Gingerbread is a long-standing holiday tradition, the seeds of which are with the 11th-century crusaders returning from the Holy Land with ginger and other spices. The history is below. Beyond those first gingerbread cakes and cookies, ginger has found its way into present-day mousse, waffles,
 
 
RECIPE: EASY GINGERBREAD CAKE

Ingredients

 
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*Instead of vanilla-flavored whip cream, consider bourbon whipped cream.
 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda in a large bowl until combined; set aside.

2. PLACE the milk in a microwave-safe bowl and cook in the microwave on high for 90 seconds. Whisk the butter into the bowl with the hot milk until it has melted. Add the brown sugar and molasses and mix. Stir in the egg.

3. ADD the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients bowl and mix until they are completely combined. Pour the batter into an 8″x8″ pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until it the cake is firm in the center. Cool the cake completely. Serve with whipped cream.
 
 
MORE WAYS TO ENJOY GINGERBREAD

[2] How about a gingerbread cheesecake? Here’s the recipe from Baked By Rachel (photo © Baked By Rachel).

[3] First, fresh ginger root (in photo) is dried. Then, it is ground into powdered ginger, the spice (photo © Jan Schone | Stock xChange).

Even More Ways To Enjoy Gingerbread
Make a gingerbread sundae with cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla ice creams. Add cubes of fresh-baked gingerbread bars or cake, topped with whipped cream, candied ginger and chunks of Chuao Chocolate’s gingerbread chocolate bar. The truly indulgent can add caramel sauce.

Don’t want to make anything at all? Check out the gingerbread cottages, trains, wreaths and cake pops at MackenzieLtd.com.

Check your supermarket, frozen yogurt, or gelato/ice shop for a seasonal gingerbread flavor.

Look for Nonni’s Nonni’s Gingerbread Biscotti. We’re big fans.

[3] Equal opportunity: Bake gingerbread men and women (photo © Wisconsin Dairy).

[4] Make these gingerbread cupcakes from Pillsbury. Here’s the recipe (photo © Pillsbury).

At the end of the 11th century, the Crusaders returned to Europe from the Middle East with ginger and other spices. Prior to the 15th century, “gingerbread” referred to preserved ginger. It began to be used to flavor cakes and cookies. Monks baked the first gingerbread cookies for holidays and festivals, which are called Lebkuchen in German. Then, the German Lebkuchen Guild† took over.

The spice ginger, which is zingebar in Latin, became gingerbras in Old French, gingerbread in Medieval English and Ingwer in German.

Why is it called ginger “bread” in English?

The meaning of gingerbread has evolved over time. Originally, the term gingerbread (from Latin zingiber via Old French gingebras) referred to preserved ginger. It then referred to a confection made with honey and spices.

For centuries, the word was used to describe a traditional European pastry, closer to a cookie [source].

Gingerbread cookies were made year-round in a proliferation of shapes—flowers, hearts, trees, and so forth in different sizes. The medieval German Lebkuchen Guild transformed gingerbread into a highly-decorated art, crafting the fancy shapes and decorating them with sugar and gold.

But gingerbread men originated elsewhere. The credit goes to Queen Elizabeth I—or more precisely, an unnamed palace baker who toiled during her reign (1558 to 1603). Her Majesty bestowed “portrait” gingerbread cookies upon important court visitors, decorated in their likenesses.
 
Who Invented Gingerbread Houses?

According to a reference in FoodTimeline.org, the tradition of baking gingerbread houses began in Germany after the Brothers Grimm published their collection of fairy tales in 1812.

Life imitates art: Inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel, who nibbled at the witch’s candy-covered gingerbread house (and inspired our name, The Nibble), German bakers created miniature houses from the already popular lebkuchen (gingerbread). Artists were employed to decorate the houses, which became particularly popular during Christmas.

“Hansel and Gretel” vastly increased the popularity of gingerbread cookies and other treats. Gingerbread men and animals became popular Christmas tree ornaments.

A ginger cookie is a soft, molasses-type cookie that is flavored with ginger and other spices. It is larger than, and otherwise differs from, a gingersnap.

Unlike the fancier gingerbread, a gingersnap is a small, thin, plain round cookie with a hard, smooth texture like a gingerbread cookie. It is a smaller version of the traditional German Christmas cookie known as Lebkuchen. Like a gingerbread cookie, ginger snaps break with a “snap.”

Gingersnaps contain a larger amount of ginger, and thus are spicier, than the chewier ginger cookies.
 
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†Only Lebkuchen Guild members could bake gingerbread, except during Christmas, when anyone could bake it.
 
 

Cabot Cheese commemorates the Christmas Star (Star of Bethlehem) using a different flavor of their excellent cheddars for each point on the star.

In addition to regular cheddars in different stages of sharpness, there are delicious flavored cheddars: Chipotle, Everything Bagel, Garlic & Herb, Horseradish, Hot Buffalo Wing, Smoky Bacon and Tomato Basil. The company also makes Muenster, Pepper Jack and other popular cheese styles.

For variety, use other semi-hard cheeses. Look for young Asiago, Colby, Edam, Fontinella, aged Gouda, Jack, Manchego, Provolone and Queso Blanco—for starters.
 
RECIPE: CHEESE STAR

You can make the star with one kind of cheese or use a different flavor for each star point—any cheese firm enough to cut into cubes. You can make a larger star for a larger crowd.

Ingredients For A 13-Inch Diameter Star

 
Ingredients

1. PLACE a small shallow bowl or saucer in the center of a large platter or cheese plate. Cut the cheese bars into 3/4-inch cubes, about 30 cubes for each flavor.

2. BUILD the star around the bowl. Each of the five star points will be 5 cubes long and from 1 to 5 cubes wide. (If your bowl is too big, you will need more cubes to evenly the space five star points.)

3. PLACE 4 or 5 cubes against the bowl to form each star point, for a total of 5 star points. Build out the points by placing more cubes as shown in the photo. In our star, we had a base row of 3 or 4 cubes, followed by one row of 3 cubes, 2 rows of 2 cubes and one row of 1 cube for the tip of each star point.

4. BUILD up the star by topping the first layer with a second layer of cubes.

5. TUCK sage leaves into the star as shown. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Fill the bowl in the center with nuts, olives or tomatoes.
 
HOW ABOUT A CHEESE CHRISTMAS TREE?

Here’s the recipe to stack cubes of cheese into a Christmas tree cheese board.

[2] What’s inside the cheese ball? In this recipe, it’s red and green bell peppers (photo Claire Freierman | © THE NIBBLE).

[3] Cream cheese is the base in Recipe #1, goat cheese in Recipe #2 (photo © Philadelphia Cream Cheese).

Turn cheese balls into holiday ornaments with the right coatings. This recipe from Philadelphia Cream Cheese uses only cream cheese, but you can use your favorite cheese ball recipe.

Instead of one big cheese ball, you make mini cheese balls with different coatings.

We prefer to take the recipe one step further and flavor the cream cheese. We like bell pepper cream cheese, jalapeño cream cheese, olive cream cheese and scallion cream cheese; and for a splurge, smoked salmon cream cheese rolled in fresh dill.
 
 
DESSERT CHEESE BALLS

You can also make a dessert version to serve with cookies, like chocolate cream cheese (with cocoa powder and sugar), chocolate chip cream cheese (or other chip flavor), berry cream cheese (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry) and peanut butter cream cheese, rolled in cocoa powder, coconut or mini chocolate chips. But back to the savory:
 
 
RECIPE #1: HOLIDAY CHEESE BALLS

Ingredients

 
Plus

 
Serve With

 
Preparation

1. CUT the cream cheese brick into 6 two-ounce pieces; roll each into ball. If you’re flavoring the cream cheese, finely chop and blend in the mix-ins before shaping the balls.

3. ROLL 2 cheese balls in the sesame seed mixture, 2 cheese balls in the herb mixture and the remaining 2 cheese balls in the nut mixture.

4. WRAP each ball in plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve. Alternatively, you can place them in an airtight food storage container, lightly covered with plastic before you close the lid.

RECIPE #2: CHRISTMAS GOAT CHEESE LOGS

The glamorous goat cheese log in the photo couldn’t be easier. If you’d rather turn it into round “tree ornaments. See Step 2.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MIX roughly-chopped dried cranberries and pistachio nuts and place them on wax paper on a work surface.

2. ROLL the log of goat cheese in the mixture, pressing down lightly so the mixture adheres. If you’d rather have round balls of goat cheese, let the cheese soften, form it into balls, and return it to the fridge until it hardens enough to roll easily.

3. WRAP the finished log tightly in plastic and refrigerate until serving.
 
TIP: See if you can score some honey goat cheese logs (we get ours at Trader Vic’s). They’re a revelation.
 
 
MORE HOLIDAY CHEESE BALL IDEAS

[3] Goat cheese log from More Than Hungry.

[4] We love this Christmas tree cheese “ball.” Here’s the recipe from Betty Crocker.

TOP PHOTO: Dress your holiday table with a Christmas tree napkin fold. Photo courtesy BHG.com. BOTTOM PHOTO: A Star Of David napkin fold for Chanukah. Photo courtesy Expert Village.

Some people go all out decorating the holiday table: bowls of ornaments, candelabra, flowers, holly, miniature rosemary trees, pine boughs, pine cones, pomanders, reindeer, ribbons, the works.

We always have so much food on the table that we need to keep things simple. We do it with a special tablecloth and napkins.

And napkin folds.

Last year we folded the dinner napkins in the shape of a traditional Christmas tree. This year, it’s a more abstract tree with a star.

We found the top napkin fold on BHG.com, the website of Better Homes & Gardens.

BHG has topped it with a star-shaped napkin ring. We don’t have star-shaped rings, but have jeweled gold-tone rings that will do the trick…unless we can pick up star rings on sale a day or two before Christmas.

See how to fold the napkin, including a video, at BHG.com.
 
MORE HOLIDAY NAPKIN FOLDS

If you don’t want a tree, FabArtDIY.com has collected 20 different holiday folds.

Chinet has a nice collection, including a poinsettia and a double star. There are also year-round designs.

We like how NancyCreative.com folds napkins into festive bows.

Elf hats, anyone? Here’s a video from Good Housekeeping.
 
CHANUKAH NAPKIN FOLD

Celebrating Chanukah? Here’s a Star of David. Star of David napkin fold (photo above).

If you think you can do it, try this Star Of David, based on origami techniques.

WHO ORIGINATED NAPKIN FOLDING?

The art of napkin folding is called napery. The word comes from the Old French naperie, tablecloth.

Not surprisingly, it started with royalty. According to one source, the art dates back to the around 1400, a time when warm napkins or even perfumed napkins graced the tables of the elite. Another source credits the reign of Louis XIV, 1643-1715.

The craft trickled down to the homes of the wealthy and almost-wealthy (the upper middle class). At fine tables in the 19th century, starched napkins were artfully folded nightly.
 
What About The Napkin Ring?

The use of napkin rings began in Europe during the Napoleonic era, 1799 to 1815. They were developed not for royalty, but for the bourgeoisie (middle class).

The wealthy could afford freshly-laundered napkins at every meal; but the bourgeoisie lacked the servant bandwidth to make that happen. As a result, one cloth napkin would be used for all the meals in one day, or even for an entire week. Monogrammed napkin rings identified whom each napkin belonged to.

In modern times, napkin rings have become decorative, and using them is much quicker than napery.

Interested in the craft? Get a book on napkin folding and go to town! Gearing up for Valentine’s Day, the cover photo of the linked book is a pink napkin in a heart-shape fold.
 
  

Ingredients

Try these crumb bars with a morning cup of coffee or as a snack. Photo courtesy Bella Baker.

Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Line a 9×13 glass baking dish with aluminum foil and spray foil with nonstick spray.

2. MIX together in a bowl 1-3/4 cups sugar, the oats, flour, almond meal, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Use your fingertips or a pastry cutter to blend in the butter. With a fork, mix in the eggs to create a dough that comes together. The dough will be a little crumbly. Pat half of the dough into the buttered pan.

3. STIR together in another bowl the second 1-3/4 cups sugar, potato starch, vanilla and orange juice. Mix in the cranberries. Pour the cranberry mixture evenly over the dough in the pan.

4. CRUMBLE the remaining dough over the berries and gently pat down so that dough is covering all of the cranberries. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the top is a light golden brown.

5. COOL completely and chill in the refrigerator before cutting into squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.