Ginger snap
 Drop cookie-style ginger snaps | |
| Alternative names | Ginger nut, ginger biscuit |
|---|---|
| Type | Biscuit |
| Main ingredients | Powdered ginger, spices (commonly cinnamon and nutmeg) |
A ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a globally popular biscuit based snack food, flavoured with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavoured with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses[1] and nutmeg.[2] There are many recipes.[3]
Global terminology
In the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Australia, and New Zealand and most of the former British Empire, they are often called ginger nuts. Ginger nuts are not to be confused with pepper nuts, which are a variety of gingerbread, somewhat smaller in diameter, but thicker. McVitie's ginger nuts was listed as the tenth most popular biscuit in the UK to dunk into tea.[4]
Ginger nuts are the most popular biscuit in New Zealand, normally attributed to its tough texture which can withstand dunking into liquid. Leading biscuit manufacturer Griffin's estimates 60 million of them are produced each year. This has become the title of a book, 60 Million Gingernuts, a chronicle of New Zealand records.[5][6][7] In Australia, Arnott's Biscuits manufactures four different regional varieties of ginger nut to suit the tastes of people in different states.[8]
In the United States, the usual term is ginger snaps, and they are generally round drop cookies, usually between 3 mm (1/8-inch) and 6 mm (1/4-inch) thick, with prominent cracks in the top surface.
Scandinavian ginger nuts, also called ginger bread or "brunkage" in Danish (literally meaning "brown biscuits"), pepparkakor in Swedish, piparkakut in Finnish, piparkūkas in Latvian, piparkoogid in Estonian and pepperkaker in Norwegian (literally, pepper cookies), are rolled quite thin (often under 3 mm (1/8-inch) thick), and cut into shapes; they are smooth and are usually much thinner and hence crisper (and in some cases, more strongly flavoured) than most global varieties. Cloves, cinnamon and cardamom are important ingredients of these, and the actual ginger taste is not prominent. Allspice was used formerly to season ginger biscuits, but cloves replaced it later.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "Ginger Snaps - Grandma's Molasses". Grandma’s Molasses. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
- ^ Abigail Johnson Dodge. "Ginger Snaps." Fine Cooking Dec 2005. 8 Jan 2010 http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/ginger-snaps.aspx
- ^ "Soft and chewy ginger nuts". Allrecipes. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
- ^ "Chocolate digestive is nation's favourite dunking biscuit". The Telegraph. 2 May 2009
- ^ "FAQs | Griffin's". www.griffins.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
- ^ Janssen, Peter (2012-07-31). 60 Million Gingernuts: A Book of New Zealand Records. Hachette New Zealand. ISBN 9781869712884.
- ^ "Gingernuts 250g | Griffin's". www.griffins.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
- ^ Fejer, Lish; Travers, Penny (20 May 2017). "Ginger nut: The Aussie biscuit favourite that varies across the country". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
- ^ Mattila, Anna-Liisa: Piparikirja. Jyväskylä: Atena, 2001. ISBN 951-796-263-0.
External links
Media related to Ginger biscuits at Wikimedia Commons
