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Thursday, December 17, 2009

GingerBread House

The Joy is in the journey and in this case the destination too... Wishing Everyone Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.

Mission accomplished. I always wanted to make a Gingerbread House and finally we made it. My first ever Gingerbread House made from scratch. Not that there's anything wrong with the pre-assembled ones. I had waited so long to make one I wanted to experience the joy of making one right from scratch. Also I had promised my son we'll make one soon. Now since it was so close to Christmas I started frantically searching for the recipes and the know-how before we set out in our venture. Finally zeroed in on a good recipe. Got all the ingredients and then waited for a good day to start with our "Gingerbread House project". Ok let me admit to you that I almost chickened out but since we had made plans and the ingredients were all set up right on my kitchen counter , it was hard to ignore this Project any longer.

So this is how our Mission was Accomplished. We did not do it all in one day. It always helps if we break it up in smaller sessions. We took 1 and half days - just like half an hr to an hour sessions. Only the decorating took more time.

  • First I Cut out the template/pattern for the house.
  • Prepared the dough for the Gingerbread house.
  • Baked all the pieces of the house (4 pieces for the walls and 2 for the roof).
  • Made the Royal Icing .
  • Put the house pieces together using Royal Icing.
  • Decorated our GingerBread House.

This is where I got my recipe for this structural strong Gingerbread house. Also since we still have a few days before X'mas and I have tested this recipe. IT works. I would recommend this to everyone out there who wants to make a gingerbread house. Also a great project for the holidays where you can involve your kids.

To Make Gingerbread House Dough.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups light corn syrup (or dark corn syrup for a darker house)
  • 1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups or butter
  • 9 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

**Using the above ingredients I made one house and have some dough left over (little less than half) which I'll use to make Christmas ornaments. So if you are using the above recipe you can make the adjustments as needed. For me this is my 1st time so just wanted to try as is ..without any major changes.


Preparation :

1) In a bowl add the butter, corn syrup and brown sugar and microwave until the butter melts.


2. Stir well until the brown sugar dissolves.

3. Add this mixture to the flour and knead into a dough.


4. If you are not using the dough right away , Keep it covered in a plastic wrap and refrigerate.


5. Now if the dough is refrigerated and its too hard to roll just microwave for 10-20 seconds. Now roll the dough to 1/4 " thick with a rolling pin on an aluminium foil/Parchment paper so that we could cut out the pattern for our Gingerbread House. We would need parchment paper to roll out the dough . Also aluminium foil works well (since I did not have parchment paper). Also this helps us to transfer the pattern onto the baking sheet. If you try to get them off and then transfer the pattern could be pulled and will not be of the right measurements. Place the template/pattern onto the rolled dough.



6. Cut using a pizza cutter or kinife.


7. Repeat this until you get all the pieces for the house. 2 gabble walls, 2 regular walls and 2 roofs.



8. Bake on a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. I baked mine for almost 14 minutes.


9. Let them cool and then transfer them carefully to a wire rack to cool completely. In fact I let them cool for about 3 hours before I assembled them.
10. Now before we begin assembling the Gingerbread House its a good idea to keep all the walls of the house and the decorations handy. Because once we make the Royal Icing its always good to begin gluing them together as soon as possible as Super Icing dries very quicky.
11. Making Royal Icing.
  • 3 3/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
  • 3 large egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
* I have used 1 teaspoon of lemon juice as a substitute for cream of tartar.
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and turn mixer on high and beat till its thick and white. It should take around 7 -10 minutes. You could also whisk it by hand for about 7-8 minutes. Thats what I did and you will notice its getting harder to whisk as it gets thicker. Our Royal Icing is Ready.

*** Always cover your Royal Icing with plastic wrap, making sure it touches the royal icing so a crust doesn't form since it dries out quickly. Also if the icing gets too thick you could add little water and if its too thin add more confectioners' sugar.




12. I did get a 15" cardboard circle to built my gingerbread house on (foundation). Now fill up a pastry bag with the icing and begin assembling the Gingerbread house.You could check out the step by step assembling tips here. Its recommended to use a #10 plain round tip for bold lines and #3 plain round tip for thin lines. Begin by making a L shape with the icing. I made thick and bold lines so that the walls could have enough glue to stick together and be strong. Now add two adjacent walls. Hold on to them for about 30 seconds to a minute and then continue with the other two walls. On the inner side of the wall apply some icing to all the four seams. Now go onto to the roof. Apply a thik bead of icing on all the top edges of the wall and attach one roof at a time. Then apply icing onto the seam where the two roofs meet.


13. The decoration begins. This is the best part. This is the time to unleash your inner child and just have fun...Enjoy.










33 comments:

  1. This is beautiful. I'm so your son will love this gingerbread house very much.

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  2. Dear Dolly
    Congrats! Mission accomplished!!! I can feel your great happiness and satisfaction in your words. i can only appreciate your engineering skills!! And the decoration, awesome ..no wonder if your little one goes around and pick up one by one, the decors.
    Jokes apart I can say it is simply a wonderful job..Merry Christmas in advance.
    Have a nice weekend.

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  3. Wowww...great job dear..ginger bread house looks so beautiful..

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  4. WOWWWWWWWWWWW.. It looks way FANTASTIC.. You have made it really well.. I can sit and admire it the whole day.. :) So much work and you make it sound so simple and interesting. :) A perfect treat for the season. Mission accomplished successfully too :)

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  5. What a great job! Your directions are so clear I feel as though I was in the room with you. Congratulations on the gingerbread house. It looks adorable. Your little one must have loved working on this project with you.

    Alicia

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  6. Fantastic house and lovely work. Its eye catching.

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  7. Caps off for that professional construction!! that's a delicious treat for xmas and worth the work and time !!! well done!! Happy Christmas to you and to all at home!!! Enjoy!!!

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  8. The ginger bread house looks so lovely and nice with all the cute things that have added to the making of it.

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  9. I could understand your hard work ad satisfaction toiled over in the ginger bread house and congrats on the accomplishment of the mission! Making this from scratch must have taken almost the whole day in total! This is a treat and worth it! The house is very marvelous! BTW, merry early Christmas! :)

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  10. Excellent effort dear..Looks great......

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  11. WOW..thats awesome..liked the marshmallow decorated roof...gr8 job Dolly...

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  12. Wow! Awesome.I am sure you have put in a lot of hard work .Just superb.

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  13. Great job deary!!!
    Nice pics as usual..

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  14. That's an yum ginger house i have seen this year...very pretty....

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  15. WOW that sure is lot of effort, looks very nice.

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  16. Wow thats really perfect ...looks gorgeous. From the scratch hats off to you...

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  17. Dolly is this just so adorable and really beautiful! I can't believe you made this all from scratch. I really wanted to make a gingerbread house this year and just havent had time :( Thank you so much for your wonderful step by step instructions :) x

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  18. Oh my god!!...This is the cutest thing ,i ve ever seen in ma life!!!...so adorable!

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  19. I am out of adjectives to describe!

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  20. whoa, this looks incredible dolly!!I so enjoyed reading your post. I have learned a lot about different ways how to prepare ginger bread house. Thank you very much. I loved all of the different presentations. Everything was just lovely.splendid work..:D

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  21. looks so beautiful! Great job :) Happy Holidays!!

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  22. Dear Dolly,
    Oh my my...thats incredible piece of art. Congrats on Mission Accomplished:) Looks like lot of hard work'....sincerely worth it, right. It looks awesome. Merry Chrismas.

    b/n thanks for the warm comments at my space. It means so much to me:)

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  23. Wow..awesome...Your wait and patience got rewarded...Hope your lil one is still keeping it in one piece ...lol..(Mine wouldn't,so I didn't make it !!)Great job...Merry X'mas to you and your family !!!

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  24. Thats so pretty dolly...really worth ur efforts...fantastic...

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  25. Hey Dolly,

    U do not know how happy am I to see u..finally.... All these days I was wondering how to find u..... Because when u joined my Panthis...long back... I could not even thank u for it... as it did not pull up a link where i could get in touch with u.... & today that u have commented, it made me so happy....

    Thank You again....for sharing your love...

    And please collect the cheers token from my post on which u commented.... & share the cheers too...

    And this Ginger bread House!!!! It is the Eighth wonder......for sure.... Every piece u have built, every nook & corner of that wonderful creation..... tells a story of your interest & dedication in what u do.....I salute u....for this creation....

    Happy Celebrations!!!!!

    Ash....
    (http://asha-oceanichope.blogspot.com/)

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  26. Hey dolly thnx for visitng my blog n commenting...u hv a nice collection of wonderful n yummy recipes...this ginger bread cake luks awesome...such a beautiful cake u made at home...hats off 2 u:-))...ur efforts r worth...nice detailed pics also of steps...i am following u for mre wonderful recipes

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  27. Anncoo - Thanks a lot. ..You were the very 1st to comment on my Gingerbread House. Both my kids were really happy. 6 yr old helped me to decorate and the 2 yr old ran around(hyper) after sampling all the candy.

    Ushnish - Thanks for appreciating my engineering skills or the lack of it..lol. THis project really made me very happy and satisfied when it was completed.

    Sreelekha Sumesh - Thanks for the love.

    Nithya - Thanks so much. Getting such compliments from u means a lot to me. In fact I was hoping you could take the pictures. YOu would have made the Gingerbread house look more beautiful.

    Alicia - Thanks for the compliments. My kids really enjoyed this whole process. I had the satisfaction too of creating memories with them.

    Shanthi - Thank you so much

    Vinolia - Merci Beacoup...It was really worth my time.

    Kitchen queen -Thank you. All the cute things were enjoyed by my sons too..making them a bit hyper.

    Vineetha - Thanks a lot.

    Nandini - yeap it did take an entire day in total. But time well spent. Thanks for the appreciation.

    Tina - Thanks a lot.

    Vrinda - I'm glad u liked the marshmallow roof. I was trying to get the snowed in look for my house.

    Padhu -. ur right it was a lot of hard work..but looking at the joy it brought us it was worth it.

    Sarah Naveen - thanks so much

    Kitchen flavours - I'm flattered by ur compliment. Thank you.

    A2Z Vegetarian Cuisine - Thanks. It was worth it.

    Pavithra - Thanks for the compliment.

    Sanjana - thank you so much for the wonderful words. I'm sure u are very busy with ur school.But when you set to do anything (recipe) I'm sure u'll do a wonderful job.

    Priya - thanks- I'm flattered.

    Lata Raja - Thanks that means a lot without saying much !!!

    Sangeetha from KOthiyavunu - thanks so much for taking the time to read the enire post and go though all the presentations. I'm touched.

    Uma - Thanks a lot.

    Malar Gandhi - thanks a lot..Yeap my Mission was accomplished. It was worth it .

    Gulmohar - thanks a lot . I can understand its hard to do it with little kids. I wanted to do it for my older son who is 6, but let me tell you the younger one 2 yr old made it a bit difficult especially when we were decorating the house...

    Sushma - thanks for the kind words.

    Ashkuku - Hey we finally meet. Thanks so much for all the love and the award. You made this Project even more sweet...By Calling it the Eight Wonder ---YOu really made my day !!!!.

    Siddhi Shirsat - Thanks for ur first time here and ur wonderful comments.I've been to ur blog and was impressed by ur recipes.

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  28. Wow that gingerbread house looks amazing and beautiful ! I admire your patience, creativity and effort to complete this project....

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  29. thanks for dropping by dolly, my what an amazing project! your son must have been absolutely thrilled!

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  30. Wow,this is an amazing cake,great effort! really professional!

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  31. wow thats a piece of art...so so well made. am bookmarking this. will make it next year for my sonny boy.

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