This healthy gingerbread loaf is moist, warmly spiced, and lightly sweetened for a delicious and festive treat. It is delicious on its own, but if you want to go the extra step and add the sticky maple glaze, it helps to make it an extra festive holiday treat.
A few weeks ago in one of my Instagram posts, I asked you for your feedback and input on creating a new baked good recipe and I got an overwhelming amount of ideas. Holy smokes! Who knew you guys were so into baked goods? Between lemon, ginger, banana, peanut butter, and raspberry, I certainly had a lot of options to choose from! However, because it is the holiday season I decided to keep things festive and go the ginger route with this healthy gingerbread loaf.
In order to keep this loaf on the slightly lighter side, while still being moist and flavourful, I opted to sweeten it naturally with molasses and maple syrup. Molasses is a great all-natural sweetener, which helps to give this healthy gingerbread loaf its dark color, and it provides some added nutrition as well. Molasses, specifically blackstrap molasses, is a by-product of the production of refined cane sugar and is made by boiling sugar cane juice down to a thick, dark syrup. In contrast to refined sugar which contains no nutritional value, blackstrap molasses is a rich source of vitamins and minerals, such as iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and selenium. Although slightly bitter in taste, paired with a touch of natural sweetness from maple syrup, molasses helps to provide a rich and robust flavor to baked goods and a little nutrition as well.
Gingerbread Loaf with Maple Glaze
This gingerbread loaf is moist, fragrantly spiced and lightly sweetened with maple syrup for a festive treat. I made with loaf whole wheat flour but I also tested it with spelt flour and a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend and they worked very well!
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Prep Time: 10 minutes -
Cook Time: 45 minutes
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Total Time: 55 minutes
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Yield: 10 slices 1x
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Category: Snack
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Method: Baked
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Cuisine: American
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Cuisine:Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup butter (or coconut oil) + more for greasing
- 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
Maple Glaze:
- 3 tablespoons butter (or coconut butter)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with coconut oil or butter.
- In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and sea salt. Stir well to combine.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine wet ingredients: molasses, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla extract, coconut oil (or butter) and apple sauce. Whisk well to combine.
- Make a well in the flour mixture, pour in wet mixture, and whisk well until batter is well blended.
- Pour batter into the loaf pan and transfer to the oven for 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
- Once baked, remove from the oven, allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire baking rack to cool completely for another 10-15 minutes.
- While the loaf is cooling, prepare the maple glaze. On the stovetop in a small pot (or microwave for 30 seconds – 1 minute), combine coconut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt, whisking until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Drizzle maple glaze over the cooled loaf and spread it out evenly with a spatula to cover the top of the loaf.
- Allow the glaze to cool another 10-15 minutes before slicing.
- Optional: Add a small sprinkle of ground ginger on top for a festive look.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 227 calories
- Sugar: 19 grams
- Fat: 9 grams
- Carbohydrates: 34 grams
- Fiber: 3 grams
- Protein: 4 grams
I’ve made this recipe MANY times now with some variations. It’s great with pumpkin sub for the Apple sauce or a little spelt flour added. It’s a favorite in the kids lunch boxes!
Absolutely fantastic recipe! Even my sweet-thing- and spice-averse partner loved it. I didn’t have any molasses to hand so I used half-and-half black treacle and barley-malt extract instead. This will become an often-made treat for my whole family.