Vegan Gingerbread - Soft, Moist, Delicious Holiday Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

What are the three types of gingerbread? ›

“It shouldn't look flat or dry,” he said. “There are some gingerbread recipes that are hard right after baking and need to sit for a few days to soften. Molasses and honey hardens gingerbread, but as the sugar absorbs moisture, it will get softer.”

Some gingerbread recipes require some time to soften after baking because they are initially firm. Gingerbread is made harder by molasses and honey, but it becomes softer when water is absorbed by the sugar.

If your dough is remarkably dry (this can happen depending on how you measure your flour), add 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until it comes together but is not wet/sticky.

gingerbread, in architecture and design, elaborately detailed embellishment, either lavish or superfluous. Although the term is occasionally applied to highly detailed and decorative styles, it is more often applied specifically to the work of American designers of the late 1860s and '70s.

Food historians trace the origins of gingerbread back to the ancient Egyptians, who used it for ceremonial purposes. The ancient Greeks followed suit with the first known recipe for gingerbread around 2400 B.C.

Gingerbread cookies should be soft. They should be supple. They should bend to your teeth before the cookie skin breaks and the crumbs fall all over you. They should retain a bit of elasticity, and maybe you can even leave your fingerprints on the cookie if you hold them too hard because you're just that excited.

It will stay fresh at room temperature for up to five days and you can freeze it too, so you can make it ahead of time. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Once cooled, decorate your gingerbread with icing, lollies and Christmas decorations.

If you've already baked your gingerbread though and it's harder than you'd like, you CAN make it a little softer for eating. I wrap mine in a damp paper towel and heat in the microwave for a few seconds.

Golden syrup, or light treacle, is a thick sugar syrup. With its golden, amber color, it is lighter than molasses, though the two are similar in their thickness. Golden syrup also a liquid sweetener, so 1 cup of golden syrup can replace 1 cup of molasses.

What makes gingerbread taste like gingerbread? ›

Molasses is the most associated with gingerbread. Light molasses, a mild molasses, comes from the first boiling of the sugar syrup. Dark molasses, a full-flavored molasses, comes from the second boiling of the sugar syrup, and is the most popular molasses used in gingerbread recipes.

Extra sugar made this cookie way too hard.

As was expected because of the extra brown sugar, this cookie looked dark in color and took on the texture of molasses. I thought I was going to chip my tooth when I bit into this finished, extra-sugary cookie. It was hard and dense throughout.

Let it dry

Beddall says patience is the most important part of gingerbread house making. “Most gingerbread disasters, collapses, and frustrations happen because the icing hasn't had an adequate amount of time to dry.

Under-baking can cause a sunken cake and over-baking can cause a dry one, so making sure your gingerbread is properly baked is critical! Gingerbread is inherently slightly dense and heavy in texture, but each bite is perfectly flavored and moist and just melts in your mouth.

1875 story

In the 1875 St. Nicholas tale, a childless old woman bakes a gingerbread man, who leaps from her oven and runs away. The woman and her husband give chase, but are unable to catch him. The gingerbread man then outruns several farm workers, farm men, and farm animals.

The American version first appeared in the May 1875 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. The story tells of a Gingerbread Man who runs away from the old woman who baked him.

Gingerbread is often used to translate the French term pain d'épices (literally “spice bread”) or the German term Lebkuchen or Pfefferkuchen (pepperbread, literally: pepper cake).

Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as a ginger snap.