GRAMMY on the GO
Sweet Treat
The Gingerbread Man
By Karen Shadrach
“Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me—I’m the Gingerbread Man!”
The Gingerbread Man first appeared in print in the May 1875 issue of “St. Nicholas Magazine,” a popular monthly American children’s publication.
The gingerbread man (boy) jumped out of the oven and had to outrun an assortment of characters trying to catch and ultimately eat him. No one could catch him; he had to be tricked. The fox was the successful one in the end, coercing the gingerbread man into his mouth.
Holiday Tradition
Our grandchildren love this classic old English Grimm fairy tale. They also love baking and eating gingerbread men. It has become a tradition to bake and enjoy eating these cookies every year during the holiday season. It’s fun to read or watch the story together before baking gingerbread cookies. You can borrow the book from a library or watch it on YouTube.
Gingerbread is a popular Christmas treat all over the world and can be found in many different forms. It first appeared in central Europe around the Middle Ages and was made from spices and sugars brought back to the Middle East by soldiers from the Crusades.
One of England’s most frequently used Christmas decorations is the gingerbread man. Legend traces the gingerbread men back to Queen Elizabeth I. She liked to give her guests ginger biscuits that were edible caricatures, so she had her royal bakers mold the ginger pastry into shapes that looked like her favorite visiting dignitaries.
Gingerbread men cookies can be made in a variety of ways. The quickest is to buy a pre-made cookie mix, such as Betty Crocker, and add just milk and eggs. If you cannot find the pre-made mix, make your own using a boxed spice cake mix. To one box, mix in 1 large egg and 1 ⁄ 2 cup of butter. Roll out the dough and cut out your cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes, then cool and decorate.
If you want to bake your cookies from scratch, my favorite recipe is from Williamsburg, the old-school Raleigh Tavern gingerbread cookies. If you have older grandkids, you can bake these together, or pre-make yourself and let the young ones help decorate. Gingerbread cookies are fairly dry and have an exceptionally long shelf life for homemade cookies. Undecorated cookies should last 2-3 weeks in a sealed container. If you need more time ahead, the undecorated cookies can last up to three months in the freezer.
The Raleigh Tavern’s recipe, which will make approximately 24 cookies, is as follows:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Mix: 1 cup softened butter, ½ cup evaporated milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1 cup unsulphured molasses.
In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons ginger, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix well and add 4 cups of pastry flour to these dry ingredients.
Then, adding one cup at a time, add the flour mixture to your butter mixture, stirring constantly. The dough should be stiff enough to handle without sticking to your fingers.
Knead the dough for a smoother texture and add up to ½ cup additional flour, if needed, to prevent sticking. When smooth, roll it out ¼ inch thick on a floured surface and cut out your gingerbread men. Bake on greased cookie sheets (or parchment-lined pans) for 10-12 minutes.
We have three different sizes of cookie cutters for our gingerbread cookies, plus both gingerbread boy and girl cutters. The best and classic way to decorate gingerbread men is with royal icing. This is a very plain icing made from egg whites, powdered sugar and water.
The easiest method for children to draw their designs is to buy premade icing in plastic containers. Outline the cookies with the white (or colored) icing, or just make wavy (rick-rack) lines along the arms and legs. Draw faces with the icing, or use mini M&M’s, raisins, cinnamon candies, or chocolate chips for facial features. Areas can be sketched in with icing and then filled in with colored sugar to create outfits for the ginger people.
Have fun and try your hand at the classic gingerbread-man-inspired dessert this season.
