A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

flavoured with

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

. Ginger snaps are flavoured with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

molasses Molasses () is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction, and the age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usuall ...

and

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

. 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.

Global terminology

Ginger nuts are not to be confused with pepper nuts, which are a variety of

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger root, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly ...

, somewhat smaller in diameter, but thicker. Freshly baked gingerbread - Christmas 2004

; Europe

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

an ginger nuts, also called ginger bread or in Danish (literally, 'brown cookie'), in Swedish, in Finnish, in Latvian, in

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

and in Norwegian (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 Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or fragrance in consumer products, ...

, cinnamon and

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

are important ingredients of these, and the actual ginger taste is not prominent.

Allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm par ...

and cloves have been used to season ginger biscuits. In 2009,

McVitie's McVitie's () is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name is derived from the original Economy of Scotland, Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Private company limited by shares, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street ...

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 ; Oceania In Australia, produced since the 1900s, Arnott's Biscuits manufactures four different regional varieties of ginger nut to suit the tastes of people in different states. The darker and more bitter Queensland biscuit is in weight and average about in thickness, compared to the lighter South Australia biscuit, which is heavier at in weight, and average about in thickness. Ginger nuts are the most sold biscuit in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, normally attributed to its tough texture which can withstand dunking into liquid. Leading biscuit manufacturer Griffin's estimates 60 million of these cookies are produced each year. This has become the title of a book, ''60 Million Gingernuts'', a chronicle of New Zealand records. ; North America In Canada and the United States, the cookies are usually referred to as ginger snaps. Further, they are generally round drop cookies, usually between thick, with noticeable cracks in the top surface.

References

External links

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