Gingerbread House or Cookies

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Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses

Gingerbread Houses, Animals and Decorations

Home Page > Christmas Ideas > Kitchen & Cuisine > Recipes

Bring out your rolling pin and put your apron on - and make sure to have extras for the kids. Food Network host Christine Cushing says it is the perfect time of year to join culinary forces with your little helpers and bake up a sweet storm in the kitchen. Kids and big kids at heart love making gingerbread and savouring its sugary charm.

"This recipe is very special to me because I used to make it with my cousins every year," says Christine. "It always turned into a different gingerbread house and one year it was the Acropolis!"

Try out Christine Cushing's gingerbread recipe this holiday season, a sure way to spice up the kitchen with the family.

Gingerbread House or Cookies

Gingerbread

• 4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg

Royal Icing

• 4 cup icing sugar
• 4 egg, whites
• 1 tbsp glycerine
• 1 tbsp lemon, juice

Gingerbread

Create your own design for a gingerbread house or follow a pattern. You can also use this dough to make cookies. Bake cookies for 10 to 15 minutes depending on size and shape.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and the molasses. Continue to beat until smooth and well combined. Add dry ingredients and mix dough until it just comes together. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface. Knead by hand until smooth. Use dough immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make gingerbread house

Begin making the gingerbread house by cutting parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Divide dough in half. To easily transfer the dough to the baking sheet, roll it out directly on the paper. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Transfer parchment paper to baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes then cut out pattern pieces. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees F. Leave dough on baking sheets and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let dough cool completely before removing from pan. Discard the excess dough or use to make decorations such as a stone path.

Use a cake board large enough for your design and a piping bag fitted with a small star tip to assemble and decorate your house. You will need food colouring if using marzipan.

Some ideas for decorating include: straight pretzels for a fence, chocolate discs for the roof, chocolate wafer rectangular cookies for chimney, shutters and door step, marzipan for door wreath and trees, dried cranberries for decorating the wreath, small colored candies for lights, broken pieces of gingerbread for a stone path.

Royal Icing

Make icing just before the assembly of the gingerbread house.

Beat egg whites until light and frothy. Add icing sugar and beat until incorporated. Add glycerin and lemon juice while continuing to beat until smooth and icing is stiff. Cover surface with plastic wrap to avoid it drying out. Assemble your gingerbread house according to your pattern using the royal icing as the glue.

(Serves 36)

Make Food Network your destination for holiday food ideas. For programming details and recipes check out www.foodtv.ca.

Kitchen and Cuisine