gingerbread
Gingerbread is a sweet, strongly flavored, long-life pastry that comes in a variety of shapes and variants. In many cultures it is an integral part of Christmas biscuits , only a few varieties are offered all year round, especially at fairs and festivals. The bakers consider gingerbread to be long-life baked goods .
Gingerbread production has a long tradition and is part of the local baking culture in many places, as evidenced by various protected designations of origin for regional gingerbread specialties such as Nuremberg gingerbread and Aachener Printen .
In the past, the manufacturers of gingerbread often belonged to a different trade than the other bakers, they called themselves Lebküchler , Pfefferküchler , Lebzelter , Lebküchner - expressions that are still used today by bakers who specialize in gingerbread, and sometimes even officially are in use. For example, until the German reunification (October 3, 1990), the Pfefferküchler was a craft occupation in the GDR. Eight years later, the Ministry of Economics resumed training as a baker specializing in pepper cake.
Names and Etymology
As with many kitchen terms, there are also various regional names for gingerbread in German. The term gingerbread dominates in the south, west and north of Germany . In southern and western German regions, however, the terms Labekuchen, Lick Cake or Lebenskuchen (which reinterprets the no longer understood term) can also be found . In parts of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg , Magenbrot is used as a synonym for gingerbread , although it generally refers to a different type of pastry. In eastern Germany, on the other hand, the name gingerbread is predominant.
The word Lebkuchen has been used in the Middle High German forms lebekuoche, lebkuoche since the 13th century . The origin of the first part of the word is uncertain. There may be a borrowing from the medieval Latin libum , cakes' in the medieval German monastery language. Alternatively, a derivation from mhd. Leip , (unleavened) bread '(from which New High German loaf ) is being considered. These two possible interpretations give rise to the meanings "flat cake" and "bread cake".
The second part of the synonymous word Lebzelten (m.) Goes back to Old High German zelto, mhd. Zelte , flatbread , bread, (flat) cake '. The word equations " tortella leip vel [= or] zelto" and " liba celten" can be found in Old High German glossaries . The equality of meaning of leip, zelto and libum as well as lastly also mhd. Kuoche , bread cake 'suggests an illustrative combination of two synonymous terms.
Today one usually means with gingerbread tents (also tents, tents, tents ) smaller gingerbread cookies . Like the English gingerbread (literally " ginger bread ") and the French pain d'épices (literally "spice bread"), the term gingerbread refers to the strong seasoning (cf. Hasenpfeffer ), while the name honey cake refers to the most important sweetener in the past. In the past, pepper was also used more often as an ingredient, today it is usually no longer used. Usually (white) pepper is only added to the pepper nuts .
description
It is characteristic of all gingerbread cookies that they contain a lot of sweeteners (traditionally honey ), but little or no water, milk and fat are added. Due to the dry, high-sugar texture, the shelf life is quite long. Another very typical feature is that they are heavily seasoned so that they taste extremely strong and sweet overall. Typical gingerbread spices these days are anise , fennel , ginger , cardamom , coriander , mace , nutmeg , cloves , allspice and cinnamon . The spice trade also carries ready-mixed gingerbread spices for industry, crafts and households. However, it is questionable what the original gingerbread recipes looked like in the 13th century, when there were no spices such as allspice from the New World .
The chemical loosening of the dough is a tradition with gingerbread, namely the classic loosening agents are potash and deer horn salt ; Deer horn salt gives the gingerbread the typical flavor note for this raising agent, while potash, on the other hand, is more tasteless, but only expands the dough and is therefore not used as the only loosening agent. Today, however, manufacturers have often switched to baking powder or baking soda , not least because deer horn salt leads to a high acrylamide content in the finished baked goods.
The German food book reflects the general public opinion in Germany for different types and qualities of gingerbread. This specifies the minimum proportions of sugars and oil seeds and other criteria, including the requirement that certain types of gingerbread should only be coated with couverture and not with a fat glaze containing cocoa . These guidelines have no legal force, but are (admittedly very authoritative) guidelines for product labeling in the movement of goods.
There are two fundamentally different types of gingerbread: Brown gingerbread is baked from kneadable dough with a high proportion of flour, including pepper nuts, pointed cakes, Printen, many shaped baked goods such as gingerbread hearts and the like. Wafers Gingerbread mass are made of a soft, flour poor or even flour-free manufactured on wafers is injected, so they are close relatives of macaroons .
Brown gingerbread cookies
Brown gingerbread cookies are made from a kneadable dough, which consists mainly of flour (sometimes also starch ) and honey or another thick sweetener. In addition, there are usually eggs , but water or milk and fat are largely avoided. For refinement, you can add almonds, nuts or pieces of rock candy to the dough .
In the low-water and low-fat baked goods, the flour hardly swells at all and does not form any glue , normal sugar would quickly crystallize out. For this reason, you can only use thick to creamy sweeteners that hold the dough together and ensure that it stays juicy and does not become hard and brittle. The traditional sweetener was and is honey. It is only since the invention of artificial honey (i.e. invert sugar cream), glucose syrup and other types of sugar with a high proportion of invert sugar that honey has been and is partially replaced in these types. But honey is still common here when baking in the household, especially since invert sugar cream is rarely available in retail outlets. Low-gluten, low-gluten wheat flour is used as the flour so that the baked goods rise high and have a large-pored, short crumb. In addition to the light front flour type 550 - especially for more loosened gingerbread - you also take darker flours of types 812 and 1050 and add up to 50% rye flour (types 997 or 1150) to make the baked goods juicier and softer, to increase the sweetness steam and refine the aroma. Whole grain gingerbreads are uncommon but available.
It is common to use the dough for brown gingerbread as a so-called storage dough. The dough is stored cool and in closed containers for several days, weeks or even months without the leavening agents, spices and eggs - essentially the mixture of flour and honey or another sweetener. During this time, the lactic acid bacteria naturally present in the dough break down the abundant sugar to a small extent and convert it into various acids (including lactic acid). On the one hand, this improves the aroma and, on the other hand, allows potash and baking soda to be used as loosening agents without adding any additional acid (they only work in an acidic environment).
When the air is dry, the gingerbread quickly releases moisture and thus becomes firmer. When stored correctly at 65–70% relative humidity and 18–22 ° C room temperature, they become soft again. Due to its recipe, gingerbread is hygroscopic .
The finished dough is shaped by freely shaping it, cutting it, rolling it out and punching it out with shapes, pressing it into models or filling it into box shapes . The pastries are often filled, for example with jam or marzipan, and topped, sprinkled, covered with chocolate or sugar icing and decorated.
Some examples of the types of biscuits made from brown gingerbread are:
- Printen: Rectangular, flat gingerbread cookies with pieces of rock candy, available as hard and soft printen. Aachener Printen are particularly well known (and protected by name) .
- Breakfast cake: tall, loose loaves baked in a loaf pan, some topped with candy, mainly known from Holland (Dutch ontbijtkoek ).
- Dominoes : A candy (sometimes exposed as a “layered praline”) with jelly and marzipan or persipan on a gingerbread base.
- Basler Läckerli : Sliced gingerbread from the tin with candied fruits and characteristic sugar icing.
- St. Gallen and Appenzeller Biber : soft, juicy pieces with marzipan filling.
Gingerbread is a popular material for building bread ; Common shapes are stars, hearts, males, horses and the like, and of course the components of gingerbread houses.
The German Food Book formulates special requirements for some variants of the brown gingerbread, including honey cakes, dominoes, printen and pointed cakes, sometimes in the three quality levels simple, fine and finest.
Gingerbread Wafers
Wafer gingerbread is made from a passable mass, which consists for the most part of sugar and more or less strongly chopped almonds , hazelnuts or walnuts or other oil seeds or marzipan raw mass or other raw masses. Flour and starch, on the other hand, make up the smaller part - the lower the flour content, the higher quality the gingerbread. As with brown gingerbread cookies, the flour should be weak, the addition of starch serves to reduce the amount of gluten. In addition, there are smaller quantities of eggs, and water and edible fat are avoided even more consistently than with brown gingerbread. Wafer gingerbread can be wholly or partially sweetened with honey, invert sugar cream and other viscous types of sugar, but in contrast to brown gingerbread, this is unnecessary: Due to the lower flour content and the oil-rich almonds and nuts, the crumb does not become hard even if you mainly use granulated sugar admits what happens mostly.
The mass for wafer gingerbread is very similar to the macaroon mass and is made, dressed and baked in a similar way to this. When mixing oil seeds, sugar and egg, it is heated if necessary (technically: "roasted"). The finished mass is portioned with a piping bag or otherwise on wafers and baked the gingerbread at 180 ° C. They can be decorated with almonds, lemon peel or orange peel, and after baking they can optionally be coated with chocolate or frosting. Other shapes than circular or square pieces are of course conceivable in principle, but are rarely found on the market.
In contrast to brown gingerbread, wafer gingerbread is less diverse; there are essentially two types:
- Wafer gingerbread, the typical basic shape;
- white gingerbread with a high proportion of eggs, exclusively rectangular and without glaze.
In addition, the German Food Book knows a whole series of distinctions that relate to the exact composition, in particular the proportions of certain oil seeds, and define certain quality levels: simple, fine and finest wafer gingerbread, hazelnut, walnut and nut gingerbread and almond, Marzipan or macaroon gingerbread. The well-known name Elisenlebkuchen is a synonym for the finest wafer gingerbread - this is the highest quality level, for which the food book requires at least 25% almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts as well as the avoidance of other oil seeds and a maximum content of 10% flour or 7.5% starch or "An appropriate mix". Coatings that can be confused with types of chocolate - this formulation is aimed primarily at fat icing containing cocoa - categorically forbids the food book for wafer gingerbread.
history
The first written evidence of small, seasoned honey cakes was made around 350 BC. BC, but the ancient Egyptians were already familiar with honey-sweetened cakes, as we know from grave goods . The Romans knew panis mellitus : honey was spread on a cake, then baked with the cake. Unlike today, gingerbread was not only eaten at Christmas, but also at Easter and other times. The gingerbread was a part of the Lenten kitchen and was z. B. served with strong beer .
The gingerbread in the form still known today was originally invented in Dinant , Belgium , then adopted and modified by the Aacheners (see Aachener Printen ) and finally adopted by the Franconian monasteries and slightly modified again. The nuns made the pastries for dessert. It is mentioned as "gingerbread" in Ulm as early as 1296 . In the 14th century, gingerbread is known in and around Nuremberg , where it was baked in male monasteries. The Nuremberg gingerbread has its origin in the nearby monastery in Heilsbronn. Gingerbread was popular because of its long shelf life, because it could be stored and was distributed by the monks when times were bad.
Since rare spices from distant countries were required for the production, cities in particular at important trading hubs have a long gingerbread tradition. In addition to Nuremberg and Pulsnitz , these included Augsburg, Ulm, Cologne and Basel. In Munich, a "Lebzelter", ie a gingerbread baker, was listed in the tax register as early as 1370. While in Munich the pastries were cut out with shapes and decorated with colored sugar, the Nuremberg cakes were decorated with almonds or lemon peel.
In addition to the Ratiborer gingerbread , the Thorner Lebkuchen , also known as Thorner Pflastersteine, were known from the West Prussian city of Thorn (since 1919 Toruń, Poland), which were nicknamed Kathrinchen after the monastery of St. Catherine of Alexandria , or the Neisser confectionery , also Neisser Called gingerbread , from Neisse in Silesia, which is documented from the 16th century.
Lebkuchen (Middle High German Lebkuoche ) were also baked on wafers in monastery bakeries , where hosts were already being made. In southern Germany and Austria, the flat cakes were called tents and thus the bakers were called Lebzelter . The Lebküchler or Lebzelter were united in guilds .
The advent of baking powder in the late 19th century also had an impact on the development of gingerbread. The baking powder made the spicy dough rise. This resulted in many types of pastry, some of which are dense in taste and consistency, some are further away from the original gingerbread, such as numerous honey or spice cake variants.
International variations
Today, gingerbread, with its regionally different names and variations, is usually considered the classic pastry of the Christmas season. It is available with and without chocolate coating, with more or less nuts, almonds, jam filling, etc.
Picture gingerbread
Picture gingerbread , i.e. gingerbread that is cut or pressed into shape, has been around since the 15th century. They are traditionally available with religious motifs, later secular images also appeared. These picture gingerbreads are now internationally popular and not only popular at Christmas: The gingerbread hearts decorated with icing, which are offered at festivals and fairs , but also at Christmas markets at the baker's stalls , are quite well known . The internationally known picture gingerbread includes the “Gingerbread Man”, which is common in English-speaking countries, as a simplified human form without hands and feet.
Gingerbread house
Gingerbread is also known as the gingerbread house, popularly known as Gingerbread or witch house called, built on the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel back. These gingerbread houses are not only common in German-speaking countries, but are also made in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and in English-speaking countries.
Gingerbread man
Figurative gingerbread cookies have been known since the 16th century. Gingerbread men and women are given away at festivals (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.), especially in English-speaking countries.
German gingerbread specialties
Some of the German gingerbread specialties are known worldwide, in particular the Nuremberg gingerbread and the Aachener Printen . Other regional variants are Rosner Lebkuchen from Waldsassen , the Bentheimer Moppen, the Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen , Neisser Konfekt , Liegnitzer bombs and Silesian flour-white Coburger Schmatzen and Mecklenburg Pfeffernussen.
Gingerbread in Russia
The Russian variant of gingerbread, Prjaniki , ( Russian Пряники Plur., Singular Пряник "Prjanik"), is baked from wheat flour , sugar , margarine , butter , oil, water, milk and salt. Also, honey and seasonings can be added. The pastries are often served with Russian tea .
In the city of Tula , prjaniki have been baked in a variety of shapes and flavors since the 17th century at the latest. Today there is a gingerbread museum here, where visitors can taste freshly baked prjaniki .
Gingerbread in the Alps
In Switzerland, a paper Nicholas with gum arabic is stuck on a gingerbread cookie. This tradition goes back to the middle of the 19th century and thus to a time when St. Nicholas still brought the presents and the tree in large parts of Switzerland and not the Christ Child, as from the article by Chlaus in the Schweizerisches Idiotikon published in 1893 emerges.
In Austria, "Lebzelten" are distributed in a similar variety of variants as in Germany. In Gmunden ( Upper Austria ), large gingerbread hearts (diameter approx. 20–30 cm) are traditionally given away on Liebstatt Sunday in spring. There are regional gingerbread specialties depending on the location of various long-established gingerbread manufacturers : Mariazeller Lebkuchen from the pilgrimage site of Mariazell (since 1860), Ischler Lebkuchen from Bad Ischl (since 1848), Aussee gingerbread from Bad Aussee (since 1584), the Kastner gingerbread shop in Bad Leonfelden (since 1559), the St. Wolfganger Lebzelten (since 1520) and Nagy Lebkuchen from Salzburg (since 1879).
Butcher Lebkuchen has shaped the regional gingerbread world in Vienna since 1758. The company was founded in 1685 in Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna. A branch was opened there on Stephansplatz in the middle of the 18th century. Deliveries to the court of Empress Maria Theresa soon followed. Since 2016, high-quality gingerbread paralines and confectionery based on the tradition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire have been offered under the Metzger & Söhne brand .
Other European gingerbread varieties
Other European countries also have their own gingerbread specialties with a long tradition. These include gingerbread from Dijon in France , Christiansfeld in Denmark or the Thorner Kathrinchen from Toruń, which has been in Poland since 1919. The gingerbread figures and houses from the Czech city of Pardubice are particularly richly decorated with icing .
Sauce gingerbread
A very simple type of gingerbread is the sauce cake or sauce gingerbread, which is used all year round in the kitchen in some areas of Germany to make sauces .
Others
- The Alte Pfefferküchlerei museum in Weißenberg , Saxony, shows the craft of gingerbread production.
- On December 5, 2003, the world's largest gingerbread was made in Esslingen am Neckar . He recreated a figure of St. Nicholas and was 10 meters long and 4 meters wide. Among other things, 350 kg of flour , 180 kg of syrup and 8 kg of gingerbread spices were required . Decorated with marzipan and icing ( fondant ), the gingerbread weighed 650 kg.
- A gingerbread contest takes place in Switzerland every year. Similar to the gingerbread house, sculptures and objects are built from gingerbread in a competition. The winner will be awarded the golden wallwood.
Economical meaning
The sales of gingerbread in Germany fell steadily between 2009 and 2012. While 102,500 tons were produced in 2009, it was only 80,200 tons in 2012, which corresponds to a decrease of almost 22 percent. Since then, production has remained about the same, in 2017 it was 84,050 tons. In contrast, foreign trade hardly changed over the same period. In 2012, 13,100 tons of gingerbread were exported (of which 3,400 tons to Austria), while 4,500 tons were imported. In 2016 there were 14,900 tons of export, of which 3,700 tons to Austria.
See also
literature
- Torkild Hinrichsen : In the Knusperhaus. Gingerbread from Europe . Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2008, ISBN 978-3-89876-420-9
- Torkild Hinrichsen: The cake heart. Gingerbread from Germany . Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2009, ISBN 978-3-89876-463-6
- Hans Hipp: The gingerbread book . Insel-Bücherei No. 2015, Insel Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-458-20015-4
Web links
- Alexandra Schebesta, Isabella Hübscher: With chemistry for the optimal gingerbread Open Science, guest article in science.orf.at, December 4, 2017.
- The Gingerbread - Virtual Exhibition of the University Library Regensburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frank Muck: Wooden toy maker and pepper cake . Unknown professions from the east. In: Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung . The business newspaper for medium-sized companies. Holzmann Medien GmbH & Co. KG, Bad Wörishofen November 7, 2014 ( deutsche-handwerks-zeitung.de [accessed on December 27, 2014] on the subject of “25 Years Fall of the Wall”).
- ↑ Dietmar Sehn: Christmas in Saxony . Sutton Verlag GmbH, 2013, ISBN 978-3-95400-202-3 , Die Pfefferkuchenstadt Pulsnitz, p. 35–36 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 27, 2014]).
- ^ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: German Dictionary . Leipzig 1854–1961, Volume 12, Col. 467, sv “Lebkuchen” .
- ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer et al .: Etymological Dictionary of German . dtv, Munich 1997, p. 777 ( online ) and 759.
- ^ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: German Dictionary . Leipzig 1854–1961, Volume 31, Col. 623, sv “Zelten” .
- ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer et al., Etymological Dictionary of German . dtv, Munich 1997, p. 1600 ( online ).
- ↑ Gloss. 2, 941 and 2, 47845, quoted after the entry “ Zelten ” in the German dictionary .
- ^ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: German Dictionary . Leipzig 1854–1961, Volume 11, Col. 2497, sv “Kuchen, Kuche” .
- ↑ Herta Neunteufl: Cooking in the Baroque. From the world of Styrian cuisine around 1686. Graz and Vienna 1976, p. 20.
- ↑ Hans Wiswe: Cultural history of the culinary art. Cookbooks and recipes from two millennia. With a lexical appendix to the technical language of Eva Hepp. Moos, Munich 1970, p. 142.
- ↑ "Pfefferkuchen" on Müller's reading tent ( PDF file ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).
- ^ A b Claus Schünemann, Günter Treu: Technology of the production of baked goods. Specialized textbook for bakers . 10th edition. Gildebuchverlag, Alfeld / Leine 2009, ISBN 978-3-7734-0150-2 , p. 308 ff .
- ↑ German Food Book, Guidelines for Fine Baked Goods , Section III 3
- ^ A b Hans-Gerhard Ludewig: recipe ingredients and their functional properties . In: Wilfried Seibel (Ed.): Fine baked goods . 2nd Edition. Behr, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-7734-0150-2 , pp. 48 .
- ↑ 300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles , Linda Campbell Franklin, 4th edition [Books Americana: New York] 1998 (p. 183)
- ^ A History of Gingerbread Men . Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses. Archived from the original on August 7, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
- ↑ Donald F. Lach (2010). Asia in the Making of Europe , Volume II: A Century of Wonder. Book 3: The Scholarly Disciplines, Volume 2. p. 442. University of Chicago Press
-
↑ Mehlweiß: Of good and cheap gingerbread.
Even culture goes through the stomach. - ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon, Volume 3, Column 687–698, Article Chlaus ( digitized version ).
- ↑ History: NAGY Lebkuchen- & Candle Manufactory - a company with history! On Nagy.at, accessed on January 13, 2019.
- ↑ Butchers & Sons ,
- ↑ Artworks made from gingerbread: And the golden wallwood goes to… December 9, 2017. On AargauerZeitung.ch, accessed on January 13, 2019.
- ↑ Production of gingerbread, honey cake and printen in Germany from 1965 to 2017 (in 1,000 tons) , de.statista.com
- ↑ Less gingerbread during the Christmas season . In: Federal Statistical Office. Press release. 3rd December 2013.
- ↑ Sweet Export - Lebkuchen from Germany are popular worldwide. ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. December 5, 2017. From NNN.de, accessed January 13, 2019.
