The Gingerbread House

So, Mr T's work was having a morning tea today and he was asked to bring something to contribute and, of course, he said "I'll get my girlfriend to make something". I decided to do a gingerbread house as I have never made one before and it's been on my list of things to do for a while. It took me ages to decide but I chose Martha Stewart's Swedish gingerbread house template (there is no roof cut out so you will need to cut out a rectangular piece of paper that is 19 x 16.5 cm)  for the house and I decided to use the Women's Weekly gingerbread recipe as I had made if before and it turned out really well. I also cheated and used packet royal icing as it is tedious to make but I will add a recipe for it anyway. This is what I came up with...

 Front view

Side View

The gingerbread recipe is the easiest recipe to make and it makes so much! I had enough for the gingerbread house plus 24 Christmas tree biscuits and some left over in the fridge still to bake...

Gingerbread House (From Women's Weekly Cook)

4.5 cups self raising flour

3 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp ground clove

1 tsp ground nutmeg

185 g butter, chopped

220 g dark brown sugar (or 1 cup firmly packed)

180 g (1/2 cup) treacle

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Boiled lollies, crushed (optional)

Assorted lollies for decoration (I used curly wurlys, jubes, raspberry Twisters, sour straps, sour ropes, mini candy canes, spree lollies, Smarties and a giant lollipop)

Royal icing

2 egg whites

~500 g pure icing sugar (it is important that you use pure icing sugar and that it is sifted)

Mix 1 tablespoon of icing sugar into the egg whites at a time ensuring they are combined before adding more. Keep mixing in icing sugar until you get it to the consistency you require- it should not run freely off the end of a spoon but should leave a big drip on the end. Cover with glad wrap and ensure that when not in use it is covered at all times as it can dry out easily. Some people like to cover it with a damp towel to ensure it does not lose moisture.

1. Process flour, spices, and butter until crumbly. As you can see, there's a lot to fit in your food processor so do it in two batches if you need.

 Pretty full food processor

Crumbly texture after processing

2. Mix in sugar, treacle and enough egg to combine.

 Mix it all up!

3. Knead until smooth then cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Dough will be quite crumbly while mixing but persist and it will get smooth and lovely.

Smooth dough

4. Preheat oven to 180^oC (160^oC for fan forced). Roll out gingerbread to about 5 mm on a piece of baking paper, place the templates on the dough and cut out the shapes. I used a big knife so that I could just do one cut instead of slicing and potentially causing tears and cracks in the dough. Cut out the windows and, if desired fill with crushed boiled lollies for the stained glass effect. I also used a ruler to press indentations into the dough to make it look like bricks (I saw this on Brave Tart's blog for her Haunted Mansion, have a look it's amazing!). I left the pieces on the baking paper I rolled them out on to minimise handling and prevent breakages. Bake for 12 mins. 

 

Front and back and door ready to be cooked

 Baking the sides

5. Once out of the oven, place the template over the gingerbread and trim to ensure it is still the right shape. Please be careful as you will have to do it while it's hot as the gingerbread hardens as it cools. Don't burn yourself!

Trim the pieces- it's amazing how they can change shape

6. (Optional) I wanted the house to have red bricks and to look magical so I dusted the gingerbread with food colour and lustre dust to give it the shiny magical look I wanted- another trick from Brave Tart.

"Magical" bricks! :P

7. Put the house together. I took minimal photos of this as it is quite hands on. First stick the front and back pieces to one of the sides with the royal icing (pipe a line of royal icing on the edge of the piece that you are sticking on and sandwich the two pieces together). Then stick the other side on ensuring both the front and back pieces are aligned properly with the sides. Position the house onto your board and use the royal icing to fix it in place. Also use royal icing to reinforce the inner joins to ensure the house doesn't fall apart. Allow the icing to set for around 30 mins. 

8. Pipe icing along the edges of the gingerbread on the front of the house and carefully place on one side of the roof. Reinforce the inner joints with royal icing once again. Allow to set for 45 mins- 1 hour. You will need something under the roof piece to hold it in place so it doesn't slide off, as you can see I used a Keen's curry powder jar with a piece of gingerbread to make it a bit taller (it's all about improv).

9. Pipe royal icing along the edges of the other side of the house and also along the top edge of the other piece of roof. Put plenty of icing on this time as you won't be able to reinforce it on the inside any longer. Place something under the roof piece to hold it in place and allow to set for 1 hour. Put together the chimney and then glue into place with royal icing, reinforcing with only small amounts around the edges. I was impatient and made my Christmas tree while I was waiting but I do recommend waiting to do decorations until after you have covered the board with your "snow" (or royal icing). The Christmas tree is just a mini waffle cone with green royal icing "stars" piped around it and a yellow sugar paste star on top.

Allowing it to set

10. Using a palette knife or small spatula, cover the board with royal icing (this will give it the snowy look and allow you to stick on fences etc). I did mine bit at a time spreading on one side and then placing the fence and then going onto the next side, this was to make sure the icing didn't set before I came to placing the fence. Once the board is covered, you can place all your items to be stuck in the yard (ie. a path to the door etc), use extra royal icing to keep everything in place. Also, don't forget to stick on the door. I found that I had to stick it on closed as the shape of the house does not allow an open door. If you cut the door it may be possible to have it ajar or open but I didn't try this.

It's all coming together...

11. Now comes the fun part- decorating! Get creative decorate it with whatever lollies or chocolates you like. I used sour straps as roof tiles (an idea from a friend which I thought was pretty cool!). Have fun and get creative! 

12. Enjoy! Watch as people slowly demolish it.... 

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? What lollies did you use?