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Four half pieces of gingerbread loaf stacked on white parchment paper.

Gingerbread Streusel Mini Loaves

Yield: 3 mini loaves
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

Bread:

  • ½ cup (98 g) neutral-flavored oil (like canola, vegetable, grapeseed)
  • ½ cup (121 g) buttermilk
  • ¾ cup (159 g) packed light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup (85 g) unsulphured molasses
  • 2 large (100 g) eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups (213 g) all-purpose flour (see UPDATED note!)
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice

Streusel:

  • ¼ cup (36 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • ¼ cup (30-40 g) finely chopped pecans

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease three mini loaf pans (5.75X3-inches). Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together oil, buttermilk, brown sugar, molasses, eggs and vanilla until well-combined.
  • Add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking powder, salt, cloves and allspice. Mix until ingredients evenly combined and no dry streaks remain (don't over mix).
  • Spread the batter evenly among the prepared pans (if you live at high altitude, you may want to split the batter among four pans to avoid spilling over in the oven). Place the mini loaf pans on a foil-lined baking sheet. This isn't mandatory, but it does help catch the streusel if a tiny bit spills off as the bread rises and bakes in the oven.
  • For the streusel, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into pieces, add to the dry ingredients, and use a pastry blender or two butter knives to cut in the butter until it is in very small pieces and the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the pecans.
  • Sprinkle about 1/4 cup streusel over each loaf.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (may need to add additional time - keep a close eye on the bread) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Add additional baking time, if needed.
  • Cool for a few minutes in the pan before lifting carefully out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

UPDATE: lots of people have commented saying the loaves sank in the middle. As noted in the recipe post, this bread doesn't dome as high as some quick breads...but it shouldn't completely sink. Here are a few tips:
  • It's important to take into account what type of bread pan is being used. If the bread pan has a dark coating, reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees and increase baking time as needed.
  • Under baking the bread may cause it to sink, so make sure to bake fully until the top springs back to the touch and the center is not wet with batter. 
  • Don't open the oven while baking (until the very end when checking doneness).
  • To combat the sinking, consider adding another 1/4 to 1/3 cup flour to the batter. 
Full Size Loaf: the batter for this recipe should convert quite well to a 9X5-inch loaf pan if you want to bake one larger loaf instead of three mini loaves. Make sure the pan isn't filled more than 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter (you may or may not need all the streusel for one larger loaf).