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Gingerbread Cookies

Photo by Michele Purin on Unsplash

Gingerbread is a vague term for a category of baked goods, flavored with ginger (obviously), cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses.

The origin of gingerbread is difficult to pinpoint, but it’s believe to have been introduced in Western Europe by 11th-centry crusaders coming back from the Mediterranean. However, we do know that ginger itself originates from Asia.

In medieval Europe, gingerbread became a favorite treat, often designed and decorated to look like flowers and animals, similar to todays customs! One key difference between modern-day gingerbread is that the medieval version had honey and breadcrumbs. This was then mixed with saffron and pepper to form a stiff paste and molded into a square, sprinkled with cinnamon and decorated with cloves.

Back in those days, spices were expensive. If a host served spiced food, it was a way to show off your wealth. Ginger was also extremely popular, second to pepper. When comparing the average prices between the six most popular spices (ginger, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and saffron) it was the least expensive, cinnamon being twice as expensive! Ginger was admired for it’s medicinal properties, such as stomach aches. 16th-centry writer John Baret described gingerbread as “A Kinde of cake or paste made to comfort the stomacke.“

Medieval Gyngerbrede Recipe

To make gingerbrede. Take goode honye & clarefie it on þe fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into þe boylenge hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse þat it bren not to þe vessell. & þanne take it doun and put þerin ginger, longe pepere & saundres, & tempere it vp with þin handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe þereon suger & pick þerin clowes rounde aboute by þe egge and in þe mydes yf it plece you &c.  

– From Curye on Inglish (14th century) edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler.

Ingredients

Step 1: Honey and Spices

“Take a quart of honey and boil it, and skim it clean; take Saffron, powdered pepper, & throw thereon;“

Bring honey to a boil and skim the top. Turn the heat down to very low, add spices and mix. I like to add half of the cinnamon at this step and brush the rest on later, but it tastes just as good if you mix it all in now. 

The type of honey you use does matter as far as flavor goes. Choose your favorite type of honey because you’ll be using a lot of it.

Step 2: Dough

“take grated bread, & make it so stiff that it will be leched (sliced);”

Slowly add the breadcrumbs and mix until it becomes firm and well blended. You may need to add more breadcrumbs to reach the desired thickness. Once you can’t easily mix with a spoon and the honey mixture becomes a thick mass, it is ready to roll out.

Note: The “dough” might be crumbly and sticky until it has cooled. This makes kneading very difficult, so once I see the mass forming to the shape of the pan or I can almost squish it together with my spoon I put it on some parchment paper to cool. 

Step 3: Roll and Slice

“then take cinnamon & strew on enough; then make it square, like thou will slice it;”

Roll it out flat onto a baking sheet or other large surface. It will be quite sticky, so either grease the baking sheet well or use parchment paper. I like to roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper before I let it cool. 

 If you didn’t add cinnamon in step one, now is the time to sprinkle it over the flattened dough and try to spread or brush it around evenly, as a sort of coating.

If you didn’t add cinnamon in step one, now is the time to sprinkle it over the flattened dough and try to spread or brush it around evenly, as a sort of coating.

Once it has cooled completely, slice into squares. You could also roll into balls or push into a mold, but you’ll have better results if you do that when the dough is still slightly warm.

Step 4: Garnish

“take when thou slice it, and cast box leaves above, and stuck on with cloves.”

Stick a clove in the square to garnish. Remember to remove the clove before eating!

Step 5: Turn it Red (Optional)

“And if thou would like it Red, color it with enough sandalwood.“

If you want to color the gingerbread red, coat it with powdered sandalwood. Edible sandalwood can be difficult to find and it will alter the taste. Sandalwood was the most common 15th century method of coloring foods red.

 If you don’t want to use sandalwood add some drops of red dye to the honey in step one.

Photo by Ciefo Creativity on Unsplash

Betty Crocker Gingerbread People

This recipe is from Betty Crocker’s 1983 Cookbook, which is a classic in many households. Cook books hold so many stories, especially when passed down through the generations.

Ingredients

Step 1

Mix molasses, brown sugar, water and shortening. Mix in remaining ingredients except frosting (if applicable). Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Step 2

Heat over to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on floured board. Cut with floured gingerbread cutter or other favorite shaped cutter. Place about 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation remains when touched, 10 to 12 minutes; cool. Decorate with Decorators’ Frosting (option).

About 2 1/2 Dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies

*If using self-rising flour, omit baking soda and salt

Gingerbread Cookies:

Decrease flour to 6 cups. Roll dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with floured 2 1/2-inch round cutter. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake about 15 minutes.

Bibliography

B, S. (2019, May 24). Medieval Gyngerbrede. A Dollop of History. https://historydollop.com/2018/12/11/medieval-gyngerbrede/

English Heritage. (n.d.). A Short History of Gingerbread | English Heritage. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/a-short-history-of-gingerbread/

Fiegl, A. (2013, November 16). A brief history of Gingerbread. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread-50050265/

“Two fifteenth-century cookery-books : Harleian MS. 279 (ab 1430), & Harl. MS. 4016 (ab. 1450), with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1439, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS. 55 / edited by Thomas Austin.” In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/CookBk. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed December 12, 2024.