A extremely wonderful holiday tradition, the act of making a gingerbread house is innovative as well as tasty. But where did it all come from?
How did we ever arrive at making scrumptious gingerbread homes and why during Christmas? Today, we will be discussing the origins of gingerbread and Gingerbread house recipe that is followed all around the world.
Why is gingerbread called gingerbread?
The term gingerbread is an historical French word, which means “preserved ginger”. The root was once first cultivated in ancient China and was eventually discovered that it helped to hold both flour and meat.
Because of this, ginger was once baked into little crisps, that finally grew to become cookies in Western Europe. These cookies or “fairings” as they would be known at the time, grew large recognition at fairs, for this reason, the name.
Many fairings were decorated with gilded edges and would be the basis of what would nowadays be regarded as the gingerbread house.
What is a gingerbread house?
A gingerbread house is a confectionery house typically made from a hardened ginger biscuit, usually referred to as a “ginger nut”.
This house is usually embellished with an assortment of frosting and candied elements. This practise stems from the tradition of baking ginger into small cookies, known as snap cookies during European and North American holidays.
The popular feature of a gingerbread house is that the end product needs to resemble some shape of an architect, however, nowadays, it is very loosely applied.
A gingerbread house can be made to seem like anything, with the necessary rule of it being built completely of fit to be eaten items, specifically sweet and gingerbread.
Who Invented the gingerbread house?
The actual inventor is largely unknown as gingerbread constructions can be found as far back as ancient Greece and even further in China, but for the Europeans and North America, the practice of making gingerbread houses originates in Germany during the 1800’s.
As gingerbread was already used to make different forms of art, German bakers took this to the next step, basing their creation off a very popular fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm, “Hansel and Gretel” where two children are abandoned in a forest before discovering an edible house made of bread and sugar.
Bakers took descriptions of this house from the story and began approximating their own take on a gingerbread house. This would be most popular during Christmas, as it was common place tradition to consume ginger snap cookies around this time as well.
What is the purpose of a gingerbread house?
The purpose of a gingerbread house is two-fold-to provide an artistic medium and of course to eat. Gingerbread houses are commonly made nowadays to express creativity in a more fun and visually vibrant medium.
With the world of sweets available, the cost of materials certainly isn’t high and the ceiling for creativity is nearly endless, creating a fun practice both for children and adults alike. Plus, afterwards, you can eat your creation, something all children can greatly appreciate.
History of the gingerbread house in Germany
As stated previously, Gingerbread houses in Germany originated from Bakers emulating the description from Hansel and Gretel. In Europe and North America, it was already commonplace to make Gingerbread mould carvings with artistic depictions.
So, bakers applied their craft and constructed their ideals of a “fairy tale” house, resulting in what we know today as gingerbread house making.
This tradition was most popular during Christmas, where a great number of goods were baked from Gingerbread.
How did the gingerbread house tradition get started?
The tradition of gingerbread house making started out with Europeans and Americans baking gingersnap cookies around Christmas.
These cookies tend to be decorated with elaborate designs, generally gilded edges with pictures of animals, homes or different architecture.
Gingerbread used to be additionally a medium for showing folks artwork and the information as well. This naturally advanced into the homes that German bakers popularized and grew to become what we understand these days as the artwork of making gingerbread houses.
How were gingerbread houses incorporated into Christmas?
Gingersnap cookies have continually been related with the spirit of Christmas, and as such, it was once quite famous to bake a large assortment of ginger products at some point of Christmas. With the notion of gingerbread houses, subsequently this tradition merged with the thinking of gingerbread houses.
And on account that Christmas is a extensively essential time in German, the practice would grow to be synonymous with Christmas itself.
