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| Sweet Spot Archives |
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Making a Gingerbread House What You’ll Need
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Sweet Spot Archives Summer 2003 Spring 2003 Winter 2003 Fall 2002 Summer 2002 Spring 2002 Winter 2002 Holiday 2001 |
There’s no place like home—especially at the holidays, and especially when the home is one you’ve made and decorated yourself. We’re talking, of course, about gingerbread
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All gingerbread houses have two things in common: plenty of “snow,” created from Royal Icing and piped onto rooftop and walls to hold the construction together; and plenty of imagination. All it takes is one extra ingredient—a little planning—to start your own delightfully memorable holiday tradition.
Gingerbread Then and Now
Gingerbread recipes go way, way back—all the way to the eleventh century. Gingerbread was most popular in Northern Europe (think of Hansel and Gretel and the witch’s house), and immigrants from Germany and elsewhere brought their recipes to North America. The custom of making fanciful houses out of gingerbread, especially at Christmastime, became an American tradition. Nowhere else in the world will you find so many gingerbread recipes or ideas for creating gingerbread houses.
Today, you’ll see gingerbread houses not just at Christmas but also for Halloween (think “haunted” gingerbread house), Thanksgiving, and other occasions. In fact, just about any time of year is a good time to make and decorate a gingerbread house.
Step by Step
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Here’s another tip: You don’t have to bake, assemble, and decorate your gingerbread house during a single two- or three-day flurry of activity (although there’s no prohibition against it!). Instead, break down the project into phases that can be separated by days or even weeks. Here’s how:
1. Prepare gingerbread.
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2. Assemble.
Make a batch of Royal Icing. Be sure to use C&H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar for the smoothest texture. And, says Emily Luchetti, “don’t forget to make the icing good and thick—about the consistency of toothpaste—so that it will hold the house together.”
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Allow an hour or more for the roof to dry before you begin decorating. You can even wait until the next day.
3. Decorate.
Invite everyone in and let the fun begin!
Decorating Tricks
This is the fun part! Bring out all your “building materials”—see below for some
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Some people like to have a building plan before they begin—a cozy cottage, a playhouse, a ski cabin—and others like to make it up as they go along. Experiment and see which method you like best.
A few ideas to get you started:
- Use a small round cookie-cutter to cut rounds out of gingerbread-dough scraps. Bake, then apply to the house’s roof as “tiles.”
- Make “icicles” using Royal Icing: Squeeze icing along the roof seams, then pull slightly away, leaving a small “tail.”
- Sticks of red chewing gum, cut into halves or thirds, make realistic “tiles” for the roof and “bricks” for the chimney.
- Brightly colored hard candies can be smashed into small pieces and used as “stained-glass windows.”
- Licorice whips are handy for outlining house features such as doors and windows.
To Eat or to Save?
Our gingerbread recipe is so tasty, you may succumb to temptation and eat your creation just as soon as everyone’s admired it. On the other hand, you may love your house so much you’d rather save it to enjoy again next year. That way, you’ll rekindle the warm memories when you unwrap your carefully packed-away gingerbread abode.
Here are several time-tested preservation methods:
- Spray the house with hairspray, varnish, or non-water-soluble polyurethane spray (available in craft or hardware stores).
- Wrap securely in plastic bubble wrap and tape the ends together.
- Carefully place the house in a plastic garbage bag and secure with a twist tie.
- Make sure you store the house in a cool, dry place where pets, insects, and mice are unlikely to find it.
Whichever option you choose, why not celebrate with a “bringing down the house” party? Serve hot spiced punch and make a ceremony out of either demolishing and devouring the house or wrapping and boxing it. Happy holidays!
| Quick Tip: Keep It Together! It’s important to support your house’s roof while the icing is drying. Some bakers like to pin the pieces together—carefully—using straight pins after they’ve applied icing to the seams. (Dough must be slightly soft for this technique to work.) Remove the pins when the icing hardens. Or try propping up the roof with several one-pound soup, fruit, or vegetable cans. More construction tips. |
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Baker’s Profile: Stephanie Bernstein  You can do anything if you set your mind and put your heart into it. In fact, that’s what Stephanie Bernstein did when she decided to enter the Le Cordon Bleu’s Bake Master’s competition for the best chocolate chip cookie… from her hotel room kitchenette! Stephanie and her husband, Steven, had temporarily moved from Palm Beach, Florida, to Phoenix, Arizona, and were housed by her husband’s company in a Marriott Residence Inn. One day she overheard the front desk staff talking about the annual nonprofessional baking competition. With the dream of always wanting to be a pastry chef, Stephanie decided to make do with what she had. Stephanie had four days to make a dozen of her best “Chocolate Chip Moluccas” - her original chocolate chip cookie that uses exotic spices and are named after the Indonesian word for “spice islands.” Her first attempt used ingredients from the hotel’s kitchen, but something tasted off. “Aside from the oven being right next to my bed,” Stephanie explains, “the only thing I did differently was use other ingredient brands that I’d never used before for my cookies.” She set out to buy her favorite ingredients, including C&H Pure Cane Sugar, which she said brings out the flavors of her favorite unsweetened chocolate! After sampling the recipe for her husband and the hotel staff for four days and packing the cookies in a cooler to keep them from melting in the scorching 109ºF heat, Stephanie arrived at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. Hers was one of 50 entries – including some of the most creative chocolate cookies she had ever seen. She was thrilled when she was named a finalist and took first place, winning a cooking school scholarship! Stephanie is now back home in Florida with her husband. She plans on enrolling in a culinary program to further pursue her love for baking. |
