Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses.

Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as a ginger snap.

In the United States the first known recipe for "Soft gingerbread to be baked in pans" is found in Amelia Simmons' 1796 cookbook, American Cookery.

He left Nicopolis (in modern-day western Greece) to live in Bondaroy (north-central France), near the town of Pithiviers.

[5] The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits in England dates to the 16th century,[9] where they were sold in monasteries, pharmacies, and town square farmers' markets.

The first recorded mention of gingerbread being baked in the town dates to 1793, although it was probably made earlier, as ginger had been stocked in high street businesses since the 1640s.

This crisp brittle type of gingerbread is now represented by the popular commercial version called the ginger nut biscuit.

"Parliament cake" or "Parlies", a very spicy ginger shortbread, were eaten (in the same way as salty snacks with beer), with whisky, rum or brandy, during midday breaks, by the members of the original (pre-1707) Scottish Parliament, in a secret backroom (ben the hoose),[13] at a tavern and shop in Bristo Street in Edinburgh's Potterrow, behind the university, run by a Mrs Flockhart, AKA Luckie Fykie, the landlady who is thought to be the inspiration for Mrs Flockhart in Walter Scott's Waverley.

[22][23] Parkin is a form of soft gingerbread cake made with oatmeal and treacle which is popular in northern England, originating in Yorkshire.

French pain d'épices is somewhat similar, though generally slightly drier, and involves honey rather than treacle and uses less spice than other breads in this category.

In Panama, a confection named yiyinbre is a gingerbread cake made with ginger and molasses; it is typical of the region of Chiriquí.

At Oktoberfest in Munich, it is customary for men to buy large gingerbread cookies in the shape of a heart, with a ribbon for their sweetheart to wear around their neck.

In Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, the honey cake eaten at Rosh Hashanah (New Year) closely resembles the Dutch peperkoek or the German Lebkuchen, though it has wide regional variations.

In the Netherlands and Belgium, a soft and crumbly gingerbread called peperkoek, kruidkoek or ontbijtkoek is popularly served at breakfast time or during the day, thickly sliced and often topped with butter.

In the Nordic and Baltic countries, the most popular form of ginger confection is the pepperkaker (Norwegian), pepparkakor (Swedish), peberkager (Danish), piparkökur (Icelandic), piparkakut (Finnish), piparkūkas (Latvian) or piparkoogid (Estonian).

A classic Russian gingerbread is made with rye flour, honey, sugar, butter, eggs and various spices; it has an embossed ornament and/or text on the front side with royal icing.