Gingerbread is Europeans favorite treat that first appeared in the form of "gingerbread men" at the court of Queen Elizabeth 1 - Her Majesty loved to amaze foreign guests with desserts of an unusual shape.
The court chef kept the recipe for “ginger men” in the strictest confidence, however, either there was a leak of information, or the people made up their own way of cooking, but this delicious and original pastry soon appeared on holiday tables and at ordinary people.
Main ingredient
Deficient and expensive at all times oriental spices in Europe brought a sufficient amount of knights, returning from the Crusades.
Among this abundance of spices, fragrant and healthy ginger occupied not the last place.
Having tasted this amazing oriental product and appreciated its qualities, European chefs and pastry chefs began experimenting by adding it to various dishes, including gingerbread cookies “little men”.
From the height of centuries lived, it should be noted that the experiment was more than a success. After all, meat and vegetable dishes with this spice, teas and other drinks based on it, as well as the notorious gingerbread “little men” always remain in trend.
New Year's scent
In European countries, the recipe for “gingerbread men” is used only for special moments, which are considered the Christmas and New Year holidays. If we have the main New Year's aromas - spruce and tangerine, then the good old Europe adheres to its centuries-old traditions, and on Christmas Eve you can smell home baking with notes of ginger in every home here.
European traditions are gradually moving to us: more and more housewives on New Year's days try to please their home with simple and at the same time original pastries. Gingerbread cookies "little men" in some families become a crown dessert, pushing cakes and pastries into the background.
A little fairy tale
The already popular gingerbreads in the form of men gained even more recognition after the release of the famous Shrek cartoon. After watching, children with doubled activity began to demand gingerbread cookies, and mothers - with enthusiasm to bake or buy a treat.
This is in our supermarkets and gingerbread, and the form for the "ginger man" remains a scarce commodity, and in Europe and America they can be purchased almost everywhere.
Beliefs, signs, symbols related to gingerbread
The form of any baking does not arise from scratch, but is some kind of symbol, designed either to protect from something, or to translate desires into reality.
The famous lark cookies, which our ancestors baked on the feast of 40 saints or warm Alexei (differently in different regions), were an undoubted harbinger of spring and warmth, Easter baked goods always symbolized church domes, and Christmas baked goods (holiday cookies in the form of stars, snowflakes and relatively recently appeared Santas).
But what do the figures of men mean? Most likely, they symbolize the desire for abundance, which has become relevant since the time of famine in medieval Europe (1315), when the gingerbread house in the minds of people was associated with enough food. Accordingly, such a house should have a host - a gingerbread man.
A little later, when the terrible hungry years were left behind, a dessert of this form became a symbol of marriage for girls. They believed that if you eat gingerbread during the Christmas period, then for a year the wedding is guaranteed.
Is it worth mentioning that the recipe for "ginger men" has changed over time, and what it was in its original form, today no one remembers.
Is it possible to create a stencil for gingerbread?
It will be much easier to please their loved ones with such a dessert, if in a nearby supermarket there is not only a set of necessary products, but also suitable tins with which you can create a dozen or two “little men” in five minutes.
But if you did not succeed in acquiring them, then you can get out of the situation by creating a template with your own hands.
It should be noted that this is a very fascinating and useful activity, especially if you involve children in it, who, as a rule, are most pleased with such a dessert as a “gingerbread man”. Stencil in the company of a baby can be made from ordinary cardboard. It is best to create several forms at once. A variety of "gingerbread men" will only decorate the table.
Of course, the independent creation of stencils will take longer: first you need to draw the little men, then cut them out and only then use them for their intended purpose, giving them the appropriate form for the dough.
Gingerbread Man Gingerbread Recipe
Creating one or another culinary product, each housewife tries to bring something of her own to the recipe: individual and inimitable. That highlight by which it would be possible to determine that it was she who cooked this dish.
Therefore, the recipe for "ginger men" and has many varieties and variations. The article presents one of the most simple ways of making such a dessert.
- We will need the following products:
- 5-6 glasses of flour;
- 1.5 tsp slaked soda;
- 2 tsp ginger (dried or grated);
- 0.5 tsp chopped cloves;
- 1 tbsp. Sahara;
- 1 tbsp. honey;
- some salt;
- 200 g of margarine or butter ;
- 2 eggs;
- 5 tbsp strong coffee (brewed).
Consider the cooking process. At the first stage, you need to mix all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, spices, when using a baking powder instead of soda, you also need to add it), separately combine the melted butter with honey and sugar and beat well.
Next, to the honey-oil mixture, add eggs, coffee and part of the flour with spices, mix. At the moment when the mixer is already hard to cope with a thick dough, you need to pour in the remaining flour and start kneading by hand. Be sure to monitor the density of the mass - it should not be loose.
Ready dough should be sent to the refrigerator for 2 hours. After that, you can start cutting the figures. In the cold, the dough becomes even more dense, it will turn out to be a quality "ginger man". At the same time, the stencil should not fail, therefore, to create it, you should use as thick cardboard as possible.
Bake the figures in a preheated 180 ° oven for no more than 15 minutes.
When the products have cooled, you can decorate the gingerbread cookies. "Men" should look delicious, bright and boring. Most often, glaze is used for decoration. To prepare it, we need: 1 egg, 250 g of powdered sugar, 2 tbsp. lemon juice. All ingredients should be combined in a bowl and beat. Food colorings must be added to add color. As a gingerbread decor, you can also use melted chocolate and sprinkles for Easter cakes.