The iced gingerbread men you eat at Christmastime have a long history behind them. According to Martha Stewart, ginger was first grown in Southeast Asia and made its way to India and Europe in spice trades. Mediterranean ginger cakes were introduced to Western Europe in the early 11th century, but the first recorded gingerbread recipe came from Nuremberg, Germany, in the 16th century.
While you might be more familiar with gingerbread men, gingerbread’s extensive history means hundreds of recipes have arisen over the centuries in dozens of countries. Here are 11 recipes from 11 different countries to help you expand your understanding of gingerbread.
1. Pão de mel (Brazil)
Brazilians enjoy these spiced honey cakes sandwiched with layers of dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate all year long, proving gingerbread doesn’t have to be a winter treat. If you like Argentine alfajores, shortbread cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche and often dipped in chocolate, you’re bound to like these as well.
2. Nonnettes (France)
These gingerbread cakes get their name from the French nuns who began baking them in the Middle Ages — “nonnettes” actually means “little nuns.” The cakes are made with a blend of spices, honey and rye flour, filled with orange marmalade and glazed with a lemon sugar icing. This recipe also adds black currant jam, but you can use whatever you have on hand.
3. Lebkuchen (Germany)
These cookies originate in Nuremberg, Germany, the unofficial home of gingerbread. Although there are dozens of types of German gingerbread, such as pfeffernüsse, lebkuchen is one of the oldest kinds. According to Leckerlee, lebkuchen was invented by 13th-century monks who baked gingerbread cookies on top of communion wafers to prevent the dough from sticking to the baking tray.
If you buy these cookies in a store, you’ll notice they still have those wafers on the bottom, although most homemade recipes don’t call for that. These cookies include chopped nuts and citrus zest and many are dipped in chocolate.
4. Halva Zanjabil (Iran)
While you wouldn’t really call these “gingerbread,” this is still a delicious sweet treat that is absolutely worth trying. Traditional Persian halva calls for flour, sugar, clarified butter and water and is usually flavored with rosewater and saffron, but this version, common in the Iranian city of Tabriz, calls for powdered ginger.
5. Maejakgwa (Korea)
These addicting cookies also aren’t comparable to any Western gingerbread, as they call for ginger juice and pine nuts and are fried to achieve a crisp, crunchy texture. They’re definitely worth making and are a great example of a different way to use ginger. I’d recommend using a food processor to make these, as kneading by hand will take around 20 minutes.
6. Marranitos (Mexico)
These gingerbread pigs, also called “puerquitos,” are a staple in Mexican bakeries. Far softer than their American counterpart, they’re almost cake-like, although some recipes can be a little dry and crumbly. This recipe from Chicano Eats calls for a moist dough that makes a soft, delicious cookie.
7. Piernik Staropolski (Poland)
If you want to try this Polish gingerbread cake, get started now — while you can mix the dough, bake it and eat it right away, it’s best if you allow the dough to rest and mature for up to six weeks before baking. Layered with plum jam and walnut cream and covered in a layer of chocolate, it’s a decadent Christmas treat.
8. Edinburgh gingerbread loaf (Scotland)
This is the gingerbread loaf of your Christmas dreams. Similar in texture to pumpkin bread, it’s perfect to eat with a cup of apple cider or peppermint tea. This recipe calls for treacle, which can be substituted with molasses, and sultanas, which I like to swap out with chopped candied ginger for an extra punch of flavor.
9. Ginger cake (Sierra Leone)
These are not actually cakes, but rather a sort of shortbread cookie flavored with fresh grated ginger and a small amount of cayenne pepper for an extra kick. According to the author of this recipe, these are a common after-school snack in Sierra Leone.
10. Pepparkakor (Sweden)
These crisp, thin cookies are spiced with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and can either be shaped into balls or cut into fun shapes with cookie cutters. Most recipes — including this one — call for golden syrup, which you can find online or in specialty stores, or you can substitute with either honey or maple syrup.
11. Leckerli (Switzerland)
This Swiss gingerbread cake has a brighter taste than American gingerbread thanks to the addition of candied citrus peel and the use of honey rather than molasses as a sweetener. It’s a simple one-layer cake glazed with a plain icing, so it’s a perfect treat to bake when you don’t have time to roll out individual cookies.