Omas Gingerbread House Food

SIMPLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won't quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.
• Cut out the template (download from the tips below). Put a sheet of baking paper on a work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees, if you like.
• Pick out the most intact flaked almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections, pointy-end first, to look like roof tiles. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few minutes to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
• Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.
• Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. The angle is steep so you may need to hold these on firmly for a few mins until the icing starts to dry. Dry completely, ideally overnight. To decorate, pipe a little icing along the length of 20 mini chocolate fingers and stick these lengthways onto the side walls of the house. Use three, upright, for the door.
• Using the icing, stick sweets around the door and on the front of the house. To make the icicles, start with the nozzle at a 90-degree angle to the roof and squeeze out a pea-sized blob of icing. Keeping the pressure on, pull the nozzle down and then off - the icing will pull away, leaving a pointy trail. Repeat all around the front of the house. Cut the chocolate mini roll or dipped Flake on an angle, then fix with icing to make a chimney. Pipe a little icing around the top. If you've made gingerbread trees, decorate these now, too, topping each with a silver ball, if using. Dust the roof with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Lay a winding path of sweets, and fix gingerbread trees around and about using blobs of icing. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week.

GINGERBREAD HOUSE (MINI GINGERBREAD HOUSES)

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180°C (170°C fan bake), with the rack just below the middle. Line a baking tray with baking paper or a Teflon liner.
• Cut three shapes from cardboard. (Each piece of card will be used twice to cut the 6 gingerbread shapes for one house. Cut an 8 x 10 cm rectangle (for the roof) and a 6 x 8 cm rectangle (for the side walls). To make the peaked end-wall shape, draw a 10 x 6 cm rectangle, then make a mark 4 cm from one end on the two long sides, and another mark in the middle of the short side nearest the other two marks. Join this mark to the other two, then cut out.
• Warm the first four ingredients together (butter, brown sugar, golden syrup, treacle and extra treacle), mixing until smooth. Take off the heat and stir in the egg yolks.
• Then the sieved dry ingredients (plain flour, ground ginger, & baking soda). Knead to form a smooth dough, adding a little water or extra flour if necessary. Cut the dough into four even pieces and wrap until using.
• To make one house, roll one piece out about 3 mm thick on the floured board. It should be just large enough to cut two each of the three cardboard shapes from it. Re-roll dough scraps if necessary.) Place the shapes on a prepared baking tray.
• Bake for about seven minutes or until evenly browned. (Do not under cook.) While pieces are warm, carefully lift them onto a cooling rack. Repeat for other houses.
• To construct and decorate houses, make 'White Icing' for Piping. Whisk two egg whites until foamy. Beat in about one cup of sifted icing sugar at a time, until the icing holds its shape when piped from an icing bag (or a tough plastic bag with a small hole in one corner). This icing sets hard and can be quite brittle if not stuck firmly to (or supported by) the biscuit base.
• Pipe the icing on the walls and roof making shingles, doors, windows, etc. Leave plain or decorate with sweets if desired. Using more of the icing, "glue" the walls together on a cardboard base. When the walls are firm position the roof on top using more icing, and leave to set.
• Enjoy.

GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Steps:

• Using a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
• Add the eggs and molasses and blend well.
• Add remaining ingredients and beat well.
• Divide dough into 4 sections and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• On a very lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thick.
• Transfer cut pieces to an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 8 minutes. Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

OMA'S GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Steps:

• Mix ingredients in order given.
• Flour liberally! It will start out a bit sticky. Just keep adding flour to your board and your rolling pin. Turn it often.
• Roll to a maximum thickness 1/4" (1 cm).
• Bake at 350°F until brown and slightly crisp. It is hard to give a time for how long to bake. It depends on how many pieces you have on your sheet, how thick they are, etc. I found that they all needed a minimum of 8 minutes. And then I just kept checking every 3 minutes after that.
• Dust the flour off of the pieces after they have cooled. A pstry brush works well for this.
• Glue: Melt a fair amount of sugar in a large heavy pan over low heat. Mom used a cast iron pan. We started with about 2 cups of sugar and ended up adding about another cup. Keep stirring and waiting. You want the sugar to get to the point where it is almost a clear brown. Be careful though, the "glue" burns BADLY if dripped on skin.
• Mom would simply "dip" the edge of the piece that she wanted to glue into the sugar and then press it with the other piece. When it cools, it is VERY hard and holds very well. It does cool quickly though, so work fast.
• For Icing: Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add in all of the icing sugar.
• To make cookies: Bake until lightly browned for soft cookies. Crisp cookies will keep better though.
• There is enough dough to make a house and a free form base to put your house on. Or you can simply make a bunch of cookies with the "leftovers".
• Mom has some hand drawn pictures of how to cut out the house. Here are her measurements and directions.
• Cut 2 side walls: 7" x 4".
• Cut 2 roof panels: 9 1/2" x 8".
• Cut 4 chimney pieces: 2 1/4" x 1 1/4" (in two of them, cut a 1" V into the bottom so that it will "straddle" the peak of the roof).
• Cut 2 end walls: 6" x 9" (4" up the sides, cut diagonally to the top center to make a point). In one end, cut out door and two windows. Bake the door along side.
• For the windows: Place foil underneath and fill with crushed lollipop. Bake as usual.
• Base: Simply roll out the leftover dough to make a free form base. Make sure that it is wide enough for the house.
• NOTE ABOUT CLEAN-UP: Don't fret! Your pan that you melted the sugar in is certainly not ruined! All you need to do is add some hot water, let sit for a little while (5-10 minutes) and then rinse it out. If for some reason, that isn't quite working, simply heat the pan full of water over low heat for a short while (again, about 10 minutes).

MY FIRST GINGERBREAD HOUSE "2006"

Steps:

• Dough using the template here:.
• Warm molasses in a saucepan or microwave, but do not boil just to soften. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted. Let cool.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
• Add butter mixture and egg and mix well. Refrigerate at least one hour until dough becomes stiff enough to roll.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Roll out dough right onto the bottom side of cookie pan or on a edge free cookie pan that is lined with parchment. Maximum thickness for dough should be 3/8-inch. For houses larger than 6 inches square, use 1/4-inch thickness and for smaller houses, use 1/8-inch. Weight-bearing walls should be just slightly thicker. Place the template and cut house pieces using a ruler to guide for smooth straight edges. Bake for 15 minutes.
• If window are to be cut out do before baking. May place broken hard candies in windows for a glass effect be sure to really fill it.
• Royal Icing:.
• Mix 1/2 the powder and 1/2 the water beating till peaks form, add 1/2 the sugar beating till a good consistency. This half is to assembly.
• In a thick Styrofoam base cut grooves the size of the baked walls. Using the 4 wall as a guide.
• Pipe the icing into the grooves.
• Pipe out the icing on the bottom and one end of one long wall and one short, put them together at a 90-degree angle, and hold them in place on the foam with cans if needed. Repeat with the remaining two walls, running a line of icing glue along the corners so that all the walls are glued together. Again hold walls in place until icing is dry. Let the roofless house dry at least 30 minutes until the icing is firmly set. At this time careful plan and decorate the inside as you chose. Or leave it empty.
• Run a thick line of icing along one long side of a roof piece. Stick the two roof sections together at an angle and set the two pieces on top of the house. Make sure that the roof overhang is the same at both ends of the house, although it is okay if it isn't perfect. Hold the roof gently in place until it dries. Let dry for half an hour.
• To attach the chimney, on one side of the roof near the peak, glue one angled piece to the roof. Glue the largest rectangle to the angled piece and then glue the second angled piece in place. Last, glue the smallest rectangle to the other sections. Hide any mistakes under a "snow" of icing.
• Side a this layer of icing on sides of house One side at a time. Place fruit roll up starting from the bottom going up overlapping slightly. Be sure to cut it where the window are. Leave the top half of the front and back to overlap with the spearmint leave adhering with icing.
• Spread the icing covering the base for snow.
• Place Chocolate Mint sticks along the front and side of the house for porch add railing using mint sticks and glue with icing the marshmallow on place the bird (shaped from the fondant) on the railing. using the twisted marshmallow place along the bottom edge of the house.
• Make the other half of icing when needed.
• Sled is made from a chocolate bar and peppermint sticks, thin red licorice, red fondant as Santa `s bag.
• Spread icing on roof and starting at the bottom edge work your way up in uneven rows overlapping slightly.
• Decorate the chimney by icing then pressing toffee bits into it. Then shape Santa and decorate him with a bread made from icing and a red fondant hat, skin fondant face place in chimney.
• With the icing go over the house and fill in where needed to make it look like snow and at the eves making icicles.
• Place a small battery lit candle inside so you can appreciate the stained glass windows.
• Add your touches. Have fun.

CONSTRUCTION GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350F.
• Mix all of the ingredients except the flour together until a smooth paste forms. Slowly stir in the flour, 1/3 at a time, until a stiff dough forms. It will be slightly tacky but not sticky. If it is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of neutral oil. If it is sticky, add a little more flour a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is stiff but still kneadable.
• Knead the dough for a minute or two, to smooth it out and to help prevent cracking when you roll it out. At this point, I chill the dough for up to an hour to make it easier to work with. However, you can roll it out right away.
• Sprinkle a little flour onto a piece of parchment paper cut to the size of your baking pan (without rolling up onto the edges). Roll your dough out to 1/4" thickness (see notes below), trimming and adjusting as necessary to make a full pan of dough. Sprinkle a very small amount of flour over the dough and spread over with your hands so that the surface is not sticky. Transfer the dough to your baking pan. You can now lay down your template pieces on the dough and cut them out without having them stick to the dough. See notes below regarding cutting in the pan.
• You can remove some of the bigger pieces of scrap to be re-rolled, if you like.
• Bake the pieces in your preheated oven, on the middle rack, for 23 - 25 minutes, until it has darkened. Turn the pan about halfway through to ensure even cooking.
• Allow the pieces to cool slightly and then trim them, if necessary. Trimming them later risks breakage. Allow to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to dry. Allow your gingerbread pieces to dry thoroughly (8 to 24 hours) before you start to decorate or build with them.

GINGERBREAD PARTY HOUSE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• FOR HOUSE: In large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together reserving about 1 cup of flour. Mix thoroughly, adding small amounts of the remaining flour until dough is quite firm (similar to Play-doh).
• Taking gingerbread moldplate, take half the mixture and press into concaves of the mold that have been lightly floured. Using a rolling pin, roll back and forth until the dough has been firmly pressed into the concave cavities. Remove excess dough and place aside with other half. With the tip of a sharp knife or other utensil, carefully remove house pieces. Coat baking or cookie sheet with non-stick spray and gently place pieces plain side down. With other half of dough, repeat process to create the remaining side, end and roof. Place all pieces on cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes until firm.
• FOR ICING: In large bowl, beat all ingredients together with electric mixer beginning with low speed and increasing speed to high when blended. Beat 5-7 minutes until very firm or until peaks form.
• Use a pastry bag with decorating tips to "pipe" the ribbons of icing when "glueing" house pieces together and for decorating.
• TO ASSEMBLE: Cover a board with foil or decorative paper.
• Take one front end piece of the house along with a side wall. Make sure that the decorative sides face the outside. Squeeze a ribbon of icing along the edge of the front end. Gently squeeze the side wall into the icing to form an "L" shape. Hold for a few minutes until icing bonds. Repeat procedure with back end piece and other side for another "L" shape.
• With two "L" shaped pieces, apply another ribbon of icing along the exposed ends. Gently press together four sided house. Hold together until firm. Carefully add ribbons of icing along wall joints on inside of house for extra holding protection.
• Squeeze a ribbon of icing all along the top perimeter of house. Place 2 roof panels into position gently pressing into icing on top edge of walls. Squeeze a ribbon of icing along top-center of roof to bond two roof panels. Apply a generous ribbon of icing to the back side of chimney and gently press into position on the end side of house.
• Allow to set for 30 minutes to harden and dry before decorating with icing, candy and sprinkles as desired.