The History of Ginger bread

Memories of Christmas involve the smell of ginger in baking in our house.  Ginger was always added to the pudding much to the dislike of one of my siblings, oh and the cake.  The other thing which I have come to like over time is the ginger bread men and women biscuits (I really can't bring myself to use the word cookie) that hang off the tree.  That's if you can make them small enough.

I have also come to love the Ginger Bread House.  A very tricky thing to make unless you have the patience of the saints and lots of solid royal icing.  I've taught student's this for a few years to finish the last few weeks of school off.  Haven't done it for awhile now.

So I thought why not look at the history of the Ginger Bread and especially the house.  Pouring over sites I came across the about.com site and here is some of the information they had.

What is Ginger Bread?

This is a baked sweet that contains ginger and sometimes the spices cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and anise.  It is usually sweetened with a combination of brown sugar, molasses, light or dark corn syrup or honey.  Here in Australia the good old golden syrup is added.

In the 21st Century we use Ginger bread differently from past eras.  We use it in three ways.

1.  The shape of think, crisp biscuits like snaps.  Polish pierniczki, Czech pernik.  Also Dutch speculaas cut into heart or fanciful shapes.  The Germans like theirs a little softer and puffier known as lebkuchen.

2. Gingerbread can also be a dark spicy cake like the Polish pernik.  It is sometimes served in USA with a lemon glaze.

3. It can also be shaped into a house.

The Ginger Bread House

This became very popular in Germany as this was the spice trade centre of the European World.

It also become more popular after the publication of the story of "Hansel and Gretel"in the 19th Century by those famous brothers Grimm. 

On various sites I've read that some towns have competitions and everyone makes a replica of their house and after the New Year the houses are broken and eaten by the children.

Ginger Bread House Recipe

Hanging In There

I love this little story about the way we can all view life.
It's amazing how many people wallow in their situations and sometimes we are too afraid to get out of them.  We like our life and don't want to change it.

It is also all about our attitude to what life throws at us.  How do we handle the every day items and the really weighty matters in our life.

Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was a wise an cheery soul;
The other one took a gloomy view
And bade his friend a sad adieu.

Said the other frog with a merry grin,
I can't get out, but I won't give in!
I'll swim around till my strength is spent,
Then I will die all the more content.

And as he swam, though ever it seemed,
His smuggling began to churn the cream
Until on top of pure butter he stopped
And out of the bowl he quickly hopped!

The moral you ask? Oh it's easily found:
If you can't get out; just keep swimming around.
Hang in There!

Rice, W. (1999). Still More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks.  Youth Specialties.  Zondervan Publishing House. p.74