"gingerbread" news and stories

Nothing smells like the holidays more than a spirited serving of gingerbread. From gingerbread houses to gingerbread men, the dessert is deeply rooted in holiday tradition.

Dating back to 2000 B.C. when the Greeks sampled "spiced honey cakes," the treat has been variously adapted and differentiated by regions, from honey-and-allspice pain d'épice in France, to Queen Victoria's influence on the creation of gingerbread men in England, to New England variations relying on local ingredients like maple syrup or molasses.

Today we enjoy the complexity of spices in baked goods, from Gramercy Tavern's moist molasses-stout gingerbread or unique varieties like Gingerbread Bars or Gingerbread Truffles. And for the ultimate inspiration for gingerbread crafting, observe our step-by-step guide to crafting the perfect gingerbread house by the Black Cat Café's expert Vanessa Daou.

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Thanksgiving hasn't even passed, but already people are thinking about building a gingerbread house.

The traditional ginger bread house can be as simple as four walls and a roof stuck together with icing. If you're looking for something more spectacular, check out "The Gingerbread Architect" by Susan Matheson and Lauren Chattman, authors who recreate 12 iconic American homes -- from a Greek Revival antebellum plantation gingerbread house to an urban brownstone. Jennifer Lindner McGlinn gives instructions on a Betsy Ross gingerbread house and a gingerbread church in her book "Gingerbread: Timeless Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Desserts, Ice Cream and Candy."

Wendy Copley shares her tips for making the gingerbread house shown above on her blog Wendolonia. Get started with KitchenDaily's gingerbread house recipe.

December is the month that everyone seems to make gingerbread, and I guess you can only go so far with the variation on the basic recipe (though you can put gingerbread into all kinds of shapes - person, house, etc). But this recipe from the late author Laurie Colwin adds a little zip.

Along with the usual spices and butter and molasses, the recipe also calls for 2 teaspoons of lemon brandy. You can substitute vanilla extract for the lemon brandy, but what's the fun in that?

Last Christmas I went a little crazy with gingerbread cookies. I made hundreds of gingerbread men, women, stars, bells and other cut-out shapes. I spend hours rolling, cutting, transferring, baking, cooling and frosting. You don't have to go so crazy with your cookies, although when you try this recipe, you might just be similarly inspired. The great thing about this dough is that you can keep it in the fridge for several days, so you don't have roll and cut it all in a single afternoon. This is also a terrific recipe if you have kids or want to have a cookie party.

For the frosting, I tend to just mix up powdered sugar, a drop of vanilla and some water into a semi-viscous state and dip the tops of the cookies straight into the frosting. They end up looking really pretty and are so delicious! Just remember that if you frost them that way you need to wait until they are totally dry before stacking them or your perfect cookies will adhere together into solid stacks. Which can be a bit disappointing (I speak from experience here).

I'd rather devote my holiday prep time to decorating cookies and wrapping gifts, but I still have a deep appreciation of the incredible amount of work that goes into making a prize-winning gingerbread house. Even if that house won a ribbon at the local school holiday bake sale and not at a national competition. The above gingerbread house, found via the lollypix blog, won the grand prize at the national gingerbread house competition in Florida (you can peek inside here) this year.

I'll stick with cookies, but read on for a few more houses.