1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
3 each eggs
1/2 cup cold water
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sorghum or molasses
1 all-purpose flour (5-6 cups)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
Preparation time: 30 minutes Chilling time: Overnight Baking time: 10
minutes
1. Cream shortening and sugar in mixing bowl, beat in eggs, one at a
time. Mix water and baking soda in small bowl until dissolved. Add
baking soda mixture and sorghum to butter mixture. Sift 5 1/2 cups of
the flour, the spices and salt together. Blend into dough. Divide
dough into 4 balls. Wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten and refrigerate
overnight.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll 1 portion of dough out at a time on
lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes. Bake on a greased
cookie sheet until puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake.
3. When cool, decorate with buttercream frosting and/or candies as
desired. Sorghum gives these cookies a special flavor, but molasses
can be used as a substitute.
Ann Smith of Plainfield won second place, and described how her
gingerbread men left Bohemia in 1872 and immigrated to the United
States. Smith's great-grandmother, "Babicka" Novak, lived in a small
Czech-American town in South Dakota where Smith's mother grew up in
the 1920s. At Christmas time, her great-grandma would give her
neighbors Old World gingerbread men, reindeer and rocking horses.
"One year when Great-grandma delivered the cookies, she brought
along her teenaged grandson, who was visiting from a small ethnic
Czech community in Nebraska," Smith wrote.
"Introductions made that day over the watchful eyes of the
gingerbread men eventually lead to wedding bells for my parents a
decade later. Great-grandma Novak probably had planned this all
along!" from the Chicago Tribune second annual Food Guide Holiday
Cookie Contest December 14, 1989
Servings: 36 servings
1989 2nd Place: Great-Grandma's Gingerbread C Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Cake
The History of Recipes
We are able to trace the history of meal recipes way back into history, in truth as far back into recorded history as early Egypt, and maybe further still. In practice though, these, old cookbooks were just very basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for food preparation.
The truth of the matter is, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to academics are a few stone tablets in Sumerian which show the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making those who drank it feel wonderful and blissful. As we move on, there were a couple of interesting cookery books which appeared in the 14th Century : a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another titled `Curye on Inglish`. Despite their titles, they are not about the curry that is familiar to us all today, but rather accounts of the types of food on the tables of the upper classes of those days. Later, in the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought back many new foods and herbs from middle-east cuisine, including parsley, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new culinary ideas was responsible for an increase in manuscripts on food, many of which still exist in private libraries. During the next few centuries, the upper-class families of the West tried to serve the most extravagent meals, and because of this the best cooks and their collection of recipes were much in demand. However, it was during the nineteenth century that formal cookery and recipe collections really came of age. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the USA, devoted their lives to collecting, testing, and writing down recipes of the day. By the advent of the 20th century, cookery publications were increasing in popularity mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having more leisure time and having more disposable income. The revolution that is television brings us celebrity chefs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. Which pretty much brings us up to date and the internet revolution, allowing everyone to access thousands of recipes such as those found on this site. |
We hope you enjoy this 1989 2nd Place_ Great Grandma's Gingerbread C recipe.
