教你做甜美辛香的冬日姜饼.

　　教你做甜美辛香的冬日姜饼

　　Sugar, spice and everything nice

　　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 bore 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&aposs 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&aposs 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&aposs 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&aposs their treat, but I don&apost 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&aposs 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 bore 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&aposs 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.

　　对于Pauline D. Loh而言，没有什么比烤姜饼飘出的辛香味道更有节日氛围了。她给大家分享了做姜饼的菜谱和一些装饰姜饼的创意。

　　这是我第二次写有关做姜饼的菜谱了，打破了自己不重复推荐菜谱这一不成文的规定。但是，我有太多做姜饼的疑问，不能忽视自身的内心需求。我本人喜欢姜饼。童话世界里的人物充斥着我的童年，有一个故事中，一个莽撞的姜饼小男孩从房子里逃跑出去，还没有跑得很远就被一只狐狸吃掉了。这个故事让我很难过，所以，我开始烘烤小男孩形状和小女孩形状的姜饼，给做好的姜饼小人装饰上裤子、短裙、连胸围裙和精致的毛衣。我用这种奇怪的方式寻求精神上的安慰。

　　这比做芭比娃娃的剪纸有趣多了。

　　我教许多孩子做姜饼，让他们体会做姜饼的乐趣，我的一群教子也是跟我学做的姜饼。现在，有些孩子已经长大了，我希望他们保留做姜饼的传统，将来和他们自己的孩子一起做这项亲子活动。

　　烘烤和装饰姜饼能驱走冬日的严寒，安抚人们焦躁的情绪，孩子们做完姜饼还可以吃。姜饼是健康食品，想想姜饼的配料吧(姜、蜂蜜和全麦面粉)，它比里面全是食品防腐剂和添加剂的快餐和小吃要好很多。做好姜饼后，厨房需要好好地擦洗一下。但是，你也可以让擦洗活动变得很有意思。秘诀就是，放手、放手、再放手，派孩子们去做。

　　烤姜饼的时候给孩子们讲讲姜饼的历史。一千多年前，一位亚美尼亚僧侣把姜饼的制作技艺从法国传到德国，再传到斯堪的纳维亚半岛。辛香的姜饼里面放了许多姜，人们相信姜有助于消化。我猜想，当时的人们需要吃姜来帮助消化。因为史料记载，中世纪人们的食谱口味重、油腻。至于食谱到底是怎样的，我们只能想象了。

　　日耳曼人的祖先把姜饼的制作技艺传到了英国，受到了英国人的热烈欢迎。维基百科上说，有一个英国小镇甚至用姜饼做的标识来欢迎客人。

　　最近，姜饼悄无声息地淹没在各色的菜谱中，像是在冬眠。直到年末的时候，这种有节日气息的甜品才会露面：酒店大堂里是制作精致的姜饼，面包店里是打包精美的姜饼。

　　姜饼屋总使人想起童话故事《汉塞尔和格丽塔尔》(Hansel and Gretel)中的恐怖情节，姐弟俩就是因为看到了装饰糖果的姜饼小屋而被引诱到了女巫的小屋。要不要吃姜饼屋成了一个令人困惑的抉择，故事中和姜饼屋相关的情结萦绕在脑海里，挥之不去。

　　最好还是用姜饼来装饰圣诞树吧。圣诞彩灯通电后，被灯光照得暖暖的姜饼闻起来很美味。选择一个主题来装饰圣诞树，看看你想要什么形状的姜饼，是星星的、花朵的、雪花的还是骨头的。

　　你可以从居住区里专门卖西饼店用具的商店里买点合适的饼干模具，或者，你也可以像我一样在网上购买。

　　我每年也会给我的法国斗牛犬做点骨头形状的姜饼。骨头形状的姜饼是慰劳狗狗的，我不会把它挂在圣诞树上，因为我的狗狗们意志力薄弱。

　　当然，圣诞节期间必须做一批装有小男孩和小女孩形状的姜饼爱心包裹来分发。

　　菜谱：姜饼

　　配料(若干)：

　　干货食材：

　　2杯通用面粉

　　1杯全麦面粉

　　1/2茶匙盐

　　1茶匙小苏打粉

　　1汤匙生姜粉

　　1茶匙新鲜的生姜末

　　1茶匙五香粉

　　120克黄油，室温软化

　　100克棕色绵糖

　　1大枚鸡蛋;160毫升深色蜂蜜

　　糖霜：

　　柠檬汁;糖粉;银色或者金色的糖果

　　食物上色

　　方法：

　　1.把干货食料过筛后混合在一起。

　　2.把黄油和糖混在一起搅拌至松软起沫。加入鸡蛋和蜂蜜一起搅拌，直到混合均匀。然后，慢慢把干货食料加进去。

　　3.把面团分成2部分。用塑料包好冷却。(凉面团更适合做姜饼。)

　　4.把烤箱预热到175摄氏度，把烤盘摆好。

　　5.在2大张烤盘纸上铺好面团，如果你直接在烤盘纸上铺开，面团很快就会变黏。

　　6.把在模具中成型的饼干排放在烤盘上。

　　7.如果你要用姜饼装饰圣诞树，你需要在饼干上穿一个小洞，这样一来就可以往圣诞树上挂了。最好的办法就是，在用吸管在面饼顶部上戳一个小洞。这样做干脆利落。

　　8.饼干大约烘烤12到15分钟，烘烤的具体时间根据饼干块的大小来把握。注意烘烤的第一批饼干，这能够帮助你估计烘烤的时间。给饼干上糖霜前要使饼干完全冷却。

　　上糖霜：

　　1.把过筛的糖粉放入碗里，加入足量的柠檬汁，以便形成一层容易涂开的糖霜。

　　加入少量柠檬汁，调整稠度，直到你感觉刚刚好为止。

　　2.用牙签给糖霜滴上颜色。我知道这是圣诞节，但是请少用点颜色。否则，它看起来就会像影片《王牌大贱碟》(Austin Powers)里性感派对上的混乱状况了。

　　3.给姜饼上糖霜，想画什么装饰都行。