Gingerbread dough

Gingerbread dough is a type of dough in which the main components are flour along with natural honey. Such dough can be used to prepare various kinds of confectionery products - for example, gingerbread, gingerbread houses and men, as well as rugs.

It is noteworthy that the first pastry based on gingerbread dough can boast of the cook of Ancient Egypt - archaeologists in one of the tombs found pastries of this kind. At the same time, archaeological excavations in Italy led to the discovery of clay molds for the manufacture of meads - honey-based products.

Gradually, gingerbread pastry began to spread throughout Europe. They were popular with Germanic tribes, then with the East-Western Slavs. Since the 18th century, gingerbread pastry has been loved by residents of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

When culinary experts discovered spices, they began to actively add them to gingerbread dough - for this reason, the products began to be called gingerbread. Nevertheless, to this day, gingerbread dough is based on flour and honey, although often butter, sugar, spices and eggs are added to its composition, sometimes candied fruits, raisins or nuts.

Sometimes, instead of honey, only sugar sand is put in gingerbread dough, but often it is replaced with sugar syrups. If gingerbread is made from dark types of honey and flour, as a rule, gingerbread dough is not tinted. Gingerbread, which is cooked on light honey or sugar and flour, is tinted with burnt sugar to a light brown tint. Only a certain sequence should be observed - add the gum to the syrup in the first stages of mixing gingerbread dough.

Types of gingerbread dough

Based on the production method, two types of gingerbread dough can be distinguished: ordinary and custard. In the production of gingerbread dough by the usual (or so-called gummy) method, sugar syrup is first heated and butter is melted, to which honey and other components are then added. As a rule, this method is used in the production of most of the gingerbread products (for example, Tula gingerbread).

A more ancient method is considered to be such a type of gingerbread dough as custard - it is used to make gingerbread gingerbread. In the process, the flour is poured into hot syrup, and then the resulting gingerbread dough is stored for about three to four weeks in a cold room and only the missing components are added to the dough just before baking. However, today this method of making gingerbread dough is not used in industrial conditions.