Gingerbread With Plums And Pears

This gingerbread is a guaranteed antidepressant for the upcoming cold days. It is redolent with warming gingerbread spices, springy with an undertone of caramel supplemented by refreshing taste of juicy pears and sour-sweet plums.

It is a pleasure for our palate as well as the eyes. Glossy on the surface, the bread’s autumnal colour scale of brown, yellow, purple, orange suits the season.

But most importantly, it is one of the healing food, soothing and warming our souls and bodies and having many health benefits.

Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg help with digestion, they are anti inflammatory and anti fungal, fight reuma or headache. Hildegard von Bingen says that cinnamon, nutmeg and clove purify our senses and diminish harmful humours in us. She is even more mystical when talking about nutmeg itself: ‘ If a person eats nutmeg, it will open up his heart, make his judgment free from obstruction, and give him a good disposition.’

According to Hildegard, pears cooked with honey or sirup cleans our guts from the parasites.

Ingredients

plums and (or) pears
175 g butter, plus some to butter the form
175 g brown sugar
140 g honey or caramel
2 eggs (beaten)
200 ml milk
300 g flour
6 g baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp gingerbread spice

Homemade gingerbread spice:

2 tbsp ground ginger
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground clove
1 tbsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp anise
1/2 tsp star anise
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp ground vanilla

Method

Heat up the oven for 180/160 °C. Butter your form and line it with a baking paper. Butter the baking paper as well and sprinkle it with 2 tbsp of brown sugar. Cut the fruit in half and place it on the prepared baking form.
On the stove, heat up the butter, honey and sugar in a large enough pot on a low heat, stir together and let it become one smooth substance. Leave it to cool.
Add milk and eggs in it.
Sift in the flour with spices, baking soda and baking powder. Mix it well until smooth.
Pour the batter on the fruit.
Bake for about 45-55 minutes.