A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavored with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavored with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses and clove. There are many recipes. The brittle ginger nut style is a commercial version of the traditional fairings once made for market fairs now represented only by the

Cornish fairing A Cornish fairing is a type of traditional ginger biscuit commonly found in Cornwall, United Kingdom. "Fairing" was originally a term for an edible treat sold at fairs around the country, though over time the name has become associated with ginge ...

Global terminology

Ginger nuts are not to be confused with pepper nuts, which are a variety of gingerbread, somewhat smaller in diameter, but thicker. In 2009,

McVitie's McVitie's () is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites ...

Ginger Nuts were listed as the tenth most popular biscuit in the UK to dunk into tea."Chocolate digestive is nation's favourite dunking biscuit"
The Telegraph. 2 May 2009 Ginger nuts are the most sold biscuit in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, 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. In Australia, Arnott's Biscuits manufactures four different regional varieties of ginger nut to suit the tastes of people in different states. In Canada and the United States, the cookies are usually referred to as ginger snaps. Further, they are generally round

drop cookie A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nu ...

s, usually between thick, with prominent cracks in the top surface. Freshly baked gingerbread - Christmas 2004

Northern European ginger nuts, also called ginger bread or in

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

(literally, "brown cookie"), in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, in Latvian, in Estonian and in

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

(literally, "pepper cakes"), are rolled quite thin (often under 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 Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are r ...

are important ingredients of these, and the actual ginger taste is not prominent. Allspice and cloves have been used to season ginger biscuits.Mattila, Anna-Liisa: Piparikirja. Jyväskylä: Atena, 2001. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ginger snap Biscuits Cookies Ginger dishes ja:ジンジャークッキー