Friday, December 25, 2009
Gingerbread House - Daring Bakers
The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.
Thank you Anna & Y.
December challenge was an excitement and unique experience for me.
I never thought I would build something amazing and adventurous like the Gingerbread house.
It allowed me to express my creativity through a fun activity.
The family and I all gathered together and decided to house a once homeless Gingerbread man.
My husband helped assembled the pieces together
My little son jumped to color the Gingerbread man
and all the other family members helped decorate the cute house.
I choose Y recipes - Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
(from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas)
1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.
2. Cut patterns for the house out of cardboard.
3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.
4. [Y rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred them to the baking sheet. Any scraps were saved and rerolled at the end.]
5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.
Royal Icing:
1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract
Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.
Wow such an adorable ginger bread house....its beautiful.First time to ur blog here...loved it:)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely gingerbread house Pontch - the ginger people are so cute! And I like the fruit loops on the back of your house - yum!!
ReplyDeleteIt is so cute! Love the roof. I didn't even try the royal icing - just used sugar syrup. Good job!
ReplyDeleteBig love to the gingerbread men! And omg I love the back of the house (it's my fave cereal hehe).
ReplyDeleteI love how festive your gingerbread house looks! The cereal on the back is great! :)
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!!
How fun that you made it with your family! It's so cute - especially the beautiful roof!
ReplyDeleteThe house is beautiful. I love how you shaped the door with candy canes!
ReplyDeleteYour house is adorable! I love all of your decorations, especially the cereal on the back - how fun!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that the decorating became a family effort. Great house! I like your wall-of-cereal :D
ReplyDeleteIt is so completely in the spirit of Christmas that the whole family decorated the Gingerbread house. Everyone must have enjoyed it because it shows. It is a wonderful house!
ReplyDeletei love your roof and the purple dots on it. Are those fruit loops you used for the wall? nice! great job on the challenge.
ReplyDeleteSo pretty. Really liked the roof in particular.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year!
Very sweet little house. I did my roof kind of similar to yours...love it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute festive house!
ReplyDeleteSo cute. Love the little men at the front door! :)
ReplyDelete