The only gingerbread recipe you need this Christmas (2024)

FAQs

What does the gingerbread man symbolize for Christmas? ›

One theory holds that since the "men" are really more toddler-shaped than adult, they came to represent the baby Jesus at Christmas.

In the late 17th century, gingerbread became associated with Christmas. Russian bakers prepared gingerbread men and women, usually as replicas of those people attending parties. Gingerbread houses were introduced about 200 years later, when the Grimm brothers wrote Hansel and Gretel.

Taste is obvious: sweets made with dark brown sugar will have a slightly deeper flavor with those notes of caramel and toffee I mentioned. That's why I only use dark brown sugar when making gingerbread; but depending on the recipe, you may not even notice a difference.

Some people believe the fairytale Hansel and Gretel was based on this tradition while other historians believe creating gingerbread houses was influenced by the story. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are credited with popularizing the Christmas Tree and incorporating gingerbread into Christmas.

What's the Moral? The gingerbread man story's moral is slightly dark for a fable meant for children: Be careful who you trust. The cookie believed the fox when he said he wasn't tempted to eat him—this misguided trust led to the protagonist's downfall.

of gingerbread noun. Obsolete. (As a mock title or ironic term of praise) a person of much show but little substance.

​Superstitions about gingerbread flourished in the 17th century. Witches supposedly made gingerbread figures, ate them, and thereby caused the death of their enemies. Dutch magistrates went so far as to declare baking or eating molded cookies illegal.

In the 16th century, Germans began making cookie-walled houses around the same time “Hansel and Gretel” was published, PBS said. The story, written by the Brothers Grimm, concerned two young children get lost in a forest before finding a witch with a house made of gingerbread.

In 16th century Germany, people began to make elaborate gingerbread houses. "Centuries later, the Brothers Grimm's tale of Hansel and Gretel and the house in the woods made entirely of candy, boosted their popularity.

Golden Syrup

With its golden, amber color, it is lighter than molasses, though the two are similar in their thickness. Golden syrup also a liquid sweetener, so 1 cup of golden syrup can replace 1 cup of molasses. Golden syrup has a unique flavor, so it may alter the flavor of your recipe slightly.

Can I use brown sugar instead of molasses in gingerbread? ›

Brown sugar is actually a combination of granulated sugar and molasses, so it's a good substitute for molasses. While measurements may vary per recipe, you can generally replace 1 cup molasses with 3/4 cup packed brown sugar.

"Other substitutes include Sorghum syrup, and Treacle, an English version of molasses, you may find at an international market." Honey, dark corn syrup, and maple syrup can also be used to replace molasses in recipes.

Gingerbread makes the perfect year round gift

They certainly make a lovely edible gift for family and friends as they can be decorated so individually and beautifully with icing, sweets and ribbons making them almost too good to eat.

The Gingerbread man is one of England's most frequently used Christmas decorations. Its creation is attributed to Queen Elizabeth !, who is thought to have served the gingerbread figurines to visiting dignitaries. Lebkuchen, the German gingerbread, is likely to be the oldest Christmas gingerbread cookie.

Caption Options. While light and dark brown sugar are interchangeable, they're not exact substitutes. Using dark brown sugar when a recipe calls for light will give your final product a more robust taste and a darker color, and it might slightly affect the texture.

You can use either light or dark brown sugar. Dark brown will add a stronger flavor, so just keep that in mind. Molasses. This is an essential gingerbread ingredient!

The difference in flavor between white and brown sugar is entirely from the added molasses. Molasses is thick and wet and sticky, so using darker brown sugar is going to make the cookies a tiny bit more gooey. It reacts with baking soda, so it can help convert it to bubbles and leaven the cookie.

Can you substitute dark brown sugar for light brown sugar? In general, yes, the sugars are interchangeable in most recipes. Especially in most standard baking recipes that call for a mix of sugars like cookies and/or when brown sugar isn't the star ingredient for flavor, you can use one versus the other.