Advent Calendar - Day 16 - Gingerbread People

Photo © Rob Jones

I always assosiate Gingerbread with Christmas but actually when I thought about it, I didn’t know why.

So I delved….

Ginger was first grown in south-east Asia and then spread around the pacific by sea traders - even as far as Hawaii. It arrived in the Middle East and then Europe thanks to the Spice Trade from China. Certainly the Greeks and the Romans knew of it.

The word Ginger comes from the Old English Gingifer, which itself came from the Medieval Latin Gingiber, the Greek Zingibris, Middle Indic Singabera and Sanskrit Srngavera.

Like any spices in the Middle Ages it was very expensive, and highly prized, and therefore very special.

It was often used as a medicine, to calm the body and mind. My mother gave it to me for an upset tummy.

Germanic Europe led the way in turning it into ‘bread'.’ Think Hansel and Gretel finding the Gingerbread house in the woods belonging tot he witch. People made their own.

The houses needed people to live in them, so Gingerbread figures followed.

Like so many contemporary Christmas traditions, Prince Albert brough them with him to the court of Queen Victoria.

But - even earlier there is also a story that Queen Elizabeth I had gingerbread figures made to resemble her dinner guests.

Certainly by the 17th century it had become associated with Christmas and Easter. Hoorah.

The story of the Gingerbread Man dates from about 1875, but is probably older.

In the story a childless old woman bakes a gingerbread man, who leaps from her oven and runs away. The woman and her husband give chase, but are unable to catch him. The gingerbread man then outruns several farm workers and farm animals, while taunting them:

I've run away from a little old woman, a little old man, and I can run away from you, I can!

The fairy story ends with a fox catching him and eating him all up.

Not quite sure what the moral of the story is. There must be one. Don’t get too cocky, mate - maybe that’s it.

Ingredients:

250g Plain Flour.
1 Teaspoon of Ground Ginger.
Half Teaspoon of Cinnamon.
2 Teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda.
Pinch of Salt.
50g of Sugar.
100g Brown Sugar.
100g Golden Syrup
A heaped tablespoon of a nighttime drink.

Method:

Oven on - 180C - and either grease a baking tray or line it with greaseproof paper.

Mix together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, cinnamon and malt drink powder.

Heat up the butter, sugar and golden syrup until it’s all mixed together. Let it cool slightly. Mix it in with the dry ingredients and work it into a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and pop into the fridge for half an hour.

Roll out the dough till it’s about 5 millimetres thick. You’ll need a Gingebread man/woman cutter which is a faff, or just do a rough cut. Adds charm. Add smile, eyes and buttons.

Place the figures onto the tray and cook for about 15 mins - but keep checking so they don’t burn.

Onto a grill to cool.

RJ