Gingerbread [vegan]

    With Christmas fast approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to veganize some of my favorite holiday desserts, though I have admittedly been putting off the endeavor because I like fitting into my pants. Oh well. Merry Christmas.

As I’ve said before, ginger was not a big hit with my mom until recently. I like ginger, and also carried a culturally-supported nostalgia for it throughout most of my childhood, therefore feeling it my duty to pass this on to my younger siblings. If Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were crooning about Santa Claus and Christmas sweeties on the radio, if Martha’s televised baking exploits were taking a decidedly holiday-themed turn, it was gingerbread time.

  
  I can’t remember when I first made gingerbread, but I was old enough to use the Internet to Google a recipe and we were out of our agonizingly protracted dial-up phase, so I was certainly in my teens. The gingerbread was wildly popular amongst my siblings and even met the approval of a small gang of their friends the next year, so I know it’s good.

    This isn’t gingerbread of the cookie variety—for some reason, most people seem to assume you’re going to hand them the Gingerbread Man every time the word is mentioned. This is a moist, delicious confection that stops somewhere between a cake and a dessert bread, and stays there.

Gingerbread

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup molasses

2/3 cup water

5 tbsp coconut oil, melted

1flax egg      

1 ½ c whole wheat flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 heaping tsp dry ginger

¼ tsp clove

¼ tsp nutmeg

   Preheat oven at 350. Mix first five ingredients in a small bowl, and whisk the dry ingredients in another. Combine liquid into dry and stir. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes. Top with whip and molasses drizzle.

This is some sexy gingerbread.