Food and Talk

Baking gingerbread for Christmas is an ages-old tradition enjoyed by people around the world. Every year we make gingerbread men and a gingerbread house or Christmas tree with  everybody getting in on the fun. We all enjoy the spicy flavors of gingerbread in cake, scones, and other baked goods throughout the year. Traditional gingerbread spices include cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, and some other flavors complement them well, such as molasses, orange, chocolate, pumpkin, or cardamom.

There are a plenty of ideas to make some gingerbread in some creative ways for the holiday season.

GINGERBREAD MAN

Christmas baking wouldn’t seem complete without a batch of gingerbread men. The first gingerbread man is credited to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who impressed important visitors with charming gingerbread portraits. The classic gingerbread men are often decorated with simple white icing piped around. The most popular gingerbread men decoration includes shirt buttons, which are traditionally represented by gum drops, icing, or raisins.

COOKIES

As the reigning king of all Christmas cookies, gingerbread can be made in a variety of ways. You can vary the spices, add chocolate, make it vegan or gluten-free, or use the spices in other types of cookies. And if you are looking for homemade holiday gifts, gingerbread cookies are a delicious addition to any cookie basket.  For a different taste, try the cardamom white gingerbread  or the chocolate gingerbread. For special diets you can make them gluten free and for a delicious variation, try fat free Vegan’s gluten-free gingerbread biscotti.

HOUSES

Once you start making gingerbread cookies, it’s a short jump over to making gingerbread houses, another treasured holiday tradition. The tradition of baking a Gingerbread house began in Germany after the Brothers Grimm published their collection of German fairy tales in the early 1800s. Among the tales was the story of Hansel and Gretel,children left to starve in the forest, who came upon a house made of bread and sugar decorations. The houses are decorated with candies and icing, in order to  resemble the witch’s house found in the woods by Hansel and Gretel in Grimm’s Fairy Tale