DIY Gingerbread Houses

Here we are at the end of the first week in December, and it’s really starting to feel like the holidays around here. The city is getting all decked out, trees are twinkling through row house windows, and we even had a bit of snow on Saturday! Nothing completes the welcoming of the holiday spirit like festive seasonal baking.

And what could be more festive than gingerbread houses? Fresh off our wedding cake triumph, Eileen and I decided to make a gingerbread scene, complete with house and festive figures, from scratch. No kit involved. We did have a bit of help from Martha, who provided house templates in her Holiday Sweets Magazine and from some 3D Williams-Sonoma cookie cutters I bought a few winters ago.

There is no beating around the bush about this–making your own gingerbread house is a lot more involved than making a house from a kit. First you have to make the dough, let it chill, then roll and cut your shapes. Then there’s baking, icing making, and assembling. Then you finally get to the point where you start with a kit–afixing the candy to the house to decorate. But we found that making your own house from scratch is also about a thousand times more fun. Creating from scratch makes you the architect and the artist, and the only thing limiting your creativity is your imagination.

The whole process we followed is here on the Martha Stewart site. We chose to make the snow swept gingerbread house, because we thought it’s shape would be more conducive to the candy coated winter wonderland we were envisioning.

There are a few alterations and tips I would suggest from the Martha Stewart directions though. First, read ALL of the instructions before you begin! We neglected to do this, and didn’t realize until after we had cut and baked the cookies that there was no template for the roof. OOPS! Luckily we had baked some extra pieces we were intending to make into an outhouse (it seemed funny after 3 glasses of wine!) that we were able to adapt into a roof. Second, skip Martha’s caramel glue. We tried to make it twice and it was a MAJOR FAIL. Just use the recipe below to make lots and lots of royal icing, and use the icing to stick the whole thing together. Third, don’t feel like you have to follow Martha’s decorating instructions. We certainly didn’t! I thought her method was a little too serious for our wonderland, and our final product was much more colorful than hers.

DIY Gingerbread House
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Holiday Sweets

Below is Martha’s recipe for the gingerbread. We found that this worked really well, because it created firm, sturdy cookies that were easy to stand up and decorate. One batch made enough gingerbread for one house, two trees, a sleigh, two reindeer (one died in a tragic cookie dropping accident), and one very happy snowman.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups packed dark-brown sugar
• 3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Combine brown sugar, molasses, butter, spices, and salt in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved, about 10 minutes. Stir in milk. Remove from heat, and let cool.

Pour milk mixture into a mixing bowl; add baking powder and flour. With an electric mixer, and beginning on low speed and increasing to medium, beat until well combined. Divide dough in half; shape into disks. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate overnight. Dough can be frozen up to 1 month; thaw in the refrigerator before using.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out gingerbread dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Chill until firm, about 1 hour. Lightly dust top of dough with flour. Place templates on top, and cut out shapes with a paring knife. (Use a small utility knife to cut out the windows.) Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until just beginning to brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Royal Icing

We made up our own recipe for Royal Icing, because we couldn’t find one that exactly met our needs. Make this icing without the water at first, then add water as needed until the icing reaches your desired consistency.

Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites
• 4-5 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons of water

Directions:

Combine egg whites and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat for 7-10 minutes, or until soft peaks form.

Put icing into piping bag and use to assemble the house. Pipe icing onto joints of the house to attach them. Use icing to afix candy to the house and to decorate as you please.

We used Necco wafers, Spree, M&Ms, mini candy canes, mint drops, and gum drops to decorate. But you could certainly use any candy you choose, just use your imagination! Our scene was set up on a spare cake board Eileen had, but you could also cover a cutting board with foil to serve as the base for your wonderland.

Whatever you do, just remember to have fun and enjoy the holiday spirit that you are helping to create!

{ 12 comments } |  Print This Post |  Email This Post |