Gingerbread and Fresh Crud

Outlander Kitchen

Is there any dessert that brings more of the flavors of Christmas than gingerbread? (I'm serious, tell me if you know of one.) This gingerbread cake has ginger (of course), cinnamon, and cloves, with molasses to bring a beautiful color and its signature flavor.

We're using the Crowdie Cheese (https://cookwithheather.com/Outlander-Kitchen-Crowdie-Cheese/) from last week to make a beautiful topping that is reminiscent of a cream cheese frosting, but much lighter and not nearly as sweet. It stays pretty stable in the refrigerator, too, so you can make all of this ahead of time.

This is not a very sweet cake as written, which is probably more historically accurate. You can sweeten up your topping as much as you'd like if you prefer a sweeter dish...or stay tuned for our next recipe to see how we used up the rest of the batch in a much sweeter dessert!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we're going to be
[00:07]: working once again from outlander
[00:09]: kitchen theresa carl sanders book and we
[00:12]: are going to be making gingerbread and
[00:14]: fresh crud the crud in this recipe is
[00:18]: actually the
[00:20]: crowdy cheese that we made previously
[00:23]: that you serve
[00:25]: with the gingerbread so
[00:28]: that's just sort of a scottish
[00:31]: nickname like how they would say it
[00:33]: um
[00:35]: so we're gonna get started by making the
[00:38]: gingerbread
[00:39]: uh
[00:40]: so i have the flour just all-purpose
[00:43]: flour measured out here
[00:45]: i've also
[00:47]: buttered and floured
[00:49]: a
[00:50]: square eight or nine inch
[00:53]: glass or ceramic
[00:56]: dish
[00:57]: she says it does not rise as high in a
[01:02]: metal dish so it's a little bit more
[01:04]: uh a little bit of a denser cake in that
[01:07]: so we're gonna do this ceramic
[01:10]: dish here
[01:12]: just one second
[01:14]: yeah anyway
[01:16]: so i have my flour measured out here and
[01:19]: these are all of my spices
[01:21]: um
[01:23]: so i have salt and baking
[01:26]: soda
[01:27]: yes baking soda um i also have some
[01:30]: dried ginger
[01:31]: uh dried cinnamon
[01:33]: and just a little bit of
[01:36]: ground cloves and we're gonna put all of
[01:38]: that in here
[01:39]: okay so now i'm going to add
[01:42]: some lemon zest to this uh i have
[01:47]: just used my microplane grater for this
[01:49]: you can also just
[01:51]: take the zest off and
[01:53]: mince it finely and it will be fine and
[01:56]: i'm going to whisk it together she says
[01:58]: you don't need to she doesn't say to
[01:59]: whisk it but this is what i usually do
[02:01]: to get
[02:02]: things well mixed and so there's no
[02:06]: lumps
[02:12]: there we go
[02:14]: so if you were paying attention you said
[02:16]: you notice i talked about how we're
[02:18]: going to bake it in this square pan and
[02:20]: it's going to rise so this is a
[02:23]: gingerbread cake not the
[02:26]: flat
[02:27]: gingerbread cookie type things that you
[02:29]: use to like make a gingerbread house or
[02:32]: use as a ginger snap cookie this is or a
[02:34]: gingerbread man this is a
[02:37]: cake gingerbread so
[02:42]: anyway this is all mixed together and
[02:44]: now we need to
[02:46]: put together the wet ingredients
[02:50]: okay we're ready to put together our wet
[02:52]: ingredients she says to use a uh hand
[02:56]: mixer but i decided i was gonna use my
[02:57]: stand mixer because it's a lot easier
[02:59]: for me
[02:59]: i have some butter that has
[03:02]: mostly been softened it came from the
[03:04]: freezer so i softened it in the
[03:05]: microwave and it may not be great but
[03:08]: the mixer
[03:09]: will help us
[03:11]: soften it up a little bit so so i'm
[03:12]: gonna whip that together or whip that by
[03:14]: itself here for a second just to see how
[03:16]: soft it is
[03:25]: okay that's not too bad so i'm going to
[03:27]: add this is dark brown sugar
[03:31]: so i have measured that
[03:34]: and we're going to
[03:36]: uh
[03:37]: cream these together
[03:39]: on medium high until fluffy she says
[03:41]: about three minutes so
[03:46]: so i'm gonna stop and scrape it down
[03:48]: just to make sure that i've got
[03:49]: everything
[03:50]: coming together nicely especially at the
[03:53]: bottom where it doesn't
[03:56]: mix very well
[03:58]: in my mixer
[04:00]: but it should be good
[04:04]: put that on
[04:06]: my plate
[04:08]: i think that's fluffy enough for me so
[04:11]: now we're going to add eggs
[04:25]: and we are once again going to mix this
[04:27]: up and beat it together for she says
[04:29]: about two minutes
[04:31]: until it's fully combined scraping down
[04:33]: as necessary so
[04:36]: okay
[04:37]: i'm gonna call that good enough for now
[04:39]: everything will get mixed up way more
[04:40]: than this
[04:42]: so here i have some molasses she says to
[04:45]: use light
[04:47]: or fancy
[04:50]: something else i don't i forget but i
[04:51]: couldn't find any of that at my grocery
[04:53]: store or at any other grocery store i
[04:54]: could look at online nearby so
[04:57]: i just have what they said were molasses
[04:60]: unsulfured um and so i'm going to i
[05:03]: don't know if that matters honestly um
[05:05]: so i'm going to put this in here i
[05:07]: thought about
[05:09]: using sorghum for this but i thought
[05:12]: molasses is probably a really
[05:15]: um
[05:17]: integral flavor for the shortbread
[05:21]: so
[05:21]: um and we're supposed to put this for
[05:23]: another minute
[05:27]: all right
[05:28]: so this is all of our wet ingredients
[05:30]: and now we're going to take our dry
[05:32]: ingredients
[05:34]: and alternate
[05:36]: the dry ingredients that we've already
[05:37]: made with some of this milk
[05:39]: this is whole milk
[05:42]: um
[05:43]: and she says just beat them in
[05:45]: alternately beginning and ending with
[05:47]: the dry so
[05:49]: um
[05:50]: i'll do it i don't know three or four
[05:52]: times
[05:53]: got
[05:54]: a spoon so i maybe don't um
[05:58]: make such a mess
[06:01]: i've already gotten it all over
[06:04]: so i'm trying to put about a quarter of
[06:06]: it in here
[06:08]: and
[06:10]: stir it in
[06:11]: on a low speed
[06:19]: and then i'm just going to pour a little
[06:21]: bit of our milk
[06:21]: [Music]
[06:31]: try to get about a third of that
[06:37]: and then another
[06:39]: quarter of
[06:41]: our dry ingredients
[06:44]: [Music]
[06:48]: stir it up
[06:49]: [Music]
[06:57]: put another third of this in
[07:12]: at this point i'm going to scrape down
[07:14]: the edges
[07:16]: just because i've got some dry stuff
[07:18]: hanging out up there
[07:39]: all right
[07:41]: another
[07:42]: approximately a quarter of this
[07:49]: [Music]
[07:56]: and i'm gonna put the rest of my milk in
[08:11]: [Music]
[08:13]: the rest of my dry
[08:16]: i'm putting while it's mixing this time
[08:26]: and before it is fully combined i'm just
[08:28]: going to scrape down the edges
[08:31]: make sure we get
[08:32]: all of that
[08:34]: combined
[08:35]: because we don't want to over mix it she
[08:37]: says just mix it until it is just
[08:39]: combined so i think we are just about
[08:41]: there so i wanted to get one more scrape
[08:43]: in
[08:45]: as well as scraping off the
[08:47]: flour from the top
[08:54]: there we go
[09:02]: [Music]
[09:04]: all right
[09:06]: i think that's
[09:07]: enough for this
[09:09]: um i'm gonna clean up just a bit
[09:14]: take
[09:16]: this off and get my mixer out of the way
[09:22]: i'm going to
[09:23]: pour all of this batter into my prepared
[09:25]: pan
[09:26]: my oven has been preheating at
[09:31]: 350 degrees so just kind of a standard
[09:35]: baking temperature
[09:41]: this is a
[09:43]: kind of medium cake batter not too thin
[09:45]: not too thick
[09:53]: so she says to
[09:55]: sort of
[09:56]: flatten it with
[09:58]: a spatula
[09:60]: and then
[10:03]: it goes in the oven
[10:05]: for let's see
[10:06]: until a toothpick inserted in the center
[10:09]: comes out clean
[10:10]: 40 to 45 minutes so this will be in the
[10:13]: oven for quite a while but i'll show you
[10:15]: what it looks like when when it's all
[10:17]: done
[10:20]: this is what it looks like
[10:22]: just after it comes out of the pan
[10:24]: mine took an extra 10 minutes for the
[10:27]: toothpick inserted in the center to come
[10:29]: out clean
[10:30]: i think it was 10 minutes
[10:32]: yeah i did 45 minutes and then an extra
[10:34]: 10. so it took 55 minutes to bake
[10:37]: completely
[10:38]: and now you let it uh cool on a wire
[10:41]: rack for 10 minutes before you turn it
[10:44]: out and let it cool completely so that's
[10:46]: what we'll be doing now
[10:48]: our cake has only been cooling for a
[10:49]: little while it's not completely cool
[10:51]: but i'm going to go ahead and make the
[10:54]: last component of this dish which is
[10:56]: called the creamed crud
[10:58]: um
[10:59]: so let's get started with that i have
[11:02]: heavy cream here
[11:05]: i'm just going to put this in here
[11:08]: in a bowl
[11:10]: i'm going to use my stand make my stand
[11:12]: my um handheld mixer for this
[11:16]: because it's
[11:17]: a lot easier
[11:18]: and so we've got our heavy cream and i'm
[11:22]: going to add
[11:23]: um
[11:24]: some sugar a little bit of sugar
[11:27]: when we tasted the crowdy cheese by
[11:29]: itself it was a little bit salty
[11:31]: um but i think the sugar in this will
[11:34]: help it you know be be a little bit more
[11:36]: sweet and plus
[11:38]: i think it has has to take a little time
[11:41]: to mix up properly
[11:44]: so
[11:45]: i probably wouldn't use the the crowded
[11:47]: cheese immediately let it sit for a bit
[11:50]: to sort of
[11:51]: even out its flavor
[11:53]: so now i'm going to add a little bit of
[11:55]: vanilla
[11:58]: try not just
[12:00]: there we go
[12:06]: and we're going to whip this up just
[12:07]: into whipped cream we're looking for
[12:10]: let's see
[12:11]: soft peaks so
[12:17]: okay i think we're at soft peaks it's
[12:20]: taken like
[12:21]: two two and a half minutes to do this
[12:23]: i'm gonna do it a little bit longer
[12:34]: there we go
[12:35]: so that is
[12:37]: soft peaks
[12:38]: and now all we have to do is fold in our
[12:42]: crowdy cheese
[12:44]: and it takes the whole recipe of it and
[12:47]: it says to gently fold it in
[12:51]: so
[13:00]: there we go
[13:13]: so
[13:22]: trying to fold this in and not get out
[13:25]: lose you know a bunch of the air that we
[13:28]: got in when we
[13:30]: whipped it but mix the
[13:34]: um
[13:36]: cheese and the fresh cheese in
[13:43]: pretty evenly i think although what they
[13:45]: have there is kind of in the picture i'm
[13:48]: sorry i'm looking at the picture right
[13:49]: now
[13:49]: is a little lumpy so i'm not too worried
[13:52]: about this being super smooth
[13:56]: all right and now
[13:58]: we are supposed to taste it to see if
[14:03]: we want it any sweeter so i'm going to
[14:05]: get a spoon to do that
[14:13]: that's still
[14:14]: a little bit salty in my opinion
[14:17]: so i'm going to add
[14:20]: maybe
[14:21]: about half as much more
[14:25]: and
[14:26]: stir that in
[14:31]: just because i want this to be a little
[14:33]: bit sweet
[14:36]: on the uh
[14:45]: gingerbread
[14:48]: there we go
[14:52]: okay
[14:54]: i think that's better
[14:55]: and i'm just going to store this in the
[14:57]: refrigerator and in just a second we'll
[14:59]: show you what it looks like all put
[15:01]: together and let you know what we think
[15:03]: of it
[15:12]: on this episode of cooking the books
[15:13]: with heather you watched me make
[15:15]: gingerbread and fresh curd from the
[15:18]: outlander kitchen cookbook
[15:20]: um
[15:21]: the gingerbread
[15:22]: we
[15:23]: i think i may have overcooked it a
[15:26]: little bit i did end up cooking it
[15:28]: longer than the recipe called for
[15:30]: because it was still a little bit gooey
[15:31]: in the middle anyway
[15:33]: i think i may have overcooked it a
[15:34]: little bit it was a little bit dry
[15:36]: around the edges so
[15:39]: it was not a very sweet gingerbread cake
[15:42]: um
[15:45]: so if you prefer a sweeter cake you
[15:47]: might want to add a little bit more of
[15:48]: that brown sugar
[15:51]: the
[15:53]: fresh sorry i think i said fresh curd
[15:56]: curd but it's fresh crud
[16:00]: sort of a scottish um
[16:04]: slang for the crowdy cheese mixed with
[16:08]: whipped cream
[16:10]: that was also
[16:13]: very
[16:15]: uh
[16:16]: not very sweet our crowdy cheese was
[16:21]: pretty salty
[16:22]: and i ended up doubling the amount of
[16:24]: sugar that i put into the whipped cream
[16:27]: and
[16:28]: um crowdy cheese that we mixed up for
[16:30]: the
[16:31]: for the topping and it was still
[16:33]: not super sweet it was sweet enough
[16:36]: it was tasty wasn't something my family
[16:39]: loved
[16:41]: but
[16:42]: we had leftovers
[16:44]: and we made something else with the
[16:45]: leftovers
[16:47]: and we'll let you know about that
[16:49]: next time
[16:51]: but if you want a very
[16:56]: lightly sweet very christmas flavors
[16:59]: because this gingerbread it's got the
[17:03]: cloves and cinnamon and ginger
[17:06]: very much uh a christmasy holiday flavor
[17:10]: if that's what you're looking for this
[17:11]: is a good recipe for you and you don't
[17:13]: really need the creamed crud you could
[17:15]: just put whipped cream on it if you
[17:16]: don't want to make the crowdy cheese
[17:19]: but yeah
[17:20]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[17:21]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[17:23]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[17:25]: me make something else next week