The recipe for "ginger males". Ginger biscuits "little men": form

Ginger baked goods - a favorite delicacy of Europeans, which in the form of "gingerbread men" first appeared at the court of Queen Elizabeth 1 - very much Her Majesty loved to amaze foreign visitors with desserts of unusual shape.

The court cook kept the recipe for "ginger males" in the strictest secrecy, but whether there was a leak of information, or the people made up their own way of cooking, but this tasty and original pastry soon appeared on festive tables and among ordinary people.

Main Ingredient

Deficient and expensive at all times eastern spices in Europe in sufficient quantities brought the knights, returning from the crusades.

Among this abundance of spices not the last place was occupied by fragrant and useful ginger.

Having tried this amazing oriental product to the taste and positively appreciating its qualities, European chefs and confectioners began to experiment, adding it to various dishes, including ginger biscuits "little men".

From the height of lived centuries it should be noted that the experiment was more than successful. After all, meat, vegetable dishes with this spice, teas and other drinks based on it, as well as the notorious gingerbread cookies "little men" always Remain in the trend.

Aroma of the New Year

In European countries, the recipe for "ginger males" is used only for special moments, which are considered Christmas and New Year holidays. If we have the main New Year's flavors - spruce and tangerine, then the old good Europe adheres to its own centuries of established traditions, and on the eve of Christmas you can smell homemade cakes with notes of ginger in every home.

European traditions are gradually moving to us: more and more housewives in New Year's day try to please their homemade simple and at the same time original pastries. Ginger biscuits "little men" in some families becomes a crown dessert, pushing into the background cakes and pastries.

A little fairy tale

And without that the popular gingerbread in the form of little men gained even greater recognition after the release of the famous cartoon film "Shrek". After watching the children with a double activity began to demand gingerbread, and moms - with enthusiasm bake or buy a treat.

It is in our supermarkets and carrots, and the form for the "ginger little man" remains a scarce commodity, and in Europe and America they can be purchased almost everywhere.

Beliefs, signs, symbols associated with gingerbread

The shape of any baking does not arise from scratch, but is some kind of symbol designed to protect from something, or to embody desires into reality.

The famous lark cookie, which our ancestors baked on the feast of 40 saints or warm Alexis (in different regions in different ways), was an unquestionable harbinger of spring and heat, Easter baking always symbolized church domes, and Christmas - a holiday (cookies in the form of stars, snowflakes And the relatively recent appearance of Santa Clauses).

But what do the figures of little men mean? Most likely, they symbolize the desire for abundance, which has become actual since the time of famine in medieval Europe (1315), when a gingerbread house in the minds of people was associated with a sufficient amount of food. Accordingly, this house should have a host - a gingerbread man.

A little later, when the terrible hungry years were left behind, a dessert of this form became a symbol of marriage for girls. They believed that if you eat a carrot during the Christmas season, then during the year the wedding is guaranteed.

Is it worth mentioning that the recipe for "ginger males" has changed with the course of time, and what it was in its original form, today no one remembers.

Is it possible to create a stencil for gingerbread?

It will be much easier to please your relatives with such a dessert if in a nearby supermarket there is not only a set of necessary products, but also suitable molds, with which a dozen or two "little men" can be created in five minutes.

But if you can not get them from you, you can get out of the situation by creating a template yourself.

It should be noted that this is a very fascinating and useful activity, especially if you involve children in it, who, as a rule, are most happy with such a dessert as "ginger man". Stencil In the company with the baby can be made from ordinary cardboard. It is best to create several forms at once. A variety of "gingerbread men" will only decorate the table.

Of course, the independent creation of stencils will take more time: first you need to draw the little people, then cut them and then use them for their intended purpose, giving them the appropriate form of the test.

Gingerbread recipe for gingerbread men

By creating these or other culinary products, each mistress tries to bring something in her recipe: individual and unique. That zest, by which one could determine that this dish was cooked by her.

Therefore, the recipe for "ginger males" has many varieties and variations. The article presents one of the simplest ways of making such a dessert.

• We will need the following products:
• 5-6 glasses of flour;
• 1.5 tsp. Slaked soda;
• 2 tsp. Ginger (dried or grated);
• 0.5 tsp. Crushed cloves;
• 1 tbsp. Sahara;
• 1 tbsp. Honey;
• A little salt;
• 200 g of margarine or butter ;
• 2 eggs;
• 5 tablespoons Strong coffee (brewed).

Consider the preparation process. At the first stage, it is necessary to mix all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, spices, when using baking powder instead of soda, it must also be added), separately combine the melted butter with honey and sugar and beat well.

Next to the honey-oil mixture, you should add eggs, coffee and some flour with spices, mix. At a time when the mixer is already hard to cope with a thick test, you need to pour the remaining flour and begin to knead by hand. Be sure to follow the density of the mass - it should not be loose.

The finished dough should be sent to the refrigerator for 2 hours. After that, you can start cutting out the figures. In the cold, the dough becomes even denser, from which a qualitative "ginger man" will turn out. The stencil should not let you down, so you should use the most dense cardboard to create it.

Bake figurines in a preheated to 180 o oven for no more than 15 minutes.

When the products cool, you can decorate gingerbread. "Little people" should look appetizing, bright and boring. Most often, glaze is used for decoration. For its preparation we will need: 1 egg, 250 g of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons. Lemon juice. All ingredients should be combined in a bowl and beat. To add color, you need to add food colorings. As a gingerbread decor you can also use melted chocolate and sprinkle for cakes.