National Gingerbread Cookie Day in USA

In Medieval England, the term gingerbread simply meant 'preserved ginger' and wasn't applied to the desserts we are familiar with until the 15th century. The term is now broadly used to describe any type of sweet treat that combines ginger with honey, treacle or molasses.

A doctor once wrote a prescription for gingerbreads for the Swedish King Hans, to cure his depression. Queen Elizabeth I of England is credited with the first gingerbread men. Unmarried women in England have been known to eat gingerbread “husbands” for luck in meeting the real thing.

Houses made of gingerbread may have been inspired in the early 1800s by the Brothers Grimm, who wrote about a witch's cottage made of candy and cookies in "Hansel and Gretel." Waves of immigrants brought gingerbread to America. George Washington's mother is credited with one recipe.