‘While Visions of Gingerbread’ | Gingerbread Recipes

Flavor, fragrance, and memory turn a Christmas treat into a timeless tradition.

It seems as though at the exact moment when the last leaf falls each year, the gingerbread appears. From the bakery to the coffee shop to the drugstore (gingerbread-flavored lip balm, anyone?), this sweet-and-spicy combination of ginger and molasses, preferably in traditional cake or cookie form, is a hallmark of the holiday season. And just like spiked eggnog, or Bing Crosby crooning “Silver Bells,” it takes only a small amount to start feeling festive. Along with its robust flavor, gingerbread packs an equally powerful punch with its unmistakable aroma. Helen Keller once said that “smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived”–and with a mere whiff the journey begins, as quick and neat as the flip of a snow globe. Buzzing now with decades of holiday cheer, we take a bite and dive deeper, into the delightfully cozy combination of spicy ginger, bold molasses, cinnamon, and citrus. Together, they work their memory magic like a sensory Polar Express. Although not originally a Christmas tradition, gingerbread (from the Old French gingerbras, meaning “preserved ginger”) has long been associated with special occasions. From its origins in Asia, the lumpy ginger root traveled west to Europe during the Middle Ages, where it became a prized and pricy baking spice. Legend says that it was Queen Elizabeth I who first requested that gingerbread cookies shaped like flowers, birds, and animals (early ancestors of today’s cookie men) be sold at Renaissance fairs. Later, the Germans popularized the tradition of decorated gingerbread-walled houses for both display and eating. (Want to learn how to build a gingerbread house? Get our expert advice at: YankeeMagazine.com/Gingerbread) As the years passed, the baking of both gingerbread cake and its artful cookie cousins became primarily associated with the holiday season. Closer to home, gingerbread arrived in America with the first settlers and can be found in Early American cookbooks. Fannie Farmer, in her 1896 Boston Cooking School Cook Book, offered nearly a dozen recipes for gingerbread, many sweetened with molasses in the Western European tradition, befitting New England’s British roots. A universal favorite and, by then, relatively easy and inexpensive to make, gingerbread quickly became a holiday-season staple on this side of the Atlantic as well. When we reach for gingerbread in the weeks leading up to Christmas, we enjoy not only the pleasure of a sweet treat, but the continuation of a time-honored tradition. Like all beloved dishes, it’s the combination of flavor, fragrance, and memory that makes them great and guarantees their permanent place at the table (not to mention the drugstore). Those in search of respite during the holiday hustle need only stop, sniff, and savor. As a nod toward honoring gingerbread’s ability to delight us as either cake or cookie, we’ve included recipes for each. Their simple sweetness is wonderful on its own, but with a few extra steps, you can have something truly special. Cut into cubes and drizzled with whiskey, gingerbread cake pairs beautifully with tart homemade lemon curd and fresh whipped cream in a stunning Christmas trifle, while an easy lemon buttercream filling turns a batch of gingerbread cookies into elegant sandwich cookies.