Xmas Desserts – szókincsfejlesztés, mini feladat

1.Gingerbread Houses
Gingerbread has an incredibly long history and there is thought that it has been shaped into Christmas tree ornaments since, at least, the Victorian era. As for gingerbread houses, they became popular after the Grimm brothers published Hansel and Gretel, though it’s unclear whether the edible edifices got their start as a literary invention. In parts of Europe in the 17th century, only professional gingerbread makers were allowed to bake the stuff year-round. That restriction was lifted during Christmas and Easter, which may explain the Christmas-gingerbread connection.

2.Plum Christmas Pudding
The tradition of eating plum pudding on Christmas might have originated with a Roman Catholic Church decree to make a 13-ingredient pudding to represent Christ and the apostles. On the informally named “Stir It Up Sunday,” on the Sunday before the beginning of the Advent season, families made this pudding by taking turns stirring the batter from east to west to commemorate the Magi’s journey.

Plum stood in for any dried fruit, as reflected by Victorian pudding recipes that included raisins, currants, beef suet, citrus zest, almonds, and spices — but not plums or even prunes.

3.Buche de Noel
The Bûche de Noël is a log-shaped cake meant to evoke the Yule log that once burned in European homes throughout Christmas as well as the massive decorated logs that Celts used to burn outside to celebrate the winter solstice – the term “yule” refers to this day of the year.

To honor this tradition in an edible and decadent way, sweet cakes were baked and rolled to mimic the aspect of a log. Nowadays, chocolate Yule logs are commonly made of layered or rolled genoise sponge cake filled with mousse or buttercream. Often decorated with marzipan or meringue mushrooms, forest creatures, or holly leaves, the log can be simply dusted with powdered sugar and decorated with a few red berries.

4.Fruitcake
The recipes for the heavily fruit-laden, sometimes boozy fruitcakes we associate with Christmas today have their roots in the Middle Ages. Dried fruits and sugar were expensive imports, so using them in large quantities was strictly a special-occasion endeavor; that’s why fruitcake was also a traditional wedding cake option. Plus, in the days of hard-to-regulate wood-burning ovens, successful cake baking was a tricky effort, and taking the risk of burning such precious ingredients was only reserved for the very knowledgeable and only during special occasions.

Although there are as many fruit cake recipes as there are cooks, they all agree on the use of spices, a combination of dried or candied fruit, and some liquor or wine.

5.Mincemeat
Mincemeat, in its original incarnation of a mixture of chopped meat mixed with dried fruits, sugar, and spices was a way to stretch a meat supply and use up leftovers. Over time, less and less meat was included in the recipe, so that the mincemeat we know today is made entirely from fruits, sugar, alcohol, and sometimes, in a nod to its origins, suet.

By the 16th century, mince pies were a British Christmas specialty. Some suppose that mincemeat pies were popular at Christmas thanks to the Saturnalia tradition of presenting sweetmeats to Roman fathers in the Vatican. Puritans condemned mincemeat pies as a Catholic custom, which may explain why they’re less popular in the US than in the UK.

source: the spruceEats

Válaszd ki, melyik szó leírását olvasod a feladatban.