Chocolate Gingerbread Loaf

With the chilly fall weather we've been having lately, I've definitely had a hankering for gingerbread.  And really the only thing that can improve on gingerbread is adding chocolate!  This cake includes chocolate in two ways - cocoa in the batter and chocolate chips stirred in at the end.  Ginger also shows up twice - dried and fresh.  While crystallized ginger is often the norm for cakes like this, I'm not a huge fan of it.  I much prefer fresh ginger, especially as used here - rather than being grated, it's minced so that there are little bursts of intense ginger flavor scattered throughout the cake.  This is an absolutely delicious cake, and the flavors feel very festive to me - they definitely put me in a holiday spirit!

Chocolate Gingerbread Loaf (adapted from Lara Ferroni, original recipe here)
Makes 1 loaf

135 grams (1 cup plus 1 T) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 T natural cocoa powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
Generous pinch ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup molasses
2 T minced fresh ginger
3/4 cup chocolate chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a loaf pan (or use the oil spray that includes flour).
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and salt in a small bowl.  Set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the egg.  Beat in the buttermilk and molasses. The mixture will look curdled; that's ok.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Add the fresh ginger and chocolate and stir just to incorporate.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.