Have you had your gingerbread yet? These days, most Americans think of gingerbread as decorated cookies in the shape of a man, but my mother often made soft, cake-like gingerbread for the holidays. Gingerbread comes in many forms, and always has. The main thing that sets it apart from other confections is the spice blend it contains, but believe it or not, that hasn't always included ginger!
The earliest English recipe for “gyngebred” calls for breadcrumbs to be stuck together with honey, sort of like Christmas pudding. There are spices, but no ginger is mentioned. However, the spices that are mentioned do taste somewhat like ginger when they are combined. The spice combinations in gingerbread vary around the world, as do the holiday traditions that go with it. Mexico has cochinitos, which are often shaped like a pig. In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas distributes crunchy cookies called pepernoten to children. A bakery in Aachen, Germany makes printen, a cookie with spices and beet sugar. Read about how gingerbread makes the holidays spicy around the world at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Deborah Lee Soltesz)