教你做甜美辛香的冬日薑餅

To Pauline D. Loh, nothing spells festive like the spicy scent of gingerbread baking. She shares the recipe and some decorating ideas.

This is the second year I am writing about gingerbread, breaking my own unwritten rule about not repeating recipes. But I have had too many questions about making gingerbread to ignore the requests. Personally, I love gingerbread. Characters from fairytales around the world peopled my own childhood, including a cheeky runaway gingerbread boy who got eaten by a fox before he got too far away. It saddened me, that story, so I started baking gingerbread boys and girls and decorated them in pants, skirts, pinafores and elaborate sweaters in a strangely compensatory way.

It was a lot more fun than Barbie-doll paper cutouts.

I have since taught many children the joys of making gingerbread, including my vast menagerie of godchildren. Some of them are almost grown now, and I hope they will keep the tradition going for their own kids as a heartwarming bonding experience.

A cold winter day spent baking and decorating will chase the indoor fidgets and chills away, and they get to eat their own creations. It's also healthy (think ginger, honey and whole wheat flour) and better than fast food snacks full of preservatives and additives. The kitchen may need a good scrub later, but you can always make that fun as well. The secret is to delegate, delegate, delegate.

Entertain the children with some history as you bake. Apparently, an Armenian monk brought gingerbread to France more than a thousand years ago and it spread to Germany and then Scandinavia. The spicy bread used a lot of ginger, which was believed to aid digestion. I guess they needed it, for history indicated that medieval recipes were heavy and stodgy. We can only imagine.

When the gingerbread finally migrated to the United Kingdom via various Teutonic ancestors, it was embraced with great enthusiasm, and there is, according to Wikipedia, even a town that uses a gingerbread sign to welcome visitors.

These days, gingerbread seems to hibernate in various recipe folders until the year-end festivities come around. And then you see elaborate gingerbread structures in hotel lobbies, and prettily packaged ginger cookies in the bakeries.

It seems a rather bewildering choice, since the gingerbread house always triggers memories of the horrific tale of Hansel and Gretel, who were lured into a witch's den precisely because it was a gingerbread cottage decorated with candies. The thought-association boggles the mind.

Better to use gingerbread as Christmas tree decorations. The gingerbread smells delicious, and when it is warmed by the Christmas lights, it's natural aromatherapy. Choose a theme for your tree and decide if you want stars, flowers, snowflakes or even bones.

Just get the appropriate cookie cutters from specialist bakery suppliers in your area, or as I do, from the online shops.

I always have a few gingerbread bones decorated for my French bulldogs every year, too. It's their treat, but I don't hang it on the Christmas tree because they are very weak-willed puppies.

And of course, there must always be a generous batch of gingerbread boys and girls to distribute with care packages during Christmas.

Recipe: Gingerbread cookies

Ingredients (makes plenty):

Dry ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp 5-spice powder

120 g butter, room temperature

100 g soft brown sugar

1 large egg; 160 ml dark honey

Icing:

Lemon juice; Icing sugar; Silver or gold dragees

Food coloring

Method:

1. Sift dry ingredients together.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and honey and beat until well combined. Gradually beat in dry ingredients.

3. Divide dough into two batches. Wrap in plastic and chill. (Cold dough is easier to work with.)

4. Preheat oven to 175 C. Line baking sheets.

5. Roll out dough between two large sheets of parchment paper. The dough becomes tacky quickly if you roll on it directly.

6. Shape cookies and transfer to lined baking sheets.

7. If you are using the gingerbread as decor for the Christmas tree, you need to make a little hole in the cookies so you can hang them up. I find the best way is to use a drinking straw to poke a hole at the top of the cooking. It's neat and quick.

8. Bake cookies for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how large or small you have cut them. Watch the first batch to better estimate your timing. Cool cookies completely before icing.

To make icing:

1. Sift icing sugar into bowl and add just enough lemon juice to form a spreadable icing.

Add less rather than more juice and adjust the consistency till you get it right.

2. To color the icing, use a toothpick to add drops of color to the icing. I know it's Christmas, but please use less rather than more color, or it will all look like an Austin Powers Shagadelic party gone wrong.

3. Ice the gingerbread cookies and decorate as you will.對於Pauline D. Loh而言，沒有什麼比烤薑餅飄出的辛香味道更有節日氛圍了。她給大家分享了做薑餅的菜譜和一些裝飾薑餅的創意。

這是我第二次寫有關做薑餅的菜譜了，打破了自己不重複推薦菜譜這一不成文的規定。但是，我有太多做薑餅的疑問，不能忽視自身的內心需求。我本人喜歡薑餅。童話世界裏的人物充斥着我的童年，有一個故事中，一個莽撞的薑餅小男孩從房子裏逃跑出去，還沒有跑得很遠就被一隻狐狸吃掉了。這個故事讓我很難過，所以，我開始烘烤小男孩形狀和小女孩形狀的薑餅，給做好的薑餅小人裝飾上褲子、短裙、連胸圍裙和精緻的毛衣。我用這種奇怪的方式尋求精神上的安慰。

這比做芭比娃娃的剪紙有趣多了。

我教許多孩子做薑餅，讓他們體會做薑餅的樂趣，我的一羣教子也是跟我學做的薑餅。現在，有些孩子已經長大了，我希望他們保留做薑餅的傳統，將來和他們自己的孩子一起做這項親子活動。

烘烤和裝飾薑餅能驅走冬日的嚴寒，安撫人們焦躁的情緒，孩子們做完薑餅還可以吃。薑餅是健康食品，想想薑餅的配料吧（姜、蜂蜜和全麥麪粉），它比裏面全是食品防腐劑和添加劑的快餐和小吃要好很多。做好薑餅後，廚房需要好好地擦洗一下。但是，你也可以讓擦洗活動變得很有意思。祕訣就是，放手、放手、再放手，派孩子們去做。

烤薑餅的時候給孩子們講講薑餅的歷史。一千多年前，一位亞美尼亞僧侶把薑餅的製作技藝從法國傳到德國，再傳到斯堪的納維亞半島。辛香的薑餅裏面放了許多姜，人們相信姜有助於消化。我猜想，當時的人們需要吃薑來幫助消化。因爲史料記載，中世紀人們的食譜口味重、油膩。至於食譜到底是怎樣的，我們只能想象了。

日耳曼人的祖先把薑餅的製作技藝傳到了英國，受到了英國人的熱烈歡迎。維基百科上說，有一個英國小鎮甚至用薑餅做的標識來歡迎客人。

最近，薑餅悄無聲息地淹沒在各色的菜譜中，像是在冬眠。直到年末的時候，這種有節日氣息的甜品纔會露面：酒店大堂裏是製作精緻的薑餅，麪包店裏是打包精美的薑餅。

薑餅屋總使人想起童話故事《漢塞爾和格麗塔爾》（Hansel and Gretel）中的恐怖情節，姐弟倆就是因爲看到了裝飾糖果的薑餅小屋而被引誘到了女巫的小屋。要不要吃薑餅屋成了一個令人困惑的抉擇，故事中和薑餅屋相關的情結縈繞在腦海裏，揮之不去。

最好還是用薑餅來裝飾聖誕樹吧。聖誕彩燈通電後，被燈光照得暖暖的薑餅聞起來很美味。選擇一個主題來裝飾聖誕樹，看看你想要什麼形狀的薑餅，是星星的、花朵的、雪花的還是骨頭的。

你可以從居住區裏專門賣西餅店用具的商店裏買點合適的餅乾模具，或者，你也可以像我一樣在網上購買。

我每年也會給我的法國鬥牛犬做點骨頭形狀的薑餅。骨頭形狀的薑餅是慰勞狗狗的，我不會把它掛在聖誕樹上，因爲我的狗狗們意志力薄弱。

當然，聖誕節期間必須做一批裝有小男孩和小女孩形狀的薑餅愛心包裹來分發。

菜譜：薑餅

配料（若干）：

乾貨食材：

2杯通用麪粉

1杯全麥麪粉

1/2茶匙鹽

1茶匙小蘇打粉

1湯匙生薑粉

1茶匙新鮮的生薑末

1茶匙五香粉

120克黃油，室溫軟化

100克棕色綿糖

1大枚雞蛋；160毫升深色蜂蜜

糖霜：

檸檬汁；糖粉；銀色或者金色的糖果

食物上色

方法：

1.把乾貨食料過篩後混合在一起。

2.把黃油和糖混在一起攪拌至鬆軟起沫。加入雞蛋和蜂蜜一起攪拌，直到混合均勻。然後，慢慢把乾貨食料加進去。

3.把麪糰分成2部分。用塑料包好冷卻。（涼麪團更適合做薑餅。）

4.把烤箱預熱到175攝氏度，把烤盤擺好。

5.在2大張烤盤紙上鋪好麪糰，如果你直接在烤盤紙上鋪開，麪糰很快就會變黏。

6.把在模具中成型的餅乾排放在烤盤上。

7.如果你要用薑餅裝飾聖誕樹，你需要在餅乾上穿一個小洞，這樣一來就可以往聖誕樹上掛了。最好的辦法就是，在用吸管在麪餅頂部上戳一個小洞。這樣做乾脆利落。

8.餅乾大約烘烤12到15分鐘，烘烤的具體時間根據餅乾塊的大小來把握。注意烘烤的第一批餅乾，這能夠幫助你估計烘烤的時間。給餅乾上糖霜前要使餅乾完全冷卻。

上糖霜：

1.把過篩的糖粉放入碗裏，加入足量的檸檬汁，以便形成一層容易塗開的糖霜。

加入少量檸檬汁，調整稠度，直到你感覺剛剛好爲止。

2.用牙籤給糖霜滴上顏色。我知道這是聖誕節，但是請少用點顏色。否則，它看起來就會像影片《王牌大賤碟》（Austin Powers）裏性感派對上的混亂狀況了。

3.給薑餅上糖霜，想畫什麼裝飾都行。