Do you think that Gingerbread Houses are too tough? Too time consuming? Well, if you simply plan ahead, stretch the steps over several days, you too can be making houses with the best of them. For a printable version of my gingerbread dough in text form, click here.
To get you going, I have my recipe for Gingerbread. I use this recipe for both Gingerbread Men and shapes that are for eating, and for the gingerbread for constructing houses. I do alter the leavening so that the gingerbread doesn't puff up in the oven as much as the eating gingerbread. I also alter this recipe for making Chocolate Gingerbread. It is a striking contrast when used for smaller ornaments and houses.
So, print out the recipe, grab your apron, and whip up a batch of gingerbread dough!
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
---I use butter for eating gingerbread, and a good quality margarine
for building gingerbread)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup light molasses
---or you can use 3/4 cup of medium, or your favorite kind)
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4 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
6 cups pastry flour
---If you can not find pastry flour, simply use 2 cups of cake flour
and 6 cups of all-purpose flour for the total amount
~~~~~
1 cup milk
~~~~~
Egg wash, 2 egg yolks beaten with 2 Tbsp milk or cream
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter/margarine and sugar until combined. It will first form a lump in the center, then begin to stick to the sides of the bowl. You want it to stick to the sides of the bowl. Add the molasses and scrape the bowl, beat on low until combined.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk or fork. Alternate the dry ingredients and milk, begin and end with dry ingredients. If the mixture seems on the dry side, add water 1Tbsp at a time until it is smooth. The dough will be slightly tacky, but not sticky, and it will be very dense. When you make a ball in your hand, it will lightly stick to your skin, but will feel almost "leathery", like play dough.
Divide the dough in thirds and wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten into a rectangle. Refrigerate for a good day, even two. Chill on a metal sheet pan. This will keep the dough flat and the metal will help it chill faster. I use many 9x13 size sheet pans for this purpose. This dough is "leathery" and the colder it is, the easier it will be to roll.
Before beginning, choose your patterns. Click here to jump to my pattern page. I will provide patterns for houses that I have made. A good starter house is pictured at the head of this page.
Preheat your oven to 350°, have several sheet pans with parchment paper or silpat liners. If neither is used, use lightly sprayed foil on your sheet pans. This way you can remove the foil after the pan has cooled completely and re-use for other baking.
When ready to roll, use a liberally floured board. Work quickly, once it warms, it will be soft and more difficult, but not impossible, to work with. For perfect thickness, use two dowel rods and lay them on either side of the dough. They will prevent you from rolling too thin/thick or unevenly. I use this technique when I want perfect little gingerbread boys and girls for decorating etc. With a dry pastry brush, brush off excess flour.
Lay on your pattern or cut with a cookie cutter. Be sure that you over-cut slightly with the tip of a sharp knife. This will ensure that you have perfectly cut corners. Do NOT draw the knife through the dough, but place the knife and press down with one straight cut. Rock forward to cut with the tip of the knife. Transfer carefully to sheet pans. This recipe expands quite a bit, so you want to leave room to grow. See note at the beginning for cutting down on the leavening for construction gingerbread dough.
For cutting out small openings like windows, doors, etc. use a small, sharp paring knife. Slowly cut with an up and down motion, do not draw the knife through the dough. Be sure that the corners are evenly cut.
Reach under the piece and "pop" out the window.
For a shutter or door, save the cut out piece. To mark a shutter before
baking, press the knife into the dough to make impressions, then cut in half.
Arrange the pieces on the sheet pan to be sure they do not touch. The
smaller pieces in the middle so they do not burn. For larger houses,
you will not be able to fit the whole house on one sheet pan, so bake as many as you need for your pattern. The small house I made for the
demonstration fits perfect on my pan, and is the perfect size for
little helpers to decorate themselves.
If you wish to freeze the unbaked pieces, simply place a piece of parchment paper between the layers. Be sure you line up the same pieces on the top as are on the bottom. This will ensure that the pieces lie flat in the freezer.
Before baking, prepare you egg wash and beat with a fork until it's smooth then brush the gingerbread evenly. This will give a nice finish to your cookies or house pieces. If you want a high shine, before they are done baking, brush them again and finish baking in the oven.
If you want the windows to have candy "glass" in them, this can be done while the house pieces are baking. Place the unwrapped candy in a food processor and pulse until there are small pieces and some will be powdery.
For the windows, bake your house pieces for 10 minutes, turn and bake for 5 minutes or until the gingerbread is still soft and becoming golden. Carefully spoon the crushed candy into the windows and return to the oven. Bake for Only 5 minutes to melt the candy and adhere it to the gingerbread. You don't want it to boil up onto the surface of the pieces.
The finished house pieces. When removing the baked gingerbread from the oven, be sure that you let it cool completely flat. This will ensure that you have a flat piece to build houses with. The full yield isn't known. I usually make many different sizes of cookies, as well as about 2 small houses with this recipe. It is a large recipe, and you can easily cut it in half. The dough freezes very well, as do the baked (undecorated) cookies.
To save the baked pieces for later construction, lay down a piece of plastic wrap, then lay the pieces face down. Pull the plastic over the top and lay on the next pieces, face up. The plastic should be in between the pieces to be sure that they don't stick to each other. Place this inside a zip bag for long term storage. Keep in a dark, cool, dry place for about 2 weeks.
***The type of molasses you use will vary the color of the finished dough. A light or mild molasses will give you a light color, where the deep blackstrap will give you a much darker color. For houses etc that you want a different color, simply make the dough several times with different molasses. Chocolate dough can be achieved with replacing 1 cup of the pastry flour with regular unsweetened baking cocoa. (Such as Hershey's) If you are not able to find pastry flour, simply use 2 cups of cake flour and 6 cups of all-purpose flour for the recipe.
