There are many recipes for gingerbread available online. One recipe I found is from BBC Good Food, which is called the "Ultimate easy gingerbread" recipe². Here are the ingredients you'll need:
- 100g salted (vegan) butter
- 3 tbsp golden syrup
- 100g dark muscovado sugar
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 225g plain flour
- 50g icing sugar

Here's a summary of the steps:
1. Heat the butter, syrup, and sugar together in a small pan until melted, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon, and flour in a large bowl. Pour in the buttery syrup mixture and stir to combine, then use your hands to bring together to form a dough. Add up to 1 tbsp of milk to combine if needed.
3. Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, shape into a rectangle, and lay another sheet of parchment on top of it. Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½cm. Transfer to a baking sheet to keep it flat, leaving the parchment in place, then chill in the fridge for 1 hr.
4. Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking sheet with more baking parchment. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter.
5. Place the shapes, spread apart, on the lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 mins.
6. Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water – you want to create a consistency that’s thick and pipeable, and not too thin or it will run. Decorate the cooled biscuits with the icing using a piping bag with a thin nozzle.

You can find more detailed instructions on their website². 😊


Source: Conversation with Bing, 03/09/2023
(1) Ultimate easy gingerbread recipe | BBC Good Food. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-easy-gingerbread.
(2) Gingerbread recipes - BBC Food. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/gingerbread.
(3) Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Recipe - Southern Living. https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/old-fashioned-gingerbread.
(4) Christmas gingerbread men recipe - BBC Food. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/christmas_gingerbread_84244.
(5) Gingerbread men recipe - BBC Food. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096.

Gingerbread has a long and interesting history. Its precise origin is unclear, but it is known that ginger itself originates in Asia². Gingerbread was a favorite treat at festivals and fairs in medieval Europe, often shaped and decorated to look like flowers, birds, animals or even armor. Several cities in France and England hosted regular "gingerbread fairs" for centuries². Ladies often gave their favorite knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck in a tournament, or superstitiously ate a "gingerbread husband" to improve their chances of landing the real thing². By 1598, it was popular enough to merit a mention in a Shakespeare play².

In medieval England, the term "gingerbread" referred to any kind of preserved ginger, borrowing from the Old French term gingebras, which in turn came from the spice's Latin name, zingebar. The term became associated with ginger-flavored cakes sometime in the 15th century². In Germany, gingerbread cookies called Lebkuchen have long been a fixture at street festivals, often in the shape of hearts frosted with sugary messages². Germans also invented the concept of making gingerbread houses, probably inspired by the witch's candy cottage in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel².


Source: Conversation with Bing, 03/09/2023
(1) A Brief History of Gingerbread - Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread-50050265/.
(2) A Short History of Gingerbread | English Heritage. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/a-short-history-of-gingerbread/.
(3) The Royal Medieval Origins Of Gingerbread Cookies. https://www.thedailymeal.com/1114925/the-royal-medieval-origins-of-gingerbread-cookies/.
(4) History of Gingerbread | The History Kitchen | PBS Food. https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-gingerbread/.

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