Christmas Fun Facts – The Story of the Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread has been around for a long time, but the recipes used to make it have changed considerably over the years. Initially, gingerbread was made with breadcrumbs, ginger, and a sweetener, such as honey. People discovered that ginger has preservative properties and used it accordingly.

The gingerbread recipe changed, and by the 15th century (1400), breadcrumbs had been replaced by flour. Honey was replaced by molasses. The cookie became lighter. Some recipes made sweet, fine ginger chips and others were thicker and cookie-like.

Pictorial scenes telling stories were carved in wood and gingerbread was rolled and pressed into them.

It first became figures (as people) in the 16th century (1500). Queen Elizabeth I of England is credited with creating the first gingerbread men.

Queen Elizabeth was queen of England from November 1558. (She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn). Queen Elizabeth was known for having well-dressed courtiers at her court. She is credited with the first gingerbread men. The story goes that she made and decorated gingerbread cookies to resemble her favorite courtiers, and gave them to her.

Gingerbread men tend to have vague shapes. For example, legs don’t have definite feet, and they certainly don’t have toes. The arms have no defined arms, and definitely no fingers. The gingerbread women have an equally simple design. Gingerbread expands when baked, even recipes without eggs. Consequently, cookies work best when they are not too detailed.

Detail work comes into play when decorating these cookies.

So gingerbread men and women needed houses, chairs, tables, beds, carts, trees, and cattle that are also made of gingerbread, and bakers created them.

The Grimm brothers wrote Hansel and Gretel in 1812. The story told of a witch who wanted to eat the children, Hansel and Gretel. She fattened them up with candy and other sweets, and the children ate a house made of gingerbread. Gingerbread houses became popular at the time, especially in Germany.

Gingerbread houses are popular in the United States and many parts of Europe, but interestingly, not in England. These houses are most common during the holiday season, but they work well for any other holiday as well. Valentine’s Day houses are decorated with pink, red and white candy. Halloween houses have ghosts coming out of them and are often built “wrong” on purpose. The only limits with gingerbread houses are your imagination and the size of your cookie sheets. (I like to design one or two each year from index cards. Remember that gingerbread is thicker than paper, but put the cards together in whatever kind of house you can design.)

My favorite recipe for gingerbread houses is called “the alternate recipe.” I replace shortening with butter and use corn syrup instead of molasses.