Gingerbread House

“And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.”                                                                      —– William Shakespeare

Gingerbread houses alway fascinate us. Yes, all of us in the family.

My little one wanted to have a hand in decorating her gingerbread house. So we proceeded to making one.

Gingerbread dough

Ingredients – makes approximately 800g dough

1/2 cup (100g) of brown sugar
1/2 cup (170g) of molasses
120g unsalted butter
1/2  teaspoon of salt
1      tablespoon of ground cinnamon
1/2  teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1      teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2  teaspoon of ground clove
1      egg
1      tablespoon of pure vanilla extract

3 cups (750g)  of flour (all purpose)
1/2 teaspoon baking power
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Method

1. Stir together, brown, molasses, salt and all the spices in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly and slowly bring to a boil, until the brown sugar has totally melted.
2. Remove the pan from heat and add in the baking powder and baking soda. Add butter and mix till well-blended. Whisk in the egg slowly to avoid scrambled egg. Add in the vanilla extract.
3. Add in the flour in batches and combine well. Divide the dough into two and pet down into disks, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hout until chilled.
4. Pre-heat oven at 140°C. Line two cookie trays with parchment paper.
5. Roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface to about 0.8 cm thickness. Using your preferred cookie cutters, stamp out the cookies and place on the lined tray.
6. Baked for around 12 minutes.
7. Transfer to wire rack to cool before frosting or decorating.

I made three batches of this dough, made changes until I got the consistency right. The previous batches were too sticky to work with. Especially for cutting into the various parts of the house.

Walls of the gingerbread house with its resident guarding

The next component is the royal icing, essential for holding the house together.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

1kg of icing sugar
5 tablespoons of meringue powder.
1/2 cup (125 ml) of warm water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

1. Whisk together the meringue powder and the warm water.
2. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, incoorporate the icing sugar (in 3 batches) into the mixture. Continual mixing for 10 minutes till the mixture forms glossy stiff peaks
3. For immediate use, transfer to piping bags.If not, transfer to storage bags and keep in airtight containers in the refridgerator for up to 3 days.

We had a great time working on the icicles and someone insisted on the 100s and 1000s sprinkles

My little one decided on a purple door knob on her piped door

So we placed a christmas tree next to gingerbread house

From the quality inspector – Mummy we forgotten the chimney

Our first gingerbread house

Feel free to get creative!  Add your favorite candies, colored icing, and more.

And the best part for me is to see my little one enjoying herself building her house with the sprinkles.