Christmas is a spicy fragrance that spreads through the home. These are crunchy cookies - gingerbread, if they don't make it in time  soften crunched by household members, and  colored frosting - if you have patience and time to play in the decoration.  

The history of gingerbread begins  in ancient. Then  were popular  honey-lubricated biscuits called honey makers. In one of the Roman cookbooks by Apicius there is even a recipe for gingerbread with pepper, close to the later gingerbread. After the fall of the Roman Empire, however, the tradition is forgotten. It was not until the Middle Ages that honey extractors with spices according to ancient recipes began to bake orders anew, especially the Benedictines. This was possible thanks to the Crusades, which allowed for the import of large amounts of spices to Europe. As cities expand, specialized bakery features emerge. They benefit from the experience of religious. This is how the great career of gingerbread begins.

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In the past centuries, two types of gingerbread were baked: soft and figural. The difference was in adding or not adding a raising agent. In the Middle Ages, this role was played by potash, i.e. burnt charcoal containing ammonia derivatives. The soft gingerbreads were simply eaten. Figurative gingerbreads, pressed on elaborate wooden forms, were a luxury item, a symbol of the possessor's wealth, due to the high price of spices. Some were even gilded, but it did not deter gourmands. As a consequence, this led to the prohibition of this practice by the municipal authorities. Supposedly, they were so hard that according to one of the legends, they could successfully replace a wagon wheel.