According to Rhonda Massingham Hart’s Making Gingerbread Houses, the first known recipe for gingerbread came from Greece in 2400 BC. Chinese recipes were developed during the 10th century and by the late Middle Ages, Europeans had their own version of gingerbread.
What is the myth of making the first gingerbread?
According to certain researchers, the first gingerbread houses were the result of the well-known Grimm’s fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” in which the two children abandoned in the forest found an edible house made of bread with sugar decorations.
An early form of gingerbread can be traced to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians who used it for ceremonial purposes. Gingerbread made an appearance in Europe when 11th-century Crusaders brought back ginger from the Middle East for the aristocrats’ cooks to experiment with.
Where did the name gingerbread come from?
In medieval England , it referred to any kind of preserved ginger (borrowing from the Old French term gingebras, which in turn came from the spice’s Latin name, zingebar.) The term became associated with ginger-flavored cakes sometime in the 15th century.
How was gingerbread created?
Houses made of gingerbread may have been inspired in the early 1800s by the Brothers Grimm , who wrote about a witch’s cottage made of candy and cookies in “Hansel and Gretel.” Waves of immigrants brought gingerbread to America (George Washington’s mother is credited with one recipe), and the houses became particularly ...
Does gingerbread taste good?
It tastes great fresh from the oven . It is not too gingery, but a nice mellow combination of spices. Most of the flavor comes from the molasses and the dark brown sugar. This is also a stable cookie that only gets stronger as it cools and sits out.
Why is gingerbread so good?
Ginger used to be a universally loved flavor in cooking , partly because people didn’t make sweets unless they could afford white sugar and the less-expensive molasses. So, if you were going to the trouble and expense of baking something sweet, you could probably buy ginger or cinnamon as well.
What’s the moral of the gingerbread man?
What’s the Moral? The gingerbread man story’s moral is slightly dark for a fable meant for children: Be careful who you trust . The cookie believed the fox when he said he wasn’t tempted to eat him—this misguided trust led to the protagonist’s downfall.
Why is gingerbread a Christmas tradition?
Gingerbread was also worn as a talisman in battle or as protection against evil spirits. ... After this book was published, German bakers began baking ornamented fairy-tale houses of lebkuchen (gingerbread). These became popular during Christmas, a tradition that came to America with Pennsylvanian German immigrants.
Is the gingerbread man a Christmas story?
The Gingerbread Man, and the Story of his Christmas Adventures by Whitney Foard Small and Junho Kim. A wonderful children’s Christmas story of a lonely Gingerbread Man and his journey to find a home.
Are you supposed to eat a gingerbread house?
Yes, gingerbread houses are supposed to be edible . They are made from edible parts, like the gingerbread itself, the icing, the candy.
Who made the gingerbread man in Shrek?
Gingy was created by the Muffin Man , along with the rest of the Gingerbread people. Some years later, he attended Cookie Academy in Home Economics.
How many types of gingerbread are there?
The three distinct types of gingerbread are brown gingerbread, wafer-based gingerbread and honey gingerbread.
The longer you bake them, the crunchier they get. But be careful: too much time in the oven results in dark, bitter-tasting cookies.
Why does gingerbread taste spicy?
Spices give any gingerbread its delicious aroma and memorable taste. Ginger is the spice you will find in every gingerbread recipe. It comes from the knobby rhizome of a tropical plant and has a peppery zing and spicy scent .
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When the cookies are done, they will look dry, but still be soft to the touch . Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.
