A Gingerbread Memory
By
Ann Brubaker Greenleaf Wirtz
As appeared in “The Pulse” Brentwood, Missouri December 2023
(Ann grew up in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, and a neighboring community to Brentwood.
She attended Lockwood and Avery Schools, Plymouth Jr. HS, and graduated from WGHS in 1966.
She has been writing an annual Christmas story for "The Pulse" since 2011.)
There’s something romantic about gingerbread, and how it comes into its own in the fall and winter seasons. It is a delicious cool-weather dessert, its primary flavor the result of ginger combined with molasses, or treacle, a very similar yet slightly sweeter product used in Great Britain. Topped with whipped cream or warm lemon sauce, it’s a dessert to savor on a brisk day.
Gingerbread, however, takes on a renowned persona in December. This classic yet simple dough is used to create delightful houses and structures and is shaped into a variety of items. It is especially used to make gingerbread men and women, decorated, eaten, or hung on a Christmas tree. December and gingerbread go together like the Star and the Manger.
My own personal gingerbread memory falls into the dessert category. Mom baked her classic gingerbread in a square, glass cake pan, her warm and comforting after-dinner sweet usually topped with her homemade lemon sauce. It was one of my favorite desserts growing up. The scent of ginger and cinnamon in the air when I came home from school brought a smile of anticipation for the evening meal. Her dessert was delicious with the warm sauce, but I’m a whipped cream fan, too, because cream enhances everything, from coffee to pumpkin pie, to gingerbread and creamy soup.
Gingerbread has a long history, dating back to 2400 BC in Greece with the first known recipe, according to Making Gingerbread Houses by Rhonda Massingham Hart. Recipes are recorded in China in the 10th century, and many gingerbread versions existed throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) is given credit for envisioning gingerbread shapes and figures gilded with gold leaf to represent the highly esteemed individuals paying visit to her court. Decorated cookies, cut to resemble birds, animals, and seasonal flowers, along with the kings and queens, became popular at Medieval fairs held throughout England, Northern Europe, and Germany. Some gatherings became known as Gingerbread Fairs, with the ginger cookies identified as fairings (thehistorykitchen.com).
Even Shakespeare gave homage to this comforting treat in his 1598 play, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Act 5, Scene1, “An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread…” (smithsonianmagazine.com).
In the 16th century, Germany began what has become the enormously popular tradition of making clever and elaborate gingerbread houses for the holidays. This practice was enhanced with the December 20, 1812, publication of what became known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm (historytoday.com).
Their 86 original fairy tales included a very old story, Hansel and Gretel, originally a Baltic tale from the early 1300s when a severe famine occurred. The brother and sister, who are abandoned by their parents because of a famine, come upon a house deep in the forest owned by a witch and made entirely of sweet breads or gingerbread, cakes, and treats. Taken captive, the clever children in the end rescue themselves from the witch’s evil plan to cook them for her dinner.
The classic tale The Gingerbread Boy has a main character looking exactly like the gingerbread cookie made and loved by all. The story was first published in 1875 in an issue of St. Nicholas Magazine, a monthly American publication started in 1873 by Charles Scribner’s Sons and written for children ages five to eighteen (The Baldwin Library, UF Digital Collection).
America has another claim to gingerbread fame. The 1784 recipe made by Mary Ball Washington, the mother of our first president, was a favorite dessert enjoyed by her famous son, George. Mary served her gingerbread to the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her special recipe was later called Lafayette Gingerbread (mountvernon.org).
Ah, gingerbread, its uniqueness the stuff of stories and legends, the spice of culinary fame, the backbone of intricate houses, and the ingredient for creative accomplishment. It is both humble and extravagant, a bearer of joy and comfort, a memory maker, simply a food that brings people together.
As you enjoy this lovely Christmas season, I offer a recipe of delicious and easy-to-make gingerbread cookies to savor and share with others. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ann’s Soft Gingerbread Drop Cookies
2 cups flour
1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger
½ cup butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
¼ cup molasses
¾ cup Craisins
Mix dry ingredients together.
Combine butter, egg, milk, molasses.
Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well.
Add Craisins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet or use parchment paper.
Using a teaspoon, drop dough into mounds on the prepared sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until done.
By
Ann Brubaker Greenleaf Wirtz
As appeared in “The Pulse” Brentwood, Missouri December 2023
(Ann grew up in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, and a neighboring community to Brentwood.
She attended Lockwood and Avery Schools, Plymouth Jr. HS, and graduated from WGHS in 1966.
She has been writing an annual Christmas story for "The Pulse" since 2011.)
There’s something romantic about gingerbread, and how it comes into its own in the fall and winter seasons. It is a delicious cool-weather dessert, its primary flavor the result of ginger combined with molasses, or treacle, a very similar yet slightly sweeter product used in Great Britain. Topped with whipped cream or warm lemon sauce, it’s a dessert to savor on a brisk day.
Gingerbread, however, takes on a renowned persona in December. This classic yet simple dough is used to create delightful houses and structures and is shaped into a variety of items. It is especially used to make gingerbread men and women, decorated, eaten, or hung on a Christmas tree. December and gingerbread go together like the Star and the Manger.
My own personal gingerbread memory falls into the dessert category. Mom baked her classic gingerbread in a square, glass cake pan, her warm and comforting after-dinner sweet usually topped with her homemade lemon sauce. It was one of my favorite desserts growing up. The scent of ginger and cinnamon in the air when I came home from school brought a smile of anticipation for the evening meal. Her dessert was delicious with the warm sauce, but I’m a whipped cream fan, too, because cream enhances everything, from coffee to pumpkin pie, to gingerbread and creamy soup.
Gingerbread has a long history, dating back to 2400 BC in Greece with the first known recipe, according to Making Gingerbread Houses by Rhonda Massingham Hart. Recipes are recorded in China in the 10th century, and many gingerbread versions existed throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) is given credit for envisioning gingerbread shapes and figures gilded with gold leaf to represent the highly esteemed individuals paying visit to her court. Decorated cookies, cut to resemble birds, animals, and seasonal flowers, along with the kings and queens, became popular at Medieval fairs held throughout England, Northern Europe, and Germany. Some gatherings became known as Gingerbread Fairs, with the ginger cookies identified as fairings (thehistorykitchen.com).
Even Shakespeare gave homage to this comforting treat in his 1598 play, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Act 5, Scene1, “An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread…” (smithsonianmagazine.com).
In the 16th century, Germany began what has become the enormously popular tradition of making clever and elaborate gingerbread houses for the holidays. This practice was enhanced with the December 20, 1812, publication of what became known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm (historytoday.com).
Their 86 original fairy tales included a very old story, Hansel and Gretel, originally a Baltic tale from the early 1300s when a severe famine occurred. The brother and sister, who are abandoned by their parents because of a famine, come upon a house deep in the forest owned by a witch and made entirely of sweet breads or gingerbread, cakes, and treats. Taken captive, the clever children in the end rescue themselves from the witch’s evil plan to cook them for her dinner.
The classic tale The Gingerbread Boy has a main character looking exactly like the gingerbread cookie made and loved by all. The story was first published in 1875 in an issue of St. Nicholas Magazine, a monthly American publication started in 1873 by Charles Scribner’s Sons and written for children ages five to eighteen (The Baldwin Library, UF Digital Collection).
America has another claim to gingerbread fame. The 1784 recipe made by Mary Ball Washington, the mother of our first president, was a favorite dessert enjoyed by her famous son, George. Mary served her gingerbread to the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her special recipe was later called Lafayette Gingerbread (mountvernon.org).
Ah, gingerbread, its uniqueness the stuff of stories and legends, the spice of culinary fame, the backbone of intricate houses, and the ingredient for creative accomplishment. It is both humble and extravagant, a bearer of joy and comfort, a memory maker, simply a food that brings people together.
As you enjoy this lovely Christmas season, I offer a recipe of delicious and easy-to-make gingerbread cookies to savor and share with others. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ann’s Soft Gingerbread Drop Cookies
2 cups flour
1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger
½ cup butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
¼ cup molasses
¾ cup Craisins
Mix dry ingredients together.
Combine butter, egg, milk, molasses.
Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well.
Add Craisins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet or use parchment paper.
Using a teaspoon, drop dough into mounds on the prepared sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until done.
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