Gingerbread is a sweet that can take the form of a cake or a cookie in which the predominate flavor is ginger.
As a cookie, gingerbread can be made into a thin, crisp cookie (often called a ginger snap) or a softer cookie similar to the German Lebkuchen. Gingerbread cookies are often cut into shapes, particularly gingerbread men.
A variant dough is used to make gingerbread houses à la the "witch's house" encountered by Hansel and Gretel. These, covered with a variety of candies and icing, are a common Christmas decoration.
Another variant uses a boiled dough that can be moulded like clay to form inedible statuettes or other decorations.
The cake form tends to be a dense, treaclely spice cake. Some recipes add mustard, pepper, raisins, nuts, and/or other spices/ingredients to the batter.
A French pastry close to gingerbread is pain d'épices. Pain d'épices ("bread of spices") is a cake whose ingredients contain a large dose of honey, and some spices, including aniseed and possibly ginger. The pain d'épices from Dijon has a good reputation.
Originally, the term gingerbread (from Latin zingiber via Old French gingebras) referred to preserved ginger, then to a confection made with honey and spices.
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