Today’s notion of gingerbread might remind us of frosted dark molasses houses filled with aromatic spices and cut into cookie stamped shapes, nursery rhymes, classic fairy tales, and winter celebrations.
You may be surprised to learn that its modern day notion has its origins in Eastern European Monasteries. Monastic nuns, tasked with the production of wax candles to line and illuminate the abbeys, were caretakers of honey apiaries. These apiaries supplied the wax needed to light the candelabras, while the honey was used in a delicious byproduct of the medieval candle making craft- gingerbread.
Monasteries of the Middle Ages also possessed coffers large enough to afford expensive spice available through medieval trade routes. Cinnamon, ginger, and clove- collectively known as “pepper”- were combined with a honey dough, usually from rye flour. These doughs were then pressed into wood molds lined with beeswax to help release the dough from the mold when baking was finished. The beeswax, in turn, would enhance the flavor and the aroma of the treat. Flowers visited by the bees transferred pollen, and hence flavor, into the wax. Keratin also contributed to the yellow color of the dough.
Typically enjoyed with wine, these highly preserved doughs could be transported and kept for long periods. Properties of the honey, beeswax, and spices contributed to a product that could be kept for weeks and even months. These were further preserved by Gothic cellars- kept cool by subterranean temperatures.
European Confectioner’s Guilds of the Middle Ages continued the practice and apprenticeship of making gingerbread alongside chandlering or candle smithing. Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, Prague, Kraków, Debrecen, and Toruń saw long lasting traditions around the making of gingerbread- much centered around the Eastern Orthodox Church and was fostered by Silk Road trade routes.
The Austrian-Hungarian City of Miskloc saw the Calvinist Reformation and Revolution, and found itself along spice trade routes via the Ottoman Empire and it’s Silk Road. This allowed the tradition to last for centuries and through the Crusades.
Hungarian family lines continue the tradition, since the 15th Century, of intricately crafted and ornate wood mold carving. Renaissance and Rococo periods are reflective in the shapes. Religious life and royal figures can be found depicted in most.
As refined sugar became more readily available through imports, the seventeenth century saw the first decorations on gingerbread called “ice.” Intricate designs hand piped with royal icing and flooding techniques are still popular today.
The heart shape remains a popular decoration in Hungary. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Catherine of Alexandria is venerated as a patron Saint of young girls and she is often associated with hearts. Hungarians preserve the tradition of gifting hearts as a coming of age gesture. A young girl might offer the gift of a gingerbread heart to a young man, who might then return a gift of a gingerbread soldier if the young man is interested and the notion is accepted.
Today’s gingerbread doughs include wheat flours, eggs, caramels, molasses, treacle, and a melânge of spices not limited to star anise seed, nutmeg, cloves, coriander, cardamom, and ginger. Although the goal of these recipes continues the achievement of a stable dough, it is typically for more artistic ends now, than for preservation reasons.
Cutting shapes with metal cookie cutters, stamps, or perfecting straight edged pieces for the construction of gingerbread houses are followed by decorations with a variety of icings and finishing. Detail created by sugar artists now have a limitless amount of confection and techniques to add at their fingertips. Depictions typically include an indulgent, layered and frosted wonderland covered in other sweets and treats.
Shop a selection of gingerbread house kits here.
It can be argued that the modern day gingerbread house archetype is strongly influenced and made famous by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s fairy tale Hansel and Grettel, and subsequently by Englebert Humperdinck’s Opera rendition of the same name.
The symbolism of the gingerbread houses found in these tales are repeatedly laced with a depth of psychological meaning. There are rich ingredients enjoyed by the elite, religious symbolisms such as a home flowing with milk and honey, the potential for indulgence and gluttony that leads to ruin, and the notorious idea from the Church of sweets being sinful to the partaker. The Grimm brothers’ account was a cautionary tale to young children not to be led by enticement.
Religious piety and Old World tradition have been ultimately survived by novelty, artistic craftsmanship and tradition, and the nostalgic craving for the warm spices that comfort us during the colder winter months. Now, gingerbread men, winter scenes, and decorated house fancies attract bakers and sugar artists to this long revered art form- even while, at times, wholly unaware of its most illuminating past.
Sources Cited
- “Gingerbread Journeys,” Directed by Anita Lackenberger, Indigenius, 2015. Prime Video.
- Tatar, Maria. Off With Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Amsterdam UP, 2020.
- Avey, Tori. “The History of Gingerbread.” www.pbs.org, PBS Thirteen, Food, 20 Dec. 2013, www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-gingerbread/.
- Fiegl, Amanda. “A Brief History of Gingerbread.” www.smithsonianmagazine.com, Smithsonian Magazine, Arts & Culture, 24 Dec. 2008, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread-50050265.
