Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a sweet that can take the form of a cake or a cookie in which the predominate flavor is ginger.

Related Topics:
Cake - Cookie - Ginger

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As a cookie, gingerbread can be made into a thin, crisp cookie (often called a ginger snap) or a softer cookie similar to the German Lebkuchen. Gingerbread cookies are often cut into shapes, particularly gingerbread men.

Related Topics:
Ginger snap - German - Lebkuchen - Gingerbread men

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A variant dough is used to make gingerbread houses à la the "witch's house" encountered by Hansel and Gretel. These, covered with a variety of candies and icing, are a common Christmas decoration.

Related Topics:
Hansel and Gretel - Candies - Christmas

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Another variant uses a boiled dough that can be moulded like clay to form inedible statuettes or other decorations. A significant form of popular art in Europe, major centers of gingerbread mould carving included Lyon, Nürnberg, Pesth,Prague, Ulm, and Toru?. Ginger

Related Topics:
Mould - Clay - Lyon - Nürnberg - Pesth - Prague - Ulm - Toru?

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bread moulds often displayed the "news," showing carved portraits of new kings, emperors, and queens, for example. Substantial mould collections are held at the Ethnographic Museum in Toru?, Poland and the Bread Museum in Ulm, Germany.

Related Topics:
Poland - Germany

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The cake form tends to be a dense, treaclely (molasses-based) spice cake. Some recipes add mustard, pepper, raisins, nuts, and/or other spices/ingredients to the batter.

Related Topics:
Treaclely - Mustard - Pepper - Raisin - Nut

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Originally, the term gingerbread (from Latin zingiber via Old French gingebras) referred to preserved ginger, then to a confection made with honey and spices.

Related Topics:
Latin - Old French - Ginger - Honey - Spice

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Gingerbread is also an architectural term for highly decorated Victorian houses.

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