Dish: Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice
BY CATHY HORTONPHOTOS BY MATT ROSE
Aside from the scent of a freshly-cut fir, there is nothing that says “Christmas” quite like the spicy, sweet smell of gingerbread, hot from the oven. With its enticing aroma, nutty brown color and sturdy consistency, gingerbread has long been the “play-dough” of choice for creative bakers, who eagerly anticipate pulling out the cookie cutters as the holidays draw near.While fresh ginger is typically found in Asian dishes, dried ginger is most often associated with confections: cakes, cookies and seasonal decorations such as ornaments and houses. It’s the stuff of childhood and fairy tales — whether elaborate or rudimentary, many of us can remember holding the sides of a gingerbread house together with gummy hands, praying for the icing to dry and walls to stay together.
Gingerbread has a rather romantic history, dating back to the Middle Ages, when fair maidens are said to have given it to favored knights who were heading into battle. In Europe, molds were often used to bake ginger cakes featuring portraits of kings and queens.
Much of its appeal lies in its versatility — baked to a crispy consistency, thin ginger cookies are often referred to as gingersnaps, while a thicker, cake-like cookie, popularized in Nuremberg, Germany, is called lebkuchen.
There is even a significant local connection; the historic Grove Park Inn in Asheville has been the host of an Annual National Gingerbread House Competition for the past 15 years. Competition is fierce and the standards of entry are rigid — the houses, and all their accoutrements, must be entirely edible.
Bakers from all over the country “gingerly” transport their original works of art to the Inn, where the fanciful and stunningly elaborate entries are on display from November 20 through January 5, with the winning sculptures garnering a spot on national television. High profile contests aside, the real magic of gingerbread can be found right in your own kitchen. In their Hendersonville home, Connie Sahf and her daughter Elaina share in the annual ritual of baking gingerbread ornaments. Connie, a Baking & Pastry Arts student at AB Tech as well as a part-time baker at Highland Lake Inn in Flat Rock, brings a high level of expertise to the endeavor.
“My friend, Mary McCann, gave me a gingerbread moon ornament several years ago and I loved the idea of something pretty for the tree that also smelled like Christmas, so I started making some cookies into ornaments each year,” Connie says. “Decorating cookies with my kids at Christmas reminds me of my childhood and how satisfying it was to make plain dough into an edible piece of art.” Elaina agrees, but gleefully adds “My favorite part of baking gingerbread cookies is eating them!”
