All Topics  
Gingerbread

 
Gingerbread

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Gingerbread
 
 
  Topics Gingerbread Topic Home

Gingerbread is a sweet that can take the form of a cake
Cake

Cake is a form of food that is usually sweet and often Baking. Cakes normally combine some kind of flour, a sweetener , a binding agent , fats , a liquid , flavoring and some form of leavening agent , though many cakes lack these ingredients and instead rely on air bubbles in the dough to expand and cause the cake to rise....
 or a cookie
Cookie

In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat-baked treat, containing milk, flour, eggs, and sugar, etc. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have different meanings?a cookie is a plain bu...
 in which the predominant flavors are ginger and raw sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
.

erbread was brought to Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 by the Crusaders
Crusaders

The Crusaders are a New Zealand rugby union team based in Christchurch that compete in the Super 14 . They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history....
.

The town of Market Drayton
Market Drayton

Market Drayton is a small market town in north Shropshire, England. It is on the River Tern, between Shrewsbury and Stoke-on-Trent, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" and earlier simply as "Drayton" ....
 in Shropshire
Shropshire

Shropshire , alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated, in print only, Shrops, is a Counties of England in the West Midlands of England....
 is known as the "home of gingerbread" and this is proudly decreed on the welcome sign.






Nutrition Facts







Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gingerbread'
Start a new discussion about 'Gingerbread'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Gingerbread is a sweet that can take the form of a cake
Cake

Cake is a form of food that is usually sweet and often Baking. Cakes normally combine some kind of flour, a sweetener , a binding agent , fats , a liquid , flavoring and some form of leavening agent , though many cakes lack these ingredients and instead rely on air bubbles in the dough to expand and cause the cake to rise....
 or a cookie
Cookie

In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat-baked treat, containing milk, flour, eggs, and sugar, etc. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have different meanings?a cookie is a plain bu...
 in which the predominant flavors are ginger and raw sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
.

History


Gingerbread House
Gingerbread was brought to Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 by the Crusaders
Crusaders

The Crusaders are a New Zealand rugby union team based in Christchurch that compete in the Super 14 . They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history....
.

The town of Market Drayton
Market Drayton

Market Drayton is a small market town in north Shropshire, England. It is on the River Tern, between Shrewsbury and Stoke-on-Trent, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" and earlier simply as "Drayton" ....
 in Shropshire
Shropshire

Shropshire , alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated, in print only, Shrops, is a Counties of England in the West Midlands of England....
 is known as the "home of gingerbread" and this is proudly decreed on the 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
High Street

High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic street name of the primary business street of towns or city in the United Kingdom....
 businesses from the 1640s. Gingerbread became widely available in the 1700s.

Originally, the term gingerbread (from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 zingiber via Old French
Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
 gingebras) referred to preserved ginger
Ginger

Ginger is a spice which is used for cooking and is also consumed whole as a delicacy or medicine. It is the rhizome of the Zingiber, Zingiber officinale....
, then to a confection made with honey
Honey

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees , and derived from the nectar of flowers. According to the United States National Honey Board and various international food regulations, "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance?this includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners...
 and spice
Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetable used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth....
s. Gingerbread is often translated into French as pain d'épices (literally "spice bread"). Pain d'épices
Pain d'épices

Pain d'?pices , sometimes loosely translated as gingerbread, is a French cake whose ingredients, according to the Dictionnaire de l'acad?mie fran?aise are "Rye , honey and spices" today including aniseed but not traditionally ginger....
 is a French pastry also made with honey and spices, but not crispy.

Varieties

Freshly Baked Gingerbread Christmas 2004
As a cookie, gingerbread can be made into a thin, crisp cookie (often called a ginger snap
Ginger snap

Gingersnaps or ginger biscuits are a popular type of snack food, and are often referred to as ginger nuts in the UK, Australia and New Zealand....
) or a softer cookie similar to the German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 Lebkuchen
Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen is a traditional German-speaking Europe product baked for Christmas, somewhat resembling soft gingerbread. Similar cookies have a history that extends back to the Egyptians, but the style of the traditional Lebkuchen was probably invented by Middle Ages monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century....
. Gingerbread cookies are often cut into shapes, particularly gingerbread men
Gingerbread man

A gingerbread man is a cookie made of gingerbread, usually in the shape of a stylized human, as per the name .Most gingerbread men share the same roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers....
. Traditionally it was dunked
Dunk (biscuit)

To dunk is to dip biscuit , bread, cake, or doughnut into a beverage, especially tea, coffee , or cold milk as in the popular American snack milk and cookies....
 in port wine
Port wine

Port wine is a Portuguese wine sherry from the Douro in the Norte, Portugal of Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, but also comes in dry, semi-dry and white varieties....
.

A gingerbread is used to build gingerbread houses similar to the "witch's house" encountered by Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale of Germanic origin, adapted by the Brothers Grimm and earlier by Giambattista Basile....
. These houses, covered with a variety of candies
Candy

Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added....
 and icing
Icing (food)

Icing, also called frosting, is a sweet Glaze made of sugar that often also contains butter, water, egg whites, milk, or flavorings and is used to cover or cake decorating baked goods, such as cakes or cookies....
, are popular Christmas
Christmas

Christmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts Twelve Days of Christmas....
 decorations, typically built by children with the help of their guardians.

Another variant uses a boiled dough that can be molded
Molding (process)

Molding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern....
 like clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 to form inedible statuettes or other decorations. A significant form of popular art in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, major centers of gingerbread mould carving included Lyon
Lyon

||-||}Lyon, also known as Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France. Its name is pronounced in French language and Franco-Proven?al language, and or in English language....
, Nürnberg, Pest
Pest (city)

Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, comprising about two thirds of Budapest's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River....
, Prague
Prague

Prague is the Capital and World's largest cities of the Czech Republic. Its official name is Hlavn? mesto Praha, meaning Prague, the Capital City....
, Pardubice
Pardubice

Pardubice is the capital city of the Pardubice Region, Czech Republic, lying on the river Elbe, 65 miles east of Prague.The city was founded ca....
, Pulsnitz
Pulsnitz

Pulsnitz is a town in the Bautzen , in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km southwest of Kamenz, and 24 km northeast of the centre of Dresden....
, Ulm
Ulm

Ulm is a city in the Germany States of Germany of Baden-W?rttemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau ....
, and Torun
Torun

Torun is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River, with population over 207,190 as of 2006, making it the second largest city of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, after Bydgoszcz....
. Gingerbread molds often displayed the "news", showing carved portraits of new kings, emperors, and queens, for example. Substantial mould collections are held at the Ethnographic Museum in Torun
Torun

Torun is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River, with population over 207,190 as of 2006, making it the second largest city of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, after Bydgoszcz....
, Poland
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
 and the Bread Museum in Ulm
Ulm

Ulm is a city in the Germany States of Germany of Baden-W?rttemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau ....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
.

The lesser known bread form tends to be a dense, treaclely
Molasses

Molasses is a thick by-product from the processing of the sugar beet or sugar cane into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese language word mela?o, which comes from "meli", the Greek word for "honey"....
 (molasses-based) spice bread. Some recipes add mustard, pepper
Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering plant vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning....
, raisin
Raisin

Raisins are Dried fruit grapes. They are created in many regions of the world, such as the United States, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Republic of Macedonia, Mexico, Greece, Turkey, India, Iran, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Togo, and Jamaica, as well as South Africa and Southern Europe and Eastern Europe....
s, nuts
Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
, and/or other spices/ingredients to the batter. In one variation, the bread omits raisins or nuts and is served with warm lemon
Lemon

The lemon is the common name for Citrus limon. The reproductive tissue surrounds the seed of the angiosperm lemon tree. The lemon is used for culinary and nonculinary purposes throughout the world....
 sauce. In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, the bread is more often served in the winter, particularly at Christmas time in the central parts of Pennsylvania.

See also

  • Gingerbread man
    Gingerbread man

    A gingerbread man is a cookie made of gingerbread, usually in the shape of a stylized human, as per the name .Most gingerbread men share the same roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers....
  • Victorian architecture
    Victorian architecture

    The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 ? 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom after whom it is named....
     - Gingerbread house example


External links

  • at the Open Directory Project
    Open Directory Project

    The Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content Web directory of World Wide Web links owned by Netscape that is constructed and maintained by a virtual community of volunteer editors....