For many families, baking gingerbread cookies is a beloved part of their winter routine, just as much as stringing up lights or waiting for the first snowflakes to fall. Yet despite the ubiquity of gingerbread men (and gingerbread women, boys, girls, dogs, cats, and plenty of other shapes) during the holiday season, the historical origins of this sweet and spicy treat are much less familiar.
Ginger, along with many other herbs and spices that originated in Asia, was brought to Europe by medieval traders. The earliest European recipes for gingerbread involved making a paste from stale breadcrumbs, rosewater, sugar, and crushed almonds, and then molding and carving it into the desired shape. Its spicy aroma was also used to help disguise the smell of rotting meat. With the addition of eggs and flour in the 16th century, it began to resemble the modern version.
However, it's possible that we wouldn't have the cookie shapes we know today without the influence of one of England’s most famous monarchs – Queen Elizabeth I. Her court is credited as the birthplace of the “modern” gingerbread man. According to some accounts, her cooks baked gingerbread men to resemble high-ranking visitors and dignitaries. The cookies were then served at banquets. A more interesting version of the story relates to Elizabeth's reputation as the Virgin Queen. She famously never married, despite a barrage of well-pedigreed suitors. The queen rejected their advances and had their likenesses depicted by her bakers in gingerbread cookies, which were then served to them.
Mmm mmm gingerbread:
- Gingerbread men were also employed as love tokens during the English Renaissance. Young women gave gingerbread men to their desired suitors, who were supposed to fall in love with them after eating the treat.
- Gingerbread can take many forms, from crunchy cookies to moist cakes. Besides ginger, it is often flavored with cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, and anise.
- The gingerbread house (lebkuchenhaeusle) was popularized by the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" fairy tale in the 19th century.
- IKEA employees in Norway baked the largest-ever gingerbread man in 2009. He weighed over 1,435 lbs (651 kg).
