German Christmas Gingerbread Views

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German Christmas RecipesWeihnachtsrezepte Gingerbread s• Lebkuchen BACK ogt; Christmas Recipes - Part 2 Christmas graphics courtesy Brigitte Haag This is part of our special collection of German Christmas recipes. This section is devoted to Geb'auml;ck (pastries/baked goods). Most of our recipes are in German and English, but here is a plain ol' American recipe using standard US measurements.

Early on gingerbread was made by monks, but by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries bakers began to specialize in the treat. In France and England these bakers formed guilds, and were given the exclusive right to make gingerbread, except at Christmas and Easter. As the price of the exotic spices used in gingerbread went down, average people began to eat more gingerbread, though the dessert was still reserved as a treat on special occasions, usually holidays. Gingerbread continued to flourish throughout Europe, in particular in Germany.

The city of Nuremberg became associated with the treat, and while popular all year round, it became especially ubiquitous at Christmastime. Vendors in Nuremberg earned the moniker pepper sacks, referring to the inclusion of spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and white pepper in German recipes. Gingerbread houses first began here, inspired by the witch's edible house in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. These houses were sometimes referred to as hexenhaeusle (witches' houses) and are also called lebkuchenhaeusle or knusperhaeuschen or houses for nibbling at. As for decorations, houses became more and more intricate as techniques evolved. Before commercial candy was available to use for decorations, artists were hired to stencil and gild the houses.

It is said that Queen Victoria, and her German-born husband Prince Albert, brought gingerbread cookies in vogue when they included it in with the other German Christmas traditions they adopted, like the Christmas tree and the Yule log, in the mid-nineteenth century. It was at this time that gingerbread cookies became associated primarily with Christmas.