Gingerbread House

This is something that has been made in my house ever since I was big enough to appreciate candy. My lovely mother has always been gracious enough to put it together, only for one of us to smash it with a rolling pin (my brothers preferred baseball bats) after Christmas. Now that I am old enough to handle boiling sugar, my sister and I have now picked up the gauntlet and have begun creating it ourselves. Have patience with the length of this piece there are several components that need to be described!

Please excuse the odd measurements, this is how the recipe is given in a 1960s Norwegian cookbook - dutifully translated by a Mrs. Laila Smith.

This is a base for the gingerbread house and to make about 100 figurines

Ingredients:

150g (two thirds of a cup) unsalted butter, softened

500 ml caster sugar

200ml golden syrup (it is hard to find a U.S. alternative for this, but light corn syrup is probably the closest thing)

200ml cold water

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp ginger

1 tbsp ground clove

1 tbsp baking soda

1.5 litres plain flour

a further 100ml of plain flour

To decorate:

A selection of coloured boiled sweets

half a cup of Caster sugar

Icing sugar

I like to use white chocolate buttons to decorate the roof with but you can use anything your heart desires, you can even just use icing sugar if you wish, or make small tiles out of royal icing.

Cream the butter, sugar and syrup together until white. Add the water, spices and baking soda then begin to work in the flour. Divide the dough in half and add the extra 100ml of flour to one half. Knead each dough on a floured surface to combine and evenly distribute spice. Wrap in cling film and keep in a cold place over night.

Now comes the fun part:

For gingerbread men etc. roll the dough out until a couple of mm thick. Cut out whatever shapes you wish and place in a preheated fan oven at 180 C/350 F for 5-7 minutes. Be careful to watch them because they can go from golden to charred very quickly. Place them on a cooling rack straight away otherwise they will continue to cook (I say cook, when really it is just drying them out).

THE HOUSE.

First things first. Draw out your house on paper to give you shapes to cut around. You will need one template for the front and back, one template for the sides, one template for the roof and one template for the chimney (although this is optional).

Consider windows and doors etc. We have single windows on the side, a front door and a window on the front and then in the back this year we went for a large stained glass window.

The house needs to be thicker than the figures. Roll out to about 1 cm thickness, or there abouts.

Place your templates over the dough and cut out accordingly. When you cut out the windows cut the square you remove in half to create shutters you can place on the sides. When you cut out the door, keep it whole and you can stick it on separately and have it ajar.

For the stained glass windows place a boiled sweet in the empty space like so:

For the large stained glass window at the back, gently crush a few boiled sweets so you can get pieces about a sixth of the original. Obviously size isn't crucial, but you want them large enough for the colour to remain, and for them not to bleed into one.

Once you have baked each part (baking instructions are the same as the gingerbread men) you can assemble. Make sure the walls are as straight as can be, if things come out a little wonky, trim when they come straight out of the oven as they are still soft then.

Start with the walls first. Melt the caster sugar on a low heat until it becomes caramel. Do not be tempted to stir it, just let it melt down. It may become very dark over the course of assembling the house but you need not worry, just don't burn yourself! Dip the edge of the first wall into the caramel and place it so it fits behind the front panels. Repeat until all walls are stuck together. If your pan is not wide enough to fit both edges of the wall in simultaneously, use a spoon to generously spoon two thick lines onto the back wall you are going to stick them to. Stick the shutters on with the caramel also.

To fit the roof on gauge where the top walls meet the house and with a spoon, run two thick lines down each end of the roof panel and stick to the top.

Once it is finally assembled you can begin to stick on your decorations.

My dear sister who is currently in motion to take over the world she seems to excel in everything, was in charge of decorating this year, with some homemade candy canes.

Light decorations can be stuck on with icing sugar, and the sugar doubles up as a great replica for snow, just make sure you've made it thick enough. Things such as MnM's may need some of the caramel with which you stuck the house together with.

After all this, when you have assembled the characters and cotton wool that you wish to accompany the house, pop a tea light inside, stand back, and admire your hard work. This is really easy to do, just make sure you have thought about all the components. I highly recommend the templates and thinking about how everything is going to fit together.