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 beyond thrilled when I saw that this month’s Daring Bakers challenge was to make a gingerbread house from scratch. You might think I’m slightly nuts (and I’m OK with that), but it’s been on my must-bake list for quite a while. Once again, the Daring Bakers challenge was the little push that I needed to finally get around to it!
Luckily, I got snowed in last Saturday afternoon. We got about eight inches of snow (which is a lot for December around here), so I was stuck at home and spent the entire day working on my gingerbread house. I think when all was said and done, I spent about 15 hours working on my gingerbread house. It was a lot of fun, though, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
I am also happy to announce that after one week, my house is still standing! I had very few issues with the dough shrinking. I made my own templates for the house and had very few issues with the dough. I did end up substituting half and half for the heavy cream in the recipe and had to use some whole wheat flour because I didn’t have quite enough all purpose. I didn’t actually taste any of the gingerbread from the house. It ended up being fairly hard and crisp, which was great for architecture, but not really edible (in my opinion). If you want an edible recipe, give my gingerbread cookies a try… I think they would actually work well to build a gingerbread house, and stay nice and soft when they bake!
For this challenge, we could choose between two gingerbread recipes. I made the Spicy Gingerbread Dough from Good Housekeeping (printed below from the Daring Bakers challenge). I had plenty of dough left over, so I used it to make some homemade ornaments that I gave to some friends and family. I followed the instructions as listed in the recipe to cut out the large pieces for the house, but I ended up just rolling out the dough on a floured mat and baking the other pieces as I would for standard cookies. I didn’t need the extra chilling time listed below in steps 5-8.
Instead of using simple syrup to construct my gingerbread house, I just used the royal icing that I used to decorate the house. I covered a large piece of cardboard with some aluminum foil and built the house on the foil platform. I used the same royal icing that I used to decorate my gingerbread cookies last week.
Spicy Gingerbread Dough
(from Good Housekeeping)
- 2 1/2 cups (500g) packed dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (360mL) heavy cream or whipping cream
- 1 1/4 cups (425g) molasses
- 9 1/2 cups (1663g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon(s) baking soda
- 1 tablespoon(s) ground ginger
1. In very large bowl, with wire whisk (or with an electric mixer), beat brown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and ginger. With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; flatten each into a disk to speed chilling. Wrap each disk well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.
3. Grease and flour large cookie sheets (17-inch by 14-inch/43x36cm)
4. Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time on each cookie sheet to about 3/16-inch thickness. (Placing 3/16-inch dowels or rulers on either side of dough to use as a guide will help roll dough to uniform thickness.)
5. Trim excess dough from cookie sheet; wrap and reserve in refrigerator. Chill rolled dough on cookie sheet in refrigerator or freezer at least 10 minutes or until firm enough to cut easily.
6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (149C)
7. Use chilled rolled dough, floured poster board patterns, and sharp paring knife to cut all house pieces on cookie sheet, making sure to leave at least 1 1/4 inches between pieces because dough will expand slightly during baking. Wrap and reserve trimmings in refrigerator. Combine and use trimmings as necessary to complete house and other decorative pieces. Cut and bake large pieces and small pieces separately.
8. Chill for 10 minutes before baking if the dough seems really soft after you cut it. This will discourage too much spreading/warping of the shapes you cut.
9. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until pieces are firm to the touch. Do not overbake; pieces will be too crisp to trim to proper size.
10. Remove cookie sheet from oven. While house pieces are still warm, place poster-board patterns on top and use them as guides to trim shapes to match if necessary. Cool pieces completely before attempting to assemble the house.
I used some M&M’s and gum drops to decorate my house. I cut out small hearts to make shingles for the roof and used a few of them to decorate the sides of the house, as well. I ended up adding some icing and coconut “snow” to the top of the house, though, which covered up all of the shingles.
Here’s the proof that I actually constructed my house without any additional supports! I apologize for the less-than-beautiful pictures… I was constructing at 10:00pm in very poor lighting!
When all was said and done, I was fairly pleased with how my house turned out. Next time I will have to restrain myself a bit because I feel like I went a bit crazy with all of the coconut and icing… But, I had a good time and have had another Daring Bakers success, so that makes it all worth it!
Bring on the January challenge!
Beautiful gingerbread house! I made one last year, but this year, we didn’t have enough time to do one… Maybe next year….
Way cute Jen!! Maybe next year I can give this a try :)
I love the coconut snow on your roof and the chimney stack! The Christmas colors are so festive! :)
Nice job!! Looks fun and festive. I remember making a gingerbread house once years ago, it looked like total crap. hahaha… I’d love to try making one again.
I can imagine how perfect it’d be to bake when you’re snowed in! Beautiful job and don’t worry, there’s no such thing as getting too crazy with icing!
Great gingerbread house. Love the decorations
Fabulous job, I love it!
Great job on your gingerbread house. It looks fabulous and colorful too. I had a blast with this challenge as well. Happy holidays.
Your house looks fantastic. Love the idea of using coconut to mimic snow.
“it’s been on my must-bake list for quite a while. Once again, the Daring Bakers challenge was the little push that I needed to finally get around to it!” With that comment you proved that you are in place with the Daring Bakers. Congratulations on your beautiful house! It’s really christmas-style!
You did a wonderful job Jen! Looks awesome!
It’s beautiful! I love the wreath decorations and the chimney. Very creative!
very nicely decorated :) i love the heart cut-outs for the roof shingles and the cute wreath
You did such a great job with this challenge! Love your house!
Your house is SO CUTE! I love the chimney, the hearts, and exclusively using red and green:) It’s fabulous!
Your photos are fantastic, and I love the house! The decorations work perfectly =D.
he house is adorable, I would love to just take a bite out of the chimney, hehehe!
-Natasha
wow great job love the hearts on it
You did a great job. Kind of makes me wish I didnt skip this months challenge. I love all the coconut but then again, I love a white Christmas. :) Happy New Year to you!!!
Fantastic!!! Excellent work… its absolutely beautiful!
Blessings!
Great job – I love it!! Your cute little heart decorations are adorable and the coconut is the perfect idea for snow. I have to agree I don’t find ginger bread houses all that edible either. We (I) made one a few years ago, would never have eaten it after the fact …. :)
That is just too cute. You did a great job!
Bein snowed in certainly worked well for you. The house looks very pretty.
Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year!
Adore the chimney! Beautiful project! :)
I’ve wanted to make a gingerbread house for ages, too, so I don’t think you’re nuts! Yours is beautiful—I love it!!
that is one of the prettiest gingerbread houses I have ever seen! I love the decorations too
I love this gingerbread house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wish I knew of this in time as we made one this year–from scratch
What a textbook perfect GB house. This is what you think of when you hear Gingerbread House. Absolutely beautiful, and so festive. Great photos too! Have a wonderful New Year!
your house looks so good! i’m very impressed. I tried to make a gingerbread house once and failed. well, i guess i did succeed at making a house, but it looked terrible :)
They look gorgeous. I could see all the details.
Jen your Gingerbread house is adorable! It’s one of the things I wanted to bake this Christmas and didn’t get around to it. Boo! Maybe next year ; ) Congratulations on the new design. It looks beautiful! Wishing you a Happy New Year!
Love the shape of your house and all the fun going on around the house, it’s just darling!
This is just amazing. Your house is so elaborate and professional looking – nice job!
Beautiful house, Jenn! Happy new year!
What a gorgeous gingerbread house, Jen! Wish you and your family an awesome 2010!
I’ve been wanting to make a gingerbread house for the longest time, perhaps next year. Yours is super cute and so classic – I LOVE IT. Love the M&M details.
One year I made a gingerbread house kit for a family members, baking all the pieces and making the icing mix and all the decorating candies and put it in a big gift basket – she loved it (she was 12 at the time).
Happy holidays!