It has become a bit of a tradition now, a get together to make gingerbread houses. This includes icing sugar, wine, food colouring, and as many edible sparkly bits as possible….
This year I have invested in a mould to make the house with. This makes it easier, hopefully.
The receipt for the house is:-
Ingredients
180g butter 125g brown sugar 500g plain flour 300g syrup 1 tsp powdered ginger 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
again as is my way.... this is a difficult one... set the oven at 170oC Put butter, sugar and syrup into a heavy bottomed pan Heat until melted Add remaining dry ingredients Mix together to form a dough ta dah ..
If you have a mould then you squish the mixture in, making sure there are no air gaps.
If not, you need to roll out and cut out the shapes of 4 walls and 2 pieces to make the roof… (I suggest you “google” for a pattern). Then place on a tray.
Place into the oven for around 25 to 30 mins, it needs to be firm to touch, it will go hard once it has cooled.
Once out of the oven leave in the mould or on the tray to cool slightly before lifting off onto a cooling rack.
Once cold, you can start to assemble……
Mix water with icing sugar to make a stiff thick paste. Now you need mugs or 3 to 4 sets of hands. Lean one of the walls against a mug, paste the icing sugar mix onto the edge of another wall and fit together, do this with all 4 walls, balancing them with mugs if short on hands! I let this set before I put the roof on. It is the same process with the roof.
Then the fun begins, I have never made a house that would win prizes, but that is really not the point. It is great fun, mixing food colouring into icing sugar, green for grass, white for snow, or just make it up, along with sweets, along with a bit of wine.
A perfect way to spend a Christmas evening.
In January you can eat it, IF you have strong teeth and your New Years diet hasn’t started.
SL x
