By Andrea Meyers of Andrea’s Recipes

Gingerbread is an ages-old tradition enjoyed by people around the world, and of all the Christmas cookies our family makes, gingerbread is the one that most evokes Christmas for us. Every year our family makes gingerbread men and a gingerbread house or Christmas tree with all the boys getting in on the fun. But our love of gingerbread doesn’t stop there and we continue enjoying the spicy flavors of gingerbread in cake, scones, and other baked goods throughout the year. Traditional gingerbread spices include cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, and some other flavors complement them well, such as molasses, orange, chocolate, pumpkin, or cardamom.

If you are planning to make some gingerbread for the holiday season, food bloggers have plenty of ideas to share.

COOKIES

As the reigning king of all Christmas cookies, gingerbread can be made in a variety of ways. You can vary the spices, add chocolate, make it vegan or gluten-free, or use the spices in other types of cookies. And if you are looking for homemade holiday gifts, gingerbread cookies are a delicious addition to any cookie basket. The classic gingerbread men are often decorated, and Baking Bites has some adorable gingerbread men with simple white icing piped around. 101 Cookbooks makes gingerbread men on a stick which make a delicious bouquet for a holiday dessert table. For a different taste, try the cardamom white gingerbread from Nami-Nami or the chocolate gingerbread from Kitchen Parade. You can also experiment with different flours, such as the whole wheat gingerbread from Enlightened Cooking. For special diets you can make them gluten free with recipes from Elana’s Pantry and Cake and Commerce. And for a delicious variation, try Fatfree Vegan’s gluten-free gingerbread biscotti.

HOUSES

Once you start making gingerbread cookies, it’s a short jump over to making gingerbread houses, another treasured holiday tradition. If you’ve never made a gingerbread house, I recommend starting with the How to Make a Gingerbread House guide at Simply Recipes, where you’ll get some helpful tips. Kung Foodie has a post with gingerbread house patterns and Disney’s Family Fun site has a pattern for an adorable gingerbread train. For more ideas, take a look at the Dutch gingerbread house at Bake My Day, the gingerbread house at Sweetopia, and the gingerbread at Under the High Chair. If you prefer your gingerbread to look more modern, then the model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house is a must-see, as well as the John Hancock Tower made by Flour Girl, and Reckless Chef’s answer to the question, “How do you build a gingerbread house?”

And if you want to see how the pros make gingerbread, be sure to read the posts from Tartelette, Cakespy, and Running with Tweezers about their experience at the National Gingerbread House Competition.

CAKES

Cakes are also a delicious way to use gingerbread spices and these cakes are often easy to make, the kind you can bake in a Bundt pan, rectangle pan, loaf pan, or cupcake pan if you want something for dessert without a lot of fuss. The beautiful little gingerbread birthday cupcakes from Dessert First are simple to make and will catch everyone’s eye. For a rich spicy gingerbread cake, give the Gramercy Tavern gingerbread cake from Smitten Kitchen a try. Dorie Greenspan posted her recipe for gingerbread baby cakes, which she bakes in mini round pans though she says you can also use a 10-inch round pan. Baking and Books made a gingerbread pear cake and even indulged in a little gingerbread history as well. If you want some chocolate with your gingerbread cake, try the rich, spicy cake from A Cat in the Kitchen, which also has cardamom and cayenne. For the ginger lovers, Kelly has a recipe for Triple Gingerbread. For the gluten-free bakers, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef has a recipe for peppery gingerbread with quinoa, teff, rice, tapioca, and gluten-free oat flours, and Hey That Tastes Good adapted a gingerbread cake recipe from The Joy of Cooking to make it gluten-free and topped it off with an orange cream frosting.

OTHER DELICIOUS GINGERBREAD CREATIONS

For other delicious desserts, try the gingerbread tart with cranberry curd from Not Without Salt and the pumpkin and gingerbread ice cream sandwiches from Cannelle et Vanille. You can also have gingerbread for breakfast and brunch, just whip up a batch of gingerbread waffles from Inn Cuisine, some gingerbread pancakes from Baking Bites, or gingerbread muffins from The Well Seasoned Cook and Mele Cotte. And if you would rather drink your gingerbread, a gingerbread latte from A Year of Slow Cooking or Baking Bites will hit the spot.

You can find more recipes for gingerbread using the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine.

Andrea Meyers writes about cooking, edible gardening, and her four hungry guys. Her family makes gingerbread men cookies and a gingerbread house or Christmas tree for Christmas as well as Guinness Gingerbread cake for St. Patrick’s Day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.