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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.
I was planning on sitting out this challenge because I had so much on my plate. But my 19 year old son said his date wanted to make a gingerbread house. So I asked if I could make the dough using the DB recipe and they could bake it and decorate it. I used Y’s recipe and I didn’t have the problem many other DB’s had with it being too dry.
It was my son’s first time making a gingerbread house and using a pastry bag. He and his date had fun creating this cute gingerbread house and they did a great job!
Y’s Recipe:
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Gingerbread House
Ingredients
- 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]
- ROYAL ICING:
- 1 large egg white
- 3 cups 330g powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- 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.
- Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.
- 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.
- [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly ⅛ inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]
- 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:
- 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.
s
Looks GREAT!!
Anula
Lovely Gingerbread House – very festive 🙂
Merry Christmas from rainy Ireland!
Lots of presents from Santa, yummy Turkey and have a great time with your family and friends 🙂
April
It's beautiful!!!! Great job!!
Merry Christmas!
Kim
They did a great job, Barbara! I've never had any luck getting my gingerbread houses to stay together, but yours is fantastic. I'm impressed!! Have a wonderful Christmas with your family 😀
Cathy
What a lovely gingerbread house, a perfect holiday baking project. They did a great job.
Happy holiday wishes to you and your family, Barbara.
Vrinda
Merry X'mas and happy Holidays…Gingerbread house looks cute….
Nina's Recipes
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! XO
Nina
Memória
Your house is too cute. I agree about the roof and the amount of icing. It looks like it's covered in snow.
I skipped out of the challenge this month, but I did prepare the dough. In fact, it's sitting in my freezer. I'm going to try to post what I have once I find my USB adapter for my camera.
Anyway, great job on the challenge, Barbara!
Kat
I love that you covered the whole roof in icing. I really like the look of that!
Lyndsey
Cute house, what a fun project! Merry Christmas!
Jessica
So cute!!
Cristie
You get the "Fun Mom Award", very nice of you. They did a great job!
Merry Christmas!
Megan
What a great idea to make the dough and the let the kids do the work! It looks like it was a lot of fun! Merry Christmas to you and your entire family. Hope it's the merriest. 🙂
Anncoo
Merry X'mas & Happy New Year ;D
Frieda
What a great date idea! They did a beautiful job~
Soma
How gorgeous!!
Barbara
Happy Holidays & Happy New year to you and your loved ones.
Sue Sparks
The house looks so cute, especially for a first timer! I haven't even started mine! Yikes!
Marcellina
Isn't it great that 19 year olds enjoy baking. Hearing your story makes me love your gingerbread house more! Congratulations on raising such a wonderful son and passing on the passion of baking!
Lauren
How fun to pass the torch to your son & his date! The house looks great =D.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
The house looks cute! I like the candy cane fence. I am starting Daring Bakers in January, can't wait!