Gingerbread Ingredients
For the Gingerbread 250 gm honey 150 gm sugar 50 gm egg 38 gm milk 25 gm oil 7.5 gm bicarbonate of soda 20 gm gingerbread spice* 525gm Soft Flour
Method of Preparation • • • • • •
ive t s e F pecial S
Melt the honey and sugar together until all the sugar has dissolved. Mix all the flour, gingerbread spice, bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and add the honey mixture. Once it has cooled slightly, add the eggs and finally the milk and oil. Knead until a smooth dough is formed, then allow to rest for 2 hours. Roll out to the thickness you would like and brush with milk before baking. Depending on your desired texture, bake at 160 C for 12 minutes.
* Gingerbread Spice can easily be made at home using the following ingredients: 2 tsp ground ginger, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground allspice, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground nutmeg
An Introduction to Gingerbread Gingerbread was brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis. He left Pompeii, to live in France. He stayed there for 7 years, and taught Gingerbread cooking to the French priests and the Christians. During the 13th century, it was brought to Sweden by the German immigrants. Early references from the Vadstena Abbey show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease indigestion. It was customary to bake white biscuits and paint them as window decorations. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates back to the 17th century where they were
Image and Recipe Courtesy: The Address Marina
sold in monasteries, pharmacies and town square farmers’ markets. In Medieval England gingerbread was thought to have medicinal properties. One hundred years later the town of Market Drayton in Shropshire, UK became known for its gingerbread, as is proudly displayed on their town’s welcome sign. The first recorded mention of gingerbread being baked in the town dates back to 1793; however, it was probably made earlier, as ginger was stocked in high street businesses from the 1640s. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. Image & Recipe courtesy: The Address Marina
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