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‘Tis the season for baking all the things. One baked good, in particular, is typically consumed only around this time of year, and that baked good is gingerbread cookies.
While I was baking my own gingerbread cookies, I wondered when and where this delicious treat got its roots (no pun intended).
Throughout this post, I added pictures from the delicious Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies recipe by fabulous Tessa Arias on Handle the Heat, which spurred this quest.
(In case you were wondering, yes, chocolate does go with gingerbread. Especially if you’re a chocolate lover.)
The chocolate I used for the recipe.
Gingerbread gets its flavor from – you guessed it – ginger, which is a root that someone in Southeast Asia decided to dig up and eat thousands of years ago. Eventually, it made its way to Europe with the spice trade and was used by ancient Greeks and Romans.
By the 11th century, it was well known in England. The Spaniards brought it to the West Indies and Mexico soon after the conquest.
Freshly grated ginger.
With the Silk Road formation between Asia and the Mediterranean over the 15th and 17th centuries, spices were more widely introduced to intrigued Europeans. Back then, spices were expensive and a sign of wealth, sophistication, and exoticism in Europe.
Interesting side note: Ginger is a cultivated plant, which means it does not grow wildly. It has been cultivated since antiquity (as far back as 3,500 BC).
This fact blew my mind when I first learned it because what this means is that I am more likely to find magic mushrooms growing wild (which are hard to find, but not impossible) than I am to find wild ginger.
Today, ginger is grown mostly in India and China, and a few other warm and humid Asian climates.
Another interesting side note: Ginger can easily be regrown. Simply place the rizome (root) in well-drained soil and keep it moist. It can even sprout on a countertop if the conditions are right. (Trust me, this works. I have successfully grown my own ginger root.)
Medicinal plants are Mother Nature’s easily accessible alternatives for human health. As far back as the ancients, ginger has been used as a medicinal plant for many common ailments. These include improved memory, arthritis relief, cold and flu prevention and relief, flatulence, and most commonly, it can help prevent or soothe nausea or upset stomach.
This medicinal plant is not only used to prevent common ailments, it also makes a tasty treat in the form of tea, curry and other Indian and Asian cuisines, ginger beer, candies, and cookies – which brings us to my question:
Who decided to put ginger in a cookie, and when?
Adding molasses.
It’s too hard to tell who, exactly, started this traditional delicacy because its history is so vast (but whoever did is a genius). However, in medieval Europe, gingerbread was a favorite treat at festivals and fairs – “often shaped and decorated to look like flowers, birds, animals or even armor. Ladies often gave their favorite knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck in a tournament, or superstitiously ate a “gingerbread husband” to improve their chances of landing the real thing.”
Cities in France and England hosted regular “gingerbread fairs” for centuries – similar to today’s Apple Butter festivals.
It was so popular that even Shakespeare gave it a shoutout in Love’s Labor’s Lost, “An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.”
Adding chocolate to the batter.
It was so well-loved that even Queen Elizabeth the first handed out gingerbread men to visiting diplomats, as a sign of England’s wealth and power.
As ginger became cheaper and more widely available, more experiments were done with it. In Germany, gingerbread houses became so popular that in 1812 they made their way into the Grimm brother’s popular tale Hansel and Gretel; a story about two children who find themselves lured into a witch’s cottage made out of gingerbread.
The fairy tale’s popularity about a gingerbread house may be what spurred gingerbread houses into becoming a household staple for the holidays.
Cookie dough rolled in granulated sugar.
Even in the United States, Americans have been snacking on gingerbread as far back as George Washington’s mother, Mary, who made gingerbread into shapes of kings.
There are usually two ways to make gingerbread cookies: cakey or crunchy. I like them both, but the pictured gingerbread recipe is definitely on the cakier side with ooey-gooey melted chocolate.
The finished product.
“It can be a dense, ginger-spiced cookie flavored with molasses or honey and cut into fanciful shapes (such as the popular gingerbread man). Or, particularly in the United States, it can describe a dark, moist cake flavored with molasses, ginger, and other spices.”
If you like the molasses, cakey kind, and are also a chocolate lover, I definitely recommend trying Tessa’s Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies. As an added bonus, you can eat these without feeling guilty about biting the head off your cookie.
Sources:
Viestad, Andreas. Where Flavor Was Born. 2007. Page 89: https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/TvQhVrQ7bzkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA11
National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4377061/
Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread-50050265/
National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/food/the-plate/2015/12/24/gingerbread-historic-treat-of-spice-and-structure/#close
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