Left: Keli Fayard helps her daughter Maya decorate cookies. Maya likes adding chocolate-
covered gold balls. Below: Sugar sprinkles make for colorful cookies.
Q continued from page 40
eliminated; the children she has turned into gingerbread for her own consumption are freed; and Hänsel and Gretel return home with enough treasure from the witch's booty to live happily ever after.
According to food
historians, gingerbread was likely chosen for the house because of its preservative qualities, which prior to refrigeration made it a staple in European baking. Germany was also the hub of the spice trade, and in those days, spices were the equivalent of gold.
In "Gingerbread: Things to Make and Bake," authors Theresa Layman and Barbara Morgenroth report that some native Germans still talk about their village being represented in gingerbread. "Each
42 BALLANTYNE MAGAZINE
Maya Fayard puts finishing touches on her cookies. WINTER 2012-2013
Photo by Jessica Milligan
Photo by Jessica Milligan