A moist, flavorful gingerbread loaf recipe. A simple quick bread recipe flavored with gingerbread spices, brown sugar, and molasses! Top it with turbinado sugar for a crunchy, sweet crust, or use a cream cheese frosting.
Nothing says it’s the holiday season like a perfectly spice gingerbread loaf. This tender, moist, and intensely flavored loaf is the perfect way to celebrate the holidays. You can even top it with cream cheese frosting; I promise you it is better than Starbucks. The wonderful thing is that it is perfect for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or dessert!
Serve the gingerbread loaf with my chocolate hazelnut latte, vanilla almond chai latte, or cashew milk latte for an excellent start to your day! For more spiced winter recipes, check out these chewy molasses cookies, spiced pear bread, or my easy no-bake pumpkin cheesecake.
Table of contents
Why You Will Love This Gingerbread Loaf
- Easy to make! A simple, quick bread recipe that comes together quickly and goes directly into the oven.
- Perfectly spiced. I have perfected the ratios of the gingerbread spices, so this will be even better than Starbuck’s gingerbread loaf! You can taste the cinnamon, ginger, clove, and allspice without overpowering each other.
- Moist and not overly sweet. Coconut oil, dark brown sugar, and molasses are used in the loaf to keep it super moist. Topping with the turbinado adds crunch and sweetness, but this quick bread is perfectly sweet!
Professional Tips for Making Gingerbread Loaf
- Don’t over-mix the batter. When it comes to quick breads, it can be very easy to overmix the batter. Mix until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet. You can also switch to a silicone spatula and fold in the flour mixture.
- Make sure the coconut oil is warm when mixing. Ensure your coconut oil is warm when adding it to the other wet ingredients. If the coconut oil is not warm to the touch, it won’t emulsify properly and cause the texture of the loaf to change.
- Don’t open the oven before the 45-minute mark. This gingerbread loaf is very delicate. You need to give the crumb time to set before you open the oven or rotate the loaf. Otherwise, the crumb will fall in the center, and it won’t ever recover.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Coconut Oil: I use organic extra virgin coconut oil in quick breads like this gingerbread loaf cake because it makes the most moist, tender crumb! It keeps the bread moist longer than vegetable oil or butter and has all the added health benefits. Winning.
- Light Brown Sugar: Using light brown sugar adds sweetness along with a little moisture. This will keep the loaf softer while adding a nice, rich molasses flavor. Coconut sugar or dark brown sugar can be substituted if desired.
- Molasses: I generally use unsulphered molasses. It has a lighter, milder flavor. This adds all the warm winter notes without the bite of blackstrap molasses.
- Buttermilk: I usually bake with low-fat buttermilk rather than full-fat. It provides just enough fat to keep quick breads moist and enough moisture to hydrate the loaf.
- Whole Eggs: Whole eggs allow you to emulsify all that oil into the batter, resulting in a moist, not greasy, gingerbread loaf.
- Vanilla Extract
- Kosher Salt
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder: Double-acting baking powder will react instantly when it is mixed with an acid and then again when it is heated. Because it is double-acting, it has a slower, more stable rise than baking soda.
- Gingerbread Spices: Ground cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves, and allspice combine to get you that classic gingerbread flavor.
- Turbinado Sugar
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Add some zest. Zest and orange into the sugar and allow it to sit while you scale the remaining ingredients.
- Mix in some fun! Fold in some white chocolate, dried cranberries, walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips, or toffee pieces.
- Top with a glaze or frosting. Top with the spiced rum glaze from my eggnog bread for Christmas, the vanilla glaze off these rhubarb oatmeal scones, or a cream cheese frosting like I use on my American gingerbread cake. You could even just drizzle it with a touch of honey!
- Perfect for muffins. This batter translated perfectly into gingerbread muffins! Line 12 muffin tins or 6 jumbo muffin tins. Bake for 20-22 minutes.
How to Make a Homemade Gingerbread Loaf
Use these instructions to make the perfectly spiced gingerbread loaf every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
Prepare and Bake the Gingerbread Loaf:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F conventional. Spray a standard 1-pound loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with one piece of parchment up the long sides.
You can clip the overhang down with metal binder clips to keep the parchment from messing up the top of the loaf.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together dark brown sugar, molasses, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Add the molasses 1st and whisk, then the buttermilk, followed by the eggs and vanilla to help keep the batter smooth and emulsified.
Step 3: Whisk in slightly warm, melted coconut oil.
If it has cooled, the resulting bread will bake fine, but it makes a tighter batter that is a little more difficult to combine.
Step 4: In a medium separate bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and allspice.
Step 5: Pour into the wet ingredients and whisk gently to combine.
The whisk helps prevent too many lumps from forming, but you could also fold it with a silicone spatula.
Step 6: Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread it out evenly with your spatula. Just before baking, sprinkle a generous ¼ cups of turbinado sugar over the top surface.
Step 7: Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out with a few clinging crumbs, and the center of the loaf provides a little resistance when touched lightly.
I don’t recommend rotating the loaf before 45 minutes because I rotated at 30 min, and it never recovered.
Step 8: Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before turning out on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Slice and serve! It is also delightful when served warm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store the loaf well-wrapped at room temperature for up to 3 days. Or in the freezer for up to two months. I prefer to pre-slice and freeze the slices individually for ease of snacking later.
If you have the time, you can thaw it at room temperature in a sealed container or in the refrigerator. If you don’t, you can easily reheat the loaf in the microwave or toaster oven.
Absolutely. This recipe multiplies really well as long as you have enough loaf pans or muffin tins. I would not suggest making a large batch of batter and letting it sit in the fridge before baking, or you won’t get the proper rise in the loaf.
The gingerbread loaf is perfect as a stand-alone snack or dessert. You could serve it with caramel sauce or apple pie filling on the side for an elevated slice.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below! I love hearing from you and your comments make my day!
gingerbread loaf
Ingredients
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted and a little warm
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup molasses, not blackstrap, I use Grandma’s brand
- ½ cup low fat buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ cup turbinado sugar, or raw sugar for topping
Instructions
Prepare and Bake the Gingerbread Loaf:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F conventional. Spray a standard 1-pound loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with one piece of parchment up the long sides.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together dark brown sugar, molasses, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Whisk in slightly warm, melted coconut oil.
- In a medium separate bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and allspice.
- Pour into the wet ingredients and whisk gently to combine.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread it out evenly with your spatula. Just before baking, sprinkle a generous ¼ cups of turbinado sugar over the top surface.
- Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out with a few clinging crumbs, and the center of the loaf provides a little resistance when touched lightly.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before turning out on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Slice and serve! It is also delightful when served warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this professional chef-tested quick bread recipe. Check out our other delicious, chef-developed gingerbread-inspired recipes, like chai gingerbread pancakes, gingerbread cinnamon rolls, or gingerbread cookies!
Is the calorie per serving correct?
Not sure how there is 3, 587 calories per slice???????
Hi Suzanne! Let me look into what’s going on with the nutrition plugin for this particular recipe, but until then, you’re absolutely right, should be about 299 calories per slice. I’ll contact the tech humans!
I made this recipe on Christmas morning. The recipe is stating to add granulated sugar to the batter-however granulated sugar in not included in the ingredients. At any rate, I substituted maple sugar for the dark brown sugar and followed the recipe as posted. The gingerbread loaf turned out delicious. The actual size of the loaf pan was not listed. I assume my pan was smaller than the one used above, as it took an additional 8 minutes to cook thru. The taste was very “old world German”- traditional gingerbread with a moist crumb.
Hi Suzanne! You’re absolutely right, thank you so much for being so kind as you pointed that out. I will update that right away!! As for the size of the loaf pan, I used a standard 1 pound loaf pan when I made this recipe. Everyone’s oven conditions are a little different and pans are a little different, so I’m so happy you tested to be sure it was baked through. I love that you were into the taste and texture of this bread! Thank you so much for coming back and sharing your experience, means a lot! ~gvd team