Iconic Aussie breakfast favourite just dropped a radical new flavour
Australian breakfast staple, the humble crumpet, has undergone a radical makeover.
Golden has released a gingerbread-flavoured crumpet just in time for Christmas. But this limited release treat is just the latest local icon to take on the divisive festive flavour.
This limited release treat is just the latest local icon to add ginger to its flavour range. Nine/Au Bites & Finds
The nation’s favourite biscuit has undergone a ginger makeover, in the form of Ginger Tim Tam. Early reviews of this flavour have been mixed.
So how did this versatile spice become so infused with our favourite time of the year, to a point it has now infiltrated our most iconic foods?
Ginger Tim Tam flavour has divided the nation. Arnott's
And Woolies ginger mud cake is also back. Oh So Busy Mum
It turns out ginger’s place as one of Australia’s favourite festive flavours has been ingrained for centuries, and not just because its delicious (when used right).
It’s because it has so many other qualities that push it into the realm of one of the country’s most underestimated super foods.
Ginger’s native origins
Indigenous Australians have been using ginger for centuries, traditionally a native species from the ginger family known as Native Ginger, rather than the commercial ginger root we use today that is native to South-East Asia.
Commercial ginger root emerged when it arrived in the country during colonial times. It’s use in baked goods and Christmas treats emerged in Europe, along with cinnamon and cloves
The spice first became tied to midwinter dining during the Middle Ages. Ikea
Ginger’s popularity over other spices came not just due to its flavour, but its thought health benefits, such as the belief it can help ward of colds.
Adding ginger to baked goods preserved them for longer, and it was thought that placing food infused with ginger among other foods also assisted their shelf life.
Ginger was also used in the first refrigerators to prevent mould.
The first gingerbread
The first gingerbread was created in the 16th century across Germany and Poland where they were producing honey-rich Lebkuchen. The familiar gingerbread people emerged in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who instructed royal confectioners to mould spiced biscuits into the likeness of visiting foreign ambassadors and favourite courtiers.
By the Victorian era, fairs sold decorative gingerbread hearts, and the craze for building royal-icing-cemented gingerbread houses had spread globally.
British colonisation brought these specific ginger treats straight into the Australian summer, despite our much warmer temperatures in which heavy steamed puddings weren’t ideal.
It wasn’t until during the Second World War that Australia established its own ginger growing region for confectionary-grade ginger, in Queensland, moving locals away from powdered forms of the spice.
It is then that ginger became even more ingrained each Australian Christmas. That domestic crop reshaped our Christmas tables into a distinct food culture.
And that is how ginger became a mainstay each Australian Christmas. Jo Abi
If it isn’t ginger, it isn’t Christmas it now seems.
And while not all of these recent collaborations are a hit with everyone, they certainly make for a fun festive season for all.
