Are you looking for a simple-to-make dessert that is full of flavor? My Gingerbread Bars are full of European-style gingerbread flavor and aroma, with a light and refreshing touch of prune preserve or plum preserve and a delicate chocolate coating. You can prepare them in your favorite baking dish for an amazing sweet treat that is sure to impress everyone at the table.
Tom the Chef Founder
Let’s talk about important parts of the recipe before you start…
I am so excited to share my favorite dessert with you! These Gingerbread Bars are absolutely packed with that classic European-style gingerbread aroma we all love. By utilizing wonderful spices like anise seeds, cloves, and ginger root, the flavor profile is incredibly earthy and fresh. The addition of a sweet prune preserve or plum preserve brings a refreshing touch to the cake, while a rich chocolate coating ties it all together beautifully. Whether you use medium or dark rye flour, preparing this batter in your trusty baking dish will yield a spectacular treat for everyone to enjoy.
One of the most vital steps in making my Gingerbread Bars is creating the spice mixture. I highly recommend using whole anise seeds, fennel seeds, and cloves, and grinding them into a fine texture in a mortar and pestle or a small food processor. This method creates an incredible aroma, giving the dessert an authentic European-style gingerbread flavor. If you do not have whole seeds, the recipe allows you to use the ground alternatives listed in the ingredients, but preparing it fresh truly elevates the entire baking dish.
When preparing the bubble cake batter for these Gingerbread Bars, you must ensure your eggs and unsalted butter are at room temperature. I always remove my eggs and butter from the fridge about an hour before I start baking. This allows the ingredients to combine properly when whisked on high speed with the granulated sugar, creating a creamy but still slightly liquidly texture. Taking this simple step ensures the base of your sweet treat turns out flawless.
The addition of rye flour is what gives these Gingerbread Bars their distinct, earthy depth alongside the all-purpose flour. You can use any rye flour you have available, but the type you choose will slightly alter the flavor profile. For a much earthier taste, a dark rye flour is a wonderful choice. If you prefer a lighter touch, a classic medium organic rye flour works perfectly and is actually the closest to traditional Czech Rye bread. This unique ingredient perfectly complements the prune preserve and plum preserve used later in the process.
To build the foundation of this dessert, whisking the eggs, sugar, and butter on high speed is essential. You want to process them in your kitchen mixer with a whisk attachment until they reach that perfect creamy texture, which usually takes about three to five minutes. Once achieved, I gently fold in the dry mixture, milk, vanilla extract, and a half cup of plum preserve. If ingredients stick to the side of the mixer, I always stop and use a silicone spatula to mix it back in to ensure the Gingerbread Bars batter is perfectly uniform.
Once the cake has fully cooled after baking for about sixty minutes, the fun assembly process begins. I carefully remove the thin top layer to make the top flatter—do not dispose of this, as it makes a fantastic chef’s snack! Then, I divide the cake horizontally into two parts using a long knife. Spreading a generous cup of prune preserve or plum preserve on the bottom half adds a necessary tartness and moisture that cuts through the rich European-style gingerbread spices perfectly.
The crowning glory of my Gingerbread Bars is the delicate chocolate coating. After placing the top half of the cake back on over the preserve filling, you will evenly spread half a recipe of chocolate coating over the very top using an offset spatula. It is crucial to let the dessert cool until the chocolate completely hardens before you slice it into twelve even pieces. You can speed this hardening process up by placing the baking dish in the refrigerator for a bit.
(click on any ingredients and tool to learn more on CookingHub.com)
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