Gingerbread House Tutorial; Part 1

I may have mentioned that I am the Activity Days Leader in our ward. For one of our December activities, I thought it would be fun to make gingerbread houses. That really means that I get do all the work to actually MAKE them and the girls will decorate them. If you are lucky, I'll remember to post the recipe I use later. This is not an eating recipe. You certainly CAN eat it, but only if you are orally fixated and like to gnaw on things. It makes rock solid gingerbread, which happens to be perfect for this project!

Once you have your dough made and cooled, you will need to clear off a lovely bit of space. For me, the only space big enough is the kitchen table. Flour the surface heavily and roll out some dough! It is suppose to be 1/4 inch thick, but I probably roll it a lot less than that! Hey, I made small houses, they don't need to be as structurally sound.

This picture was turned the correct way when I uploaded it and I do not know what happened. I'm sure you can see what to do without even cranking your head 90 degrees to the right.

Lay out your template and gently trace around it with your knife. The trick here is to have a sharp enough knife to smoothly trim the dough, but no so sharp it slices through the tablecloth. (I say tablecloth, when in fact, I merely have a sheet of plastic to protect the tabletop. And I like it!) I did switch to using a pizza cutter later. It cuts smoothly and its easy to trace along the template with it.

If you are like me, you may have to shoo away a baby who is suppose to be upstairs with Daddy getting bedtime stories read to her. She is not a helper, she just thinks she is.

After you cut out a bunch, your table may look like this. Just to sound helpful, let me remind you that you should have at least 3 templates- one for the roof, one for the sides, one for the front and back. You'll trim out 2 of each to make one complete house. I doubled my recipe and made really small houses, so I got 8 full sets cut out. Yeah, it took a while.

And yep, I had to chase the girls back up to bed too. I lured them away from my culinary masterpieces with the promise that they could roll out their own dough the next day. I followed through too.... all the scraps went into the fridge and I let the kiddies roll and cut out some rock hard cookies for tree ornaments. So there! I still needed a few more houses, so I had to make another batch.

Here you can see the cut out parts waiting to be put on the pan and cooked. And Delaney is enjoying her breakfast in the background. I'm into casual here.

Now, FYI, I only have 2 pans that fit into the oven here. Sad, but true. So I imporvise, and it just takes a bit longer. So..... slide the lovely cut-outs onto your pan, and straighten any edges that might have gotten gronked in the process. Then toss that pan in the oven.

Here's what they look like when they are done. Well, slightly overly done. We're not going to eat this stuff people, we don't care if its overly done! Its a good thing, actually, it means that they won't crumble. Chip, maybe, but not crumble.



Again, with the rotating the picture for me! Still, you can tell that you need to cool your gingerbread when it comes out of the oven. You want to let this stuff sit a few minutes first to firm up before you move it to the cooling racks.

Then I like to stack them as units so I can make sure I have enough pieces to make a complete house. I miscounted on this batch and I have 2 extra side pieces, which is much better than being 2 short.

Okay, and here is the recipe. I'll be showing the finished results later. (PS- the icing dries to a very solid finish, like glue.)

Gingerbread Dough:
Stir together into a bowl
6 c all purpose flour
1 Tb cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ginger
½ tsp salt

In 2 qt sauce pan mix until blended, then stir over medium heat until margarine is melted:
1 ½ cups Corn syrup
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1C margarine or butter

Add liquids to flour mixture and mix until well blended. Then chill in refrigerator until dough is easy to handle.

For easy rolling, place damp dish towel under cookie sheet to prevent sheet from slipping. Line 15 ½ by 12” or 17”by 14” cookie sheet with foil, moistening first with water to prevent f oil from moving. Remove about 2-3 cups dough from refrigerator and roll about ¼” thick. (As you saw, I just rolled it out on the table and moved the pieces. Whatever works for you!) Cut pattern pieces from light weight cardboard, place pattern piece on dough and cut with sharp knife. Remove scraps of dough for re-rolling.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned and firm when lightly touched. When cooled, check against pattern. They can be trimmed with a knife or sanded to fit. Return all pieces to oven and rebake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees so they will harden and handle easier. (I don’t think I ever did that.)

ICING
1 lb confectioner’s sugar
3 egg white at room temperature
½ tsp cream of tartar
In large bow with mixer at low speed, beat all ingredients until well blended. Beat at high speed 7-10 minutes or until a knife drawn through it leaves a path. Makes about 2 cups.

Note: because the frosting dries quickly, make each batch just before you are ready to use it. If you must store for a few hours or overnight, cover tightly with plastic wrap. When using, keep container covered with a damp towel. You can add food colors as needed. If icing is too thick when using the decorator tubes, add a few drops of water at a time. For thicker icing, add confectioner’s sugar.

Assembly: When assembling gingerbread pieces with icing, work with pastry bag with medium tube. Color small amounts of icing with cocoa to use as glue. To attach walls of houses pipe icing along the edge of one wall. Press it against adjoining wall and hold in place for several minutes before icing sets. Let dry thoroughly, propping attached pieces with a small sturdy object. When dry, smooth seams with a damp cloth. Fill in any spaces with more icing. For extra stability when building a house, pipe icing inside along seams as well. Allow to stand for at least an hour until icing has dried before putting on the roof. (They say to decorate each wall, and then assemble… ah, we didn’t do that.)