gingerbread
a dark-brown soft cake containing ginger
TRANSLATION
gingerbread = der Lebkuchen, der Pfefferkuchen --- GOOGLE INDEX gingerbread: approximately 70,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
A Washington architecture firm is building a huge GINGERBREAD city downtown, and it will be on view to the public this week.
(Washington Post)
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Run, run as fast as you can;
You can't catch me, I'm the GINGERBREAD man!
(from the Gingerbread Man fairy tale)
(Washington Post)
---
Run, run as fast as you can;
You can't catch me, I'm the GINGERBREAD man!
(from the Gingerbread Man fairy tale)
Did you
know?
gingerbread
noun
- a type of cake, usually very dark brown and soft, which contains ginger
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Gingerbread may have been introduced to Western Europe by 11th-century crusaders returning from the eastern Mediterranean. Its precise origin is unclear, although ginger itself originates in Asia. In medieval England, it referred to any kind of preserved ginger (borrowing from the Old French term gingebras, which in turn came from the spice’s Latin name, zingebar.) The term became associated with ginger-flavored cakes sometime in the 15th century.
Gingerbread was a favorite treat at festivals and fairs in medieval Europe. They were often shaped and decorated to look like flowers, birds, animals or even armor. Several cities in France and England hosted regular "gingerbread fairs" for centuries. Ladies often gave their favorite knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck in a tournament, or superstitiously ate a "gingerbread husband" to improve their chances of landing the real thing.
By 1598, gingerbread was popular enough to be mentioned in a Shakespeare play ("I had but one penny in the world; thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread"). Some even believed that gingerbread had medicinal properties. 16th-century writer John Baret described it as "A kind of cake or paste made to comfort the stomach."
Make a batch of gingerbread cookies for friends and family this Christmas season with this recipe from the BBC:
Ingredients
350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g/4½oz butter
175g/6oz light soft brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
To decorate
writing icing
cake decorations
Preparation method
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in plastic foil and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out the3 shapes (use gingerbread men cutouts if you can find them) and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them. For decorations, use a skewer to make a small hole in the top of each biscuit.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"You can buy freshly made gingerbread at our local bakery."
noun
- a type of cake, usually very dark brown and soft, which contains ginger
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Gingerbread may have been introduced to Western Europe by 11th-century crusaders returning from the eastern Mediterranean. Its precise origin is unclear, although ginger itself originates in Asia. In medieval England, it referred to any kind of preserved ginger (borrowing from the Old French term gingebras, which in turn came from the spice’s Latin name, zingebar.) The term became associated with ginger-flavored cakes sometime in the 15th century.
Gingerbread was a favorite treat at festivals and fairs in medieval Europe. They were often shaped and decorated to look like flowers, birds, animals or even armor. Several cities in France and England hosted regular "gingerbread fairs" for centuries. Ladies often gave their favorite knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck in a tournament, or superstitiously ate a "gingerbread husband" to improve their chances of landing the real thing.
By 1598, gingerbread was popular enough to be mentioned in a Shakespeare play ("I had but one penny in the world; thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread"). Some even believed that gingerbread had medicinal properties. 16th-century writer John Baret described it as "A kind of cake or paste made to comfort the stomach."
Make a batch of gingerbread cookies for friends and family this Christmas season with this recipe from the BBC:
Ingredients
350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g/4½oz butter
175g/6oz light soft brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
To decorate
writing icing
cake decorations
Preparation method
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in plastic foil and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out the3 shapes (use gingerbread men cutouts if you can find them) and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them. For decorations, use a skewer to make a small hole in the top of each biscuit.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"You can buy freshly made gingerbread at our local bakery."
