This is a moist, chewy whole wheat bar with ground and fresh ginger for a punch of flavor. A topping of turbinado sugar gives them a little crunch.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
or, instead of the three dried spices above, use 3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice or Speculaas spice, or to taste
pinch salt
1/4 cup turbinado sugar, or any larger grain and easily pourable brown-ish sugar such as muscovado, demerara, “Natural Cane Sugar”, “Sugar in the Raw”, etc.
Directions
- Preheat oven 350F and line a 9×13-inch baking pan with greased parchment paper or aluminum foil. Leave an overhang so you can lift out the bars.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter with the brown and granulated sugars until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Blend in vanilla and grated fresh ginger. Set aside.
- In another bowl, stir together the flour, the baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ground ginger and the salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended.
- Press the batter evenly into the prepared pan, smoothing the top down. It will be a fairly thin coating. Sprinkle evenly with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for about 25 or until a toothpick in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool completely in the pan, then lift out with the overhang of parchment or foil and remove to a cutting board to cut into squares. Refrigerate until serving.
Notes
- This was adapted from this recipe for Chai Gingerbread Bars. I removed the chai tea leaves and added a not-optional of the larger grained dry brown sugars for the crunchy topping.