Gingerbread House

Posted on | December 19, 2009 | Recipes | No Comments

Gingerbread house

Since Amy’s first christmas I decided that we are going to start making our own Christmas traditions. I was looking for a fun way to spend time with my daughter and decided to bake gingerbread. I don’t like eating gingerbread but decorating the various shapes of gingerbread was a great fun. So baking gingerbread during christmas has become our tradition. Last year I didn’t bake any gingerbread because I was hardly in a baking mood with a newborn. This year I decided to make up for it by making a gingerbread house as well. We baked four gingerbread people, a car and a dog to represent our family. Well, we don’t have a dog but little Amy loves her teddy bear and it’s part of the family (her teddy bear is a sheep and not a dog).

Gingerbread house 2

This was my first Gingerbread house and I’m extremly pleased with the results. I had a couple of hiccups along the way but I recovered. My first hiccup started when I was too lazy to dig through my cupboard to look for a proper food processor. Instead I used a mini processor and had to mix the ingredients to make the dough in 5 separate batches. Sometimes being lazy just doesn’t pay off. The dough was made the night before and when I used it the next morning it was really hard and it took ages to roll out. I was worried that I did something wrong. Once I baked the first batch I immediately transferred one side of the house onto the cooling rack and as I picked it up the whole thing just broke into pieces. It turns out I didn’t read the instructions properly as it asks to leave it in the baking pan to cool. Luckily I made enough dough for an extra side and pulled myself together to continue on baking. Piping the pieces to build the house was the challenging part. I really layered on the icing to make sure that the sides all stick together. I was so happy when I got the roof on and was leaving it alone to set. Shock-horror! I left one cup that was used for supporting the side inside the house. Du-oh! Luckily the icing hasn’t set and I removed the roof and took out the cup. Phew!

gingerbread 7

The moment of truth came when all the support from the sides and roof of the house were removed. Everything stayed in place and I was over the moon. This icing royal is really like cement. I decided not to frost the whole house because it is an Australian summer Christmas after all. Building and decorating this gingerbread house and people was a whole heap of fun for all of us. Little Amy was in sugar heaven. I don’t think she has ever seen or eaten so much lollies ever. Oh well, it is Christmas after all, right?

Dave did a great job with decorating the gingerbread family. I love how sweet and fragrant the smell of cinnamon and ginger fills the air in the house.

While we weren’t watching, baby Sarah put a chocolate freckle into her mouth. We panicked and quickly try to scrap it out of her mouth. No chocolate for this baby whether it is Christmas or not.

We’ll leave the gingerbread house to admire for a while (and to make the house smell nice) but we don’t think we will eat it. Until next year…

This Gingerbread house recipe is adapted from Allrecipes and Taste. The pattern for the house is from Allrecipes.

Ingredients

370g butter, softened
2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup golden surup
3 eggs
8 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon ground cloves
4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground ginger

Royal Icing

3 eggwhites, lightly beaten
4 cups pure icing sugar

Method

Combine flours, ginger, cinnamon, sugar and butter in a food processor (if too much flour for one go then do in to separate batch). Process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Whisk golden syrup and eggs together in a jug. With the motor running, add egg mixture and process until dough just comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. Cut dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until well chilled.

Roll dough, 1 portion at a time, between 2 sheets baking paper until 5mm thick. Remove top layer baking paper. Using cardboard cut-outs as a guide, cut shapes from dough. Place gingerbread in a single layer on trays. Freeze for 15 minutes or until firm.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Place gingerbread on trays. Bake, 2 trays at a time, for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays.

Make royal icing: Using an electric mixer, beat eggwhites until soft peaks form. Gradually add icing sugar, beating constantly until thick.

Use icing to join walls together, placing unopened cans of food to support walls until icing dries. Use icing to attach roof to walls, using cans to support roof (to prevent it fom slipping off walls) until icing dries completely.

Spoon 1/2 cup remaining icing into a snap-lock bag. Trim 1 corner of bag and pipe windows and doors on house and frost on roof edges. Allow to dry. Spoon remaining icing into snap-lock bag. Pipe a little icing on the back of each lolly and attach to house to decorate. Dust roof with icing sugar.

gingerbread house 6