I am sitting on my balcony with a glass of cabernet and a cigarette, staring out over my garden and enjoying the cool spring evening right after the first good thunderstorm of the year. But what would make this night even more self-indulgently decadent is a slice of my absolutely wicked gingerbread.

I know gingerbread seems like a wintertime food, but this is not the dry, brittle gingerbread-man variety seen around the holidays. It is a lush, moist, poundcake-like creation that works as a hearty dessert or as a breakfast nosh to get you going in the morning. It is a modification of a recipe for Hot and Sassy Cakes from Todd English’s restaurant, Olives, in New York City. It most likely came from Paige Retus, the restaurant’s pastry chef, and was originally for small ginger and spice mini-muffins. My adaptation changes a number of the spices and is baked in a loaf pan to be sliced like bread.

Wicked Gingerbread
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 75 minutes
Serves: 12-14, unless you are greedy

Equipment you will need:

• A standard non-stick loaf pan
• A stand mixer with paddle

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp. ground kosher salt
• 1 tsp. fresh-ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. powdered Chinese yellow mustard
• 1/4 tsp. garam masala (Trust me on this one.)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 c. diced crystallized ginger
• 8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 c. dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2/3 c. blackstrap molasses
• 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. boiling water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly butter the loaf pan.

Put the salt, pepper, mustard, cinnamon, garam masala, powdered ginger and crystallized ginger in the bowl of the mixer and mix them together for a couple of minutes. Cream in the butter on high speed. Add in the dark brown sugar until combined. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, making sure the first is completely mixed in before adding the second. Pour in the blackstrap molasses and mix until everything comes together nicely.

Sift together the flour and baking soda into a bowl. Add half of the mixture and 1/2 cup of the boiling water to the mixer bowl and blend it in well. Add the remainder of the flour and baking soda mixture and the other 1/2 cup of water and mix well again. You should now have something the consistency of a heavy cake batter.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake it in the oven until the top is dry and shiny, the loaf springs back to the touch, and a wooden skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove the pan from the oven and turn the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool. Slice it into 3/4″ slices for serving, or leave whole and slice as needed. If you are not serving the whole loaf, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and store it at room temperature for 3-4 days.