My sister
posted a picture of the gingerbread house her girls made this weekend. And I was so envious. I have never made a gingerbread house from scratch. So when yesterday turned into a
snow day, I
seized the day!
I made my dough from
this recipe. I didn't have molasses, but the friendly people all over the
internet said you could substitute corn syrup. The only thing that it really changed was the color of the walls.
I made my own pattern from
cardstock. I basically sized it based on how much dough the recipe made.
The genius part of this recipe was the helpful hints written at the end of the directions. It suggested rolling your dough on the back side of your cookies sheets and baking them that way. This way, you never have to move the pieces after you cut them out. You just remove the dough around the cutout pieces. The dough is just too big and fragile to move after it is
layed out.
After each cookie sheet of gingerbread house was baked, I let them cool and then placed all of the pieces in the oven at 200 degrees for three hours. This makes each piece super hard and brick-like.
It took both Rory and I to assemble. I started with the back and sides and waited until these parts were cemented together with the frosting. I had to keep
the frosting covered at all times. It hardened to cement within 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick it was piped on.
I had limited goodies on hand to decorate the house. So I colored noodles and used other things I found hiding in the cupboards.
We had lots of pretzel sticks, so it quickly was decided that this would be a log cabin gingerbread house. Surprisingly, it didn't take too long to cover all the walls. We were watching Disney's Prep and Landing and I was so full of the Christmas Spirit I could hardly stand myself!
This morning we went out to our grocery store and got a few more candy-type goodies. I finished with the chocolate stars, dots, caroling cinnamon bears and peppermints.
I think gingerbread houses will be my new snow day tradition. You sort of do need a whole day for the project. But it is so fun to play with food, so fun to create and construct and to binge on the candy as you create your own happy home. Plus, our apartment smells amazing, inviting and cozy.
I made my own pattern from cardstock. I basically sized it based on how much dough the recipe made.
The genius part of this recipe was the helpful hints written at the end of the directions. It suggested rolling your dough on the back side of your cookies sheets and baking them that way. This way, you never have to move the pieces after you cut them out. You just remove the dough around the cutout pieces. The dough is just too big and fragile to move after it is layed out.
After each cookie sheet of gingerbread house was baked, I let them cool and then placed all of the pieces in the oven at 200 degrees for three hours. This makes each piece super hard and brick-like.
It took both Rory and I to assemble. I started with the back and sides and waited until these parts were cemented together with the frosting. I had to keep the frosting covered at all times. It hardened to cement within 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick it was piped on.
We had lots of pretzel sticks, so it quickly was decided that this would be a log cabin gingerbread house. Surprisingly, it didn't take too long to cover all the walls. We were watching Disney's Prep and Landing and I was so full of the Christmas Spirit I could hardly stand myself!
This morning we went out to our grocery store and got a few more candy-type goodies. I finished with the chocolate stars, dots, caroling cinnamon bears and peppermints.
I think gingerbread houses will be my new snow day tradition. You sort of do need a whole day for the project. But it is so fun to play with food, so fun to create and construct and to binge on the candy as you create your own happy home. Plus, our apartment smells amazing, inviting and cozy. 
1 comment:
Gorgeous. Did you eat it?
Post a Comment