Start a Holiday Gingerbread Tradition

Warm smells of cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, and all-spice waft from the cozy home, encrusted with candy and icicles made of sugar. A flat gingerbread man stands stiffly outside sporting gumdrop buttons and an icing smile. The holiday season is filled with special flavors.

Gingerbread houses and their catastrophic collapse are some of our most hallowed memories as children. We could not wait to demolish our architectural masterpieces after Christmas and break our teeth on the now stale candy. Hmmm…looking back, maybe it was more about the candy than the actual gingerbread?

Gingerbread Origins

Forms of gingerbread have been associated with holiday making in the Eastern and Western world from at least 999 AD. Popular at fairs and served to royalty, gingerbread and its relatives were associated with wealth and the commemoration of special occasions.

Queen Elizabeth I served baked figurines to visiting personages. Dating even earlier, cakes made of ginger and honey have been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. It is unclear whether the German tradition of candy-covered gingerbread houses were inspired by or inspired the Brother’s Grimm fairy-tale of Hansel and Gretel – either way the two are forever linked.

According to archaeologists and geneticists, ginger was first domesticated in Maritime Southeast Asia (today’s China), likely by the Austronesian peoples, who later brought it with them (as a “canoe-plant”) in their expansion into the Indo-Pacific and as far as Hawaii. The earliest written record of the plant is from Confucius, who purportedly ate it with every meal. It was one of the first spices to be transported out of Asia with the spice trade and was quickly adopted by the Greeks and Romans. Consequently, its use and association with breads and cookies are diverse and expansive. From loaflike cakes, breads, hard-brittle biscuits, and cookies cut or moulded into intricate shapes, nearly every Western (and Eastern) country has a specific ginger treat associated with holiday making.

Perfect Gingerbread

The perfect recipe for a structurally sound gingerbread house is equally various. Do you use molasses, honey, treacle, or golden syrup? Brown sugar or white? Which spices do you use? What leavening agent? Eggs or no eggs? I haven’t even considered the icing!

Yesterday, I tried my great-grandmother’s recipe. Passed down to my grandmother from her mother-in-law and written in her perfect grammar school cursive on classic note cards taken from her carefully curated recipe box, this is a dipping biscuit recipe (known in America as a “cookie”).

With a bit of rolling, it can easily be used for gingerbread men and even a house ( (if you are brave enough).

2nd Annual CHRISTMASTOWN Gingerbread Challenge

ENTRIES DUE: December 7 - 11 SHELTON, WA | $500+ IN PRIZES

Bring gingerbread creations to the Shelton Mason County Chamber at 215 W Railroad Avenue, 8 AM-5PM. Gingerbread entries will be on display in shop windows in downtown Shelton.

The entry’s major components (such as sides, roofs, etc.) must be constructed of gingerbread. The rest of the display can be decorated with any edible material. All visible components must be edible. Entries will be judged based on the following criteria: Overall Appearance, Originality and Creativity, Difficulty and Precision, Use of Materials.

Visit www.ChristmastownWA.org for full details & entry form.

SPONSORED BY WINDERMERE REAL ESTATE AND BOWERS DENTAL GROUP THANK YOU.

Great-Grandma Rose’s Ginger Biscuit:

This is a fairly simple recipe that doesn’t require a mixer, just working with your hands – my mum likened the recipe to a pastry where a light touch is necessary (as opposed to kneading bread, which requires a heavy hand to stretch the gluten).

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

4 tsp golden syrup (see note below)

4 tsp ginger

1 tsp baking soda (dissolved in 1/2 cup of hot water)

A note on the ingredients: The recipe calls for golden syrup (a very English ingredient), but this can be hard to find in North America. I experimented with substitutions, I made three different batches and in each I tried honey, treacle, and molasses (in same proportions as above). For all three I found the texture was very similar, however the flavor was much tangier with the treacle and the molasses. Additionally, molasses or treacle give a much richer color to the dough (which I like).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Rub butter into the flour and sugar by hand. Mix in syrup, ginger, and baking soda-water mix with spoon. After they are lightly mixed, lightly knead with your hands until you get a dough like texture. With a rolling pin and a scant amount of flour (just enough to avoid sticking, too much makes the dough dry), roll dough out thin and even. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters (use a glass or a jar lid to make round cookies). To make a house, print off the template (available at Christmastownwa.org) and copy it onto a piece of cardboard and then cut your dough to match. Be careful not to stretch the cut dough too much as you transfer it to the baking sheet. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes. Be careful not to burn. The biscuits will be a little soft when you take them out and they well harden when they cool.

Gingerbread House Tip: CUT WHEN HOT.

The baking soda in this recipe makes the dough rise, so watch out for the cooked biscuit changing size from the template. Compare the cooked pieces to your template while it is still hot out of the oven, if it is too large you can use a shape knife and cut off extraneous pieces (when it is chilled it will be too brittle to allow for this).