A Gingerbread Masterpiece December 11, 2009

Side view of my homey gingerbread cottage

Ok so I love baking, which means this time of year I am both especially busy, and happy.  There was supposed to be a blizzard on one of my days free, so I decided what better way to spend a snow day than making a gingerbread house.  I had not made one in years.  The last one I made was actually a guillotine, as an extra credit project for a European History class about a decade ago.  It was complete with a blade that “sliced” the heads off of little french gingerbread men.  It was awesome.  But it was time for something more traditional.  From that desire came my gingerbread masterpiece.  I will detail all of the recipes I used for the various pieces, and hopefully you have as much fun and luck with it as I did.

Gingerbread dough

Source: Martha Stewart Holiday, 2009

• 1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 6 1/2 cups flour

1. Combine the brown sugar, molasses, butter, spices, and salt in a medium saucepan over low heat.  Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved.  Stir in milk.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

2. Pour milk mixture into a mixing bowl.  Add baking powder and flour.  Start on low-speed and increase to medium, beating until well combined.

3. Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  The dough can be frozen up to 1 month.  Thaw in the fridge before use.

4. Bake pieces in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes, depending on thickness and size of the pieces.  I baked mine until my finger no longer left an imprint on the pieces.

(I needed the dough the same day, so I put it in the freezer for about 2 hours until it was firm.  I let it sit out on the counter for about 10-20 minutes until it was a perfect rolling texture.)

Caramel Syrup (for the “glue”)

Source: Martha Stewart Holiday, 2009

• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water

Combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until thickened and light brown.  Do not stir with a spoon.  Just swirl the pan around to dissolve the sugar.  Use immediately.

(Start using the syrup just as it turns the faintest brown color.  It firms quickly so keep a burner on as low as possible to put the pan back over, and re-liquify the caramel.)

Royal Icing

Source: Simplyrecipes.com

• 2 large egg whites
• 2 2/3 cups powdered sugar, divided

Whisk together the egg whites and 1 1/3 cup of the powdered sugar until smooth.

If you are going to eat your frosting, either use pasteurized dried egg white powder, or microwave the egg white powdered sugar mix for 30-40 seconds until the temp reaches 160-175.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the remaining powdered sugar and whip until fluffy and it holds stiff peaks.  If it does not stiffen up, add more powdered sugar.

Transfer your icing to a covered bowl, or cover with a damp towel to keep it from drying out until you are ready to use for mortar, or decoration.  Add colors at will.

How to put it all together

As I was waiting for my gingerbread to stiffen, I started drawing out my templates on several pieces of paper.  Once they were to my liking, I cut them out and labeled them.  My house was generally about 11 inches long and 6 inches deep.  I made sure that all of my pieces would fit on my cookie sheets before rolling out the dough.

Flour your countertop well, and start rolling out your dough.  Mine ended up being about 1/4 thick for the most part.  I cut out my templates and threw ones that did not need embellishments, like windows straight into the oven.  If I was cutting or texturing any of the pieces, I put them back in the fridge to harden yet again.  I held on to any of the extra dough in the fridge after I was done cutting, just in case of a disaster (I ended up using it, but in a good way, not because anything broke.  More on that in a bit.)

Cut out your windows, or add texture like panes on doors, or shingles on the roof.  Take a few minutes to think it all through before it goes in the oven.  Then bake away.  Let the pieces all fully cool on a wire rack before assembling.

I wanted to make window panes for my house.  They are best put on the pieces before

Using excess gingerbread dough to form molds for my window panes.

assembling your house.  Use the above recipe for caramel syrup, or grind up jolly ranchers for fun colors.  I used my left over gingerbread dough to create molds for all my windows.  I put it into the freezer until I was ready to pour in the caramel syrup.  It solidified instantly, but I still put aside to let it fully harden.  I used royal icing to attach the windows to the walls.

Now I was ready to assemble.  Do not make your caramel syrup until you are all ready to go, and everything is chilled.  The syrup takes about 20 minutes to make.  The minute you start seeing the color change, you can start using it.  I dipped the edge of one of my front pieces into the syrup and quickly attached it to one side piece.  I was amazed by how quickly the caramel held.  It was better than super glue!  You really don’t have a lot of time to work with it though, so have everything all laid out and ready to go.  It is also quite helpful to have another set of hands nearby to hold pieces.  I used a spatula to sort of drip caramel onto pieces that I could not dip into the pan.  If the caramel hardens on you, put it back on the stove to reheat.  The caramel will get darker the longer you reheat it, until it becomes candy, and you will not be able to work with it then.  I had to make 2 batches to fully attach all my pieces.  (I did window boxes, a porch, chimney, shutters, trees and other add ons, so I had a lot more attaching to do.)

Now the fun begins.  You are ready to decorate.  Have the candy ready and put your royal icing into a piping bag, with your choice of tips.  Freezer bags also work well, with a small bit of the corner cut off to pipe through.  I started with white, and planned on coloring icing later, but never needed to.  I piped a bead edge along all of my major pieces, and along the roof line to make it look cute.

Before the icing goes on

Snow and icicles are made by piping a large piles, and then pulling the tip away slowly to create the drape you want.  I sprinkled my snow with normal sugar as it was drying to make it sparkle.

The roof- I ended up using Fig Newtons that were cut in half, sliced on a bias to make it look like tiles.  Other options were nonpareil chocolate candies, snodrops, gingerbread cookies, and pieces of gum cut to look like shingles.

marshmallow snowman- I used a toothpick inserted into three marshmallows to give him some support.  I used a sliced up orange “Dot” candy to make the carrot nose.  Real twigs for his arms.

Xmas lights- I found Nerd Ropes, in red, white and green.  I hooked it to my roof with a bit of floral wire.

A tight shot of some of my gingerbread house decor

Door Wreath & Windowboxes- I cut up more green Dots to make the wreath and stuck a red Dot in the center.  They are so sticky they did not need any icing to stay together.  The window boxes were whole green Dots sliced with pieces of red stuck inside.  I added drips of icing to look like snow draping them.

The Porch- I used candy canes as the posts, and Twizzlers as the banister.

Snow draped trees- I cut 2 sets of somewhat matching Xmas tree shapes out of gingerbread, and then cut those two in half immediately after pulling them from the oven.  Then I made them 3 dimensional by glueing them back together with the caramel on right angles.  I then draped the edges with royal icing and put small bits of Dots to create the look of Xmas lights.

The Chimney- I was toying with lots of options for the chimney, but just went with traditional red hots for the bricks, held in place with excessive icing.

My homey Gingerbread Cottage

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