Gingered Applesauce Cake with Dark Chocolate

 

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After reading about Molly’s Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger in A Homemade Life, I knew I needed to try it.

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I love banana bread.

I love crystallized ginger.

And I love chocolate. Especially dark chocolate, which I was planning on using in this recipe whether it called for it or not.

But while I was getting all my ingredients ready, I decided I didn’t want to use my bananas.

I honestly wanted to save them for a few more bowls of oatmeal this week and couldn’t bear the thought of being banana-less the next morning.

 

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Now, I love a good banana bread. But my favorites are always the classic recipe – bananas and maybe walnuts.

I guess when it comes to banana bread, I want simple. I want it to taste like the best banana ever, but that’s it.

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Since I had all the other ingredients out and I still wanted to try the chocolate and ginger combination in bread, I just made my own changes, crossed my fingers, and popped it in the oven.

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I’m proud to say that this is one of the best loaves of quick bread I’ve ever made.

 

Gingered Applesauce Cake with Dark Chocolate (inspired by Molly Wizenberg’s Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger)

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks
  • 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (Musselman’s Original is great!)
  • 1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt (I used Oikos)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Melt the butter and then set aside to cool.
  3. In large bowl, mix the flours, sugar, baking soda, and salt together.
  4. Add in the chocolate and ginger and stir to mix.
  5. In separate bowl, beat the 2 eggs.
  6. Add the applesauce, yogurt, and melted butter to the eggs and mix until combined.
  7. Pour the butter mixture into the dry and mix until just combined (don’t overmix!)
  8. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
  9. Bake bread for 50 minutes – 1 hour or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
  10. Let cool for 5-10 minutes…if you can :)

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Nick and I had trouble waiting for this to completely cool, and I’m glad we dug in when we did.

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Each slice was still warm, the dark chocolate oozing alongside the softly melted chunks of ginger in every bite.

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If you’ve never had ginger, this is a great way to get to know it.

The ginger flavor is definitely there, but the “bite” that ginger normally has is subdued in the bread and melds perfectly with the richness of the dark chocolate and hint of sweetness from the applesauce.

If you do try this…just don’t say I didn’t warn you ;)

It’s pretty irresistible.

 

30 comments

  1. That sounds amazing!

    I hear on your on the banana bread. Maybe a couple dark choc. chips, but nothing else extra. Takes away from the real banana bread taste!

  2. Bookmarking! This sounds soooo good

  3. Sounds delicious. I agree that banana bread has to be the classic made from my grandmas recipe in her handwriting that we had laminated so it wouldn’t disintegrate.

  4. Oh yum! I bet you didn’t miss those bananas at all. The bread looks fabulous. I need to start making more quick breads.

  5. yum. i’ve never made any type of bread from scratch before, i’m pretty much a box girl but this doesn’t seem too hard :)

  6. Oh my gosh this looks amazing! I adore dark chocolate and ginger but never thought of adding them both into banana bread – I bet the flavor is just so delicious. Thanks for sharing!!

  7. Oh wow! that banana bread looks out of this world. Yum! Chocolate chip banana bread is one of my all time favs. Love it. Thanks for the awesome recipe. I hope you are having a great day!

  8. You are the bread queen lately! All of your concoctions look great! :-)

  9. That looks SO good, I love ginger and chocolate in all forms :-)

  10. Chocolate in bread.. sounds good. I should make this for my husband… and bookmaked.

  11. this sounds amazing! i’m amazed at how you always find time to make such great meals and baked goods – love the changes you made to the recipe too!

  12. That sounds SO good. I’ve never had crystallized ginger, but it sounds like it’d be really good in warm bread! I love bread right out of the oven- I can never wait for it to cool :)

  13. oh WOW brandi you are quite the amazing baker these days. this looks awesome. national banana bread day is this month!!

  14. I just stumbled upon your blog and I have to declare that you are a genius! These last few posts have such delicious things on them! I want to be you friend just that I can eat them, too! That three course breakfast is definately something I would eat and this bread looks DELICIOUS! Awesome blog.

  15. That looks so good! Its a great way to get a ginger taste not just at Christmas time and I am loving that idea!

  16. Oh my goodness Brandi, this bread sounds sensational!!! You are quite the bread maker! :) First, the sourdough, now this. I bet your house smells wonderful ALL THE TImE!!! :)

  17. Yummie, ginger and apple sauce…what a great combination…the cake looks very moist and tasty…nice pictures :-)

  18. m’mm m’mm m’mmm.. you know I love me some Ginger ;)

  19. Oh my goodness. You had me at dark chocolate.

  20. SO GOOD!! I made mine this afternoon and kind of went back to the original (bananas versus applesauce just because its what i had on hand.)

    I am so impressed. I love that this is a classic recipe with a twist. This is my first time baking with ginger chunks and I loved the depth it added.

    nom nom nom!

    Thanks for posting this great and UNIQUE recipe!!!

  21. Wow; this bread looks delicious…my mouth is watering…so yummy! Have a great night!

  22. this looks AMAZING! what kind of camera do you have again?

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  28. This looks EXQUISITE!!…I found this wonder during my quick-bread browsing for Fall…and am equally enamored of crystallized ginger as yourself!! ..I am wondering if I could use a high quality WHITE chocolate here (as in Valrhona Ivoire or Caillebaut) as my husband is not too fond of dark chocolate/apple combinations…I want to honor the integrity of your obvious SUCCESS in this recipe…do you think it could work?…Or should I use a toffee type chip? Thank you for any enlightenment!

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