Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Recipes

A Fairy Tale Recipe

Hansel and Gretel's Gingerbread House Recipe

I remember that I on the one hand considered Hans and Gretel one of the scariest fairy tales that I had heard, but on the other hand, wished to find a gingerbread house one day to eat. 

My children love gingerbread, so it is often not difficult to persuade them to bake a gingerbread house with me, but they have shown extra enthusiasm for baking this after I have read them Hansel and Gretal - and baking after reading the fairy tale also someone wipes away the scariness of this fairy tale away. 

Hansel and Gretel's Gingerbread House 

Once upon a time there was two small children called Hansel and Gretel, who were the children of a poor woodcutter. When a great famine settles over the land, and the woodcutters second abusive wife, their stepmother, decide to make a plan to take the children into the woods and leave them there to fend for themselves. Hansel and Gretel have hear this plan when their stepmother discusses it with her sister. 

After the parents have gone to bed, Hansel sneaks out of the house and gathers as many white pebbles as he can, then returns to his room, reassuring Gretel that God will not forsake them.

The next day, the stepmother takes the children deep into the woods, meanwhile Hansel lays a trail of white pebbles. After the wife abandon them, the children wait for the moon to rise and then they followed the pebbles back home. They return home safely, much to their stepmother's horror. Once again provisions become scarce and the stepmother angrily take the children further into the woods and leave them there.

Hansel did not have any pebbles, but had taken a slice of bread and left a trail of bread crumbs for them to follow home. However, after they are once again abandoned, they find that the birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. After days of wandering, they follow a beautiful white bird to a clearing in the woods, and discover a large cottage built of gingerbread with window panes of clear sugar. Hungry and tired, the children begin to eat the rooftop of the gingerbread house, when the door opens and a "very old woman" emerges and lures the children inside, with the promise of soft beds and delicious food. They do this without knowing the fact that their hostess is a wicked witch who waylays children to cook and eat them.

The next morning, the witch locks Hansel in an iron cage in the garden and forces Gretel into becoming a slave. The witch feeds Hansel regularly to fatten him up, but Hansel cleverly offers a bone he found in the cage (presumably a bone from the witch's previous captive) and the witch feels it, thinking it to be his finger. Due to her blindness, she is fooled into thinking Hansel is still too thin to eat. After weeks of this, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat Hansel, "be he fat or lean."

She prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel, too. She coaxes Gretel to the open oven and prods her to lean over in front of it to see if the fire is hot enough. Gretel, sensing the witch's intent, pretends she does not understand what she means. Infuriated, the witch demonstrates, and Gretel instantly shoves the witch into the oven, slams and bolts the door shut.

Gretel frees Hansel from the cage and the pair discover a vase full of treasure and precious stones. Putting the jewels into their clothing, the children set off for home. A swan ferries them across an expanse of water and at home they find only their father; their stepmother died from unknown cause. Their father had spent all his days lamenting the loss of his children, and is delighted to see them safe and sound. With the witch's wealth, Hansel and Gretel have money to bake their father a big gingerbread house to celebrate their return.

Hansel and Gretel first collect all the ingredients, which include:

• 675 g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2 tbsp ground ginger

• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

• 1 tsp ground all spice

• 175 g unsalted butter

• 225 g soft light brown sugar

• 1 large, free range egg 

• 7 tbsp golden syrup

• 1 large, free range egg white

• 250 g icing sugar, sifted

• 2,5 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 

First, Hansel,  sieved the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large bowl, then Gretel rubbed the butter into the dry ingredients until they had a texture resembling fine breadcrumbs. They then added the sugar and mixed it well.Then, Hansel and Gretel's father helped them by warming a bowl and mixing the syrup and the egg together. Afterwards, he wrapped the dough in cling film and chill it for at least 1 hour (2 would be better – overnight better still).

Hansel and Gretel meanwhile focussed on the royal icing. They got a very large mixing bowl and tipped in the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice and beat for at least five minutes. They did add a little cold water, as the mix at first was too dry and crumbly, but they made sure to add the water very slowly. After about 5 minutes of beating they had a thick, very white meringue type mixture that holds its peak. They then stored it in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.

Then Hansel and Gretel got on to what they thought was the most fun, they cut out templates for the gingerbread house. They did two sides walls which were 16cm by 13cm, two gable end walls which were 16cm by 13cm rising to a point in the centre of 23cm, and finally two roof pieces which were 20.5cm by 15.5cm.

Their father then rolled the chilled dough out on a floured surface to a thickness of about 5mm and cut round the templates. He put the pieces onto baking sheets, lined with silicone paper and the put it back into the fridge for another hour. Meanwhile their father also made sure to preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 so they could all bake the gingerbread for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. 

As soon as it was out of the oven, they got those templates on top of the hot pieces pronto and cut round the outline to give themselves really sharp edges. Subsequently, Hansel, Gretel and their father all together put some of the royal icing into a piping bag and piped windows, roof tiles, doors or whatever their heart desired all over the outside of the house. 

Finally, Finally, Hansel, Gretel and their father all ate the gingerbread house and lived happily ever ever.

Rapunzel Salad

Cooking with my children is the highlight of my day. Especially, if the recipe is mentioned or relevant to a fairy tale that I have told them. Then they cannot wait to first help me with preparing and cooking the dish, and later eating all of it.

When I was little, I remember that my mother read me the Rapunzel fairy tale, and I was craving the rampion that the story referred to, and I continuously wondered my entire life what exactly it was. So now I am happy to be able to both tell my children the story of Rapunzel, but also to cook Rapunzel's salad with them.

Rapunzel Rampion Salad

Once upon a time, a lonely couple, who wanted a child, lived next to a walled garden belonging to a witch. 

The wife, experiencing cravings associated with the arrival of her long-awaited pregnancy, once day noticed rampions in the garden of the witch. She  so longed for this, desperate to the point of death. 

So one night, the husband breaks into the garden to gather some for his wife.

The husband returns to his wife and prepares a lovely salad for his wife. 

The ingredients of the salad are:

1-inch cube tuna

2 anchovy fillets
1 hard-cooked egg
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon French mustard
1 pickled gherkin
3 springs chervil
2 teaspoon soy sauce 
4 to 5 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 cooked beetroot
1 cold cooked potato
1 small celeriac
1 cooked rampion 
Lettuce leaves

The husband first made a paste by mashing tuna and anchovies. Subsequently, he worked the egg yolk smooth with oil and mustard and mixed in the fish paste. 

Afterward he mixed egg white, pickle, and chervil and mix all these together with soy and vinegar. Subsequently, he arrange the lettuce leaves in bowl, sliced the vegetables and put them in a bowl with lettuce, Finally, he poured the mixture over it all and tossed lightly the salad lightly.

The husband gave the salad to his wife, and the wife loved it. As a result, the wife asked her husband the day after again, to run over to the garden and get more rampion.

On the third night of collecting rampion in the witches garden, the witch catches him and accuses him of being a thief.

He begs for mercy, and the old woman agrees to be lenient, on condition that their unborn child should be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agrees. When the baby girl is born, the witch takes the child to raise as her own, and names her Rapunzel. 

Rapunzel grows up to be the most beautiful child in the world with long golden hair. When Rapunzel reaches her twelfth year, the enchantress shuts her away in a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor a door, and only one room and one window. When the witch visits Rapunzel, she stands beneath the tower and calls out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long hair around a hook beside the window, dropping it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room. 

One day, a prince rides through the forest and hears Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he searches for the girl and discovers the tower, but is naturally unable to enter, since there are big dangerous dragons in front of the tower. However, the prince is brave, so he kills all the dragons, so he can sit and listen to her beautiful singing, 

One day he sees the witch visit, and thus learns how to gain access to Rapunzel. When the witch is gone, he bids Rapunzel let her hair down. When she does so, he climbs up, makes her acquaintance, and eventually asks her to marry him. Rapunzel agrees.

Together they plan a means of escape, wherein he will come each night and bring her silk that Rapunzel can weave into a ladder. However, unfortunately Rapunzel foolishly one day gives the prince away, as she asks the witch why it is easier for her to draw up the prince than her. In anger, the witch cuts short Rapunzel's braided hair and casts her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. When the prince calls that night, the enchantress lets the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he finds himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who is nowhere to be found. When the witch tells him in anger that he will never see Rapunzel again, the witch pushes him and he falls on the thorns, thus becoming blind.

For months he wanders through the wastelands of the country. One day, as Rapunzel sings while she fetches water, the prince hears Rapunzel's voice again, and they are reunited. When they fall into each others' arms, her tears immediately restore his sight and he can see his two baby boys that she has given birth to. The prince leads her to his kingdom, where they live happily ever after.