
By the way, Nourishing Traditions is in my booklist on the right-hand side of my blog….and if you order any of my recommended books by clicking on the link, I do get a small kickback.
