High Altitude Maple Gingerbread Bars
A high altitude recipe for soft, moist and cakey gingerbread bars, flavored with molasses and warm spices, and frosted with sweet maple icing.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tbsp light or dark molasses
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ½ cup almond flour (or very finely chopped almonds, walnuts or pecans)
Icing
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp meringue powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp maple extract
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 biscoff lotus cookie, crumbled (you can also use a graham cracker instead)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper, or spray it with non-stick baking spray.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 5-10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk together the cooled brown butter with the granulated sugar, brown sugar, molasses, eggs and vanilla extract. Whisk in the milk and sour cream, until combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and spices. Add the almond flour, then whisk until everything is evenly distributed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 32-35 minutes, until the top springs back when gently touched, or a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Set the pan on a wire rack, and cool for 1 hour before adding the icing.
Icing
- In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder. Add the extracts and the milk, and stir until smooth.
- Immediately spread the icing over the cake, then sprinkle the crumbled biscoff cookie over the icing.
- Let cool for 2 more hours, before cutting into squares.
Notes
Store leftover bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Icing Variations
- For vanilla icing, replace the maple extract with vanilla extract.
- For lemon icing, omit maple extract. Replace the milk with lemon juice.
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