Gingerbread - You’ve come a long way, baby!
The history behind foods and desserts are as varied and checkered as the people who made that history. Recently the Way Back Machine took me to the year 1395 when the Medieval Crusaders returned to Europe with the exotic spices and ingredients for gingerbread in tote. The English Medieval gingerbread, served at holidays and festivals, was a cooked and thickened dough (not baked at all) made on elaborately carved “cookie boards”. The molded cookies were then brightly colored and gilted (covered with a thin layer of gold).
Traveling through time and the European continent, gingerbread began to change form. The Dutch made Speculass. In Germany, it was known as Specualass, and then Lebkuchen which was made with honey. The French made pain d’epices or “spice bread”, and the Italians, panforte, so dense and rich that it was almost candy-like. The early settlers to America brought gingerbread with them, where the Pennsylvania Dutch, and Home of the Shoofly Pie, especially favored all things molasses. (We’ll have to save a whole day for a discussion on molasses).
It was about this time, if I understand this all correctly, that baking gingerbread dough on cookie boards began to fall out of common use. The preferred method was to make “hard” gingerbread dough that was rolled out and cut into circles with a glass or tea cup, or molded by hand to resemble little men. It was the 18th century tinsmiths, however, with their creation of tin cookie cutters, that we see the overall shape of the cookie being emphasized, and the Gingerbread Cookie as we know it today.
It was difficult to choose a gingerbread recipe to leave with you today. There are so many varieties—mild, soft and chewy, crisp and very spicy, cake-like—which one? They all have their purposes. I like to make a mild and softer gingerbread for kids and me. I use stiffer, harder dough for constructing houses and such. But for the adults, I use a very spicy, much crisper cookie and thus, I leave with you today the instructions for Stenciled Gingerbread.
I am sorry for the pitiful picture of these very savory, satisfying G-bread cookies. This recipe is very old, and I have not made them in a great many years. The picture below is actually a picture of the original picture. These cookies take a great deal of time because they are "art", and my drawing/painting skills are rudimentary. I used this recipe in hopes that all you other cookie makers would try this recipe and let me know how you "fare". Happy Cookies!
Stenciled Ginger Cookies Cookie
3.5 c. flour 1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp each cinnamon and ground ginger
.5 tsp each nutmeg and cloves
.25 c. unsalted butter
.5 c. dark br. sugar
.5 c. molasses
.25 c. milk
Cookie Paint
Yolks from 3 lg. eggs
Liquid food colors: about 12 drops green, 16 drops red, and 8 drops yellow
Mix dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream butter and br. sugar until fluffy. Beat in molasses. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk, scraping down bowl and mixing well after each addition. Mixture will be crumbly and very stiff. Work dough with hands to form smooth dough. Shape each half into a 1” thick rectangle, wrap in plastic, and chill very firm/1 hr.
Roll ea. half out to rectangle slightly larger than 12x9” on lightly floured surface or between 2 sheets of waxed/baking paper. Using a ruler, cut ea 12x9” rectangle into 3x2” rectangles. Place on lightly greased pans ½” apart. Use tiny aspic cutters to imprint patterns OR draw pictures into the dough with a toothpick. Do not pierce/cut through the dough. Add food colors to each of one egg yolks, beating with a fork to mix well. Using a paintbrush, paint the imprinted pattern. Bake 9-12 min. until tops look dry with shiny painted surfaces. Makes 36.
