‘Truly spicy and a delight to eat’: how to make Christmas gingerbread

The flavours of Christmas have changed a bit lately, haven’t they? If you wander around supermarkets right now, you’ll find peach bellini panettone, tiramisu mince pies, turkey gravy-flavoured crisps and Black Forest stollen. Even the classic Terry’s Chocolate Orange comes in a mint version this year. You could argue that Walkers crisps are standing up for tradition by selling a Christmas pudding flavour, but that might be pushing it.

I’m all for innovation, but it does rather make me long for the traditional tastes of Christmas. I love peach bellini, tiramisu, and Black Forest gâteau – but I can enjoy these flavours at any time. The spice and warmth and booze that are prerequisites for our usual Christmas fare are really reserved for December. That’s not to say that you can’t get hold of them all year round, but it wouldn’t feel right eating a mince pie in July, or stollen in September. And while I’d happily have a ginger nut at any time, traditional gingerbread is a Christmas-only treat.

Gingerbread is one of our oldest biscuits, dating back to at least the 1500s, but we were still relative latecomers in the gingerbread game. The very first recipe for gingerbread is from Ancient Greece in 2400 bc; the Chinese started making it in the 10th century ad, and we finally caught up by the late medieval period.

Spices were expensive then, so using them, especially in combination, was a way of demonstrating wealth – although, as food historian Sam Bilton points out, early gingerbread recipes didn’t actually contain any ginger at all. Saffron, pepper, cinnamon and clove, sure – but no ginger. Ginger came later, accompanied by treacle rather than honey, and the breadcrumbs found in the early recipes were replaced with flour, which meant that they baked up firmer.