Gingerbread Houses

This year I am planning on making Gingerbread houses & cookies 

Here is a tried and tested recipe that I find makes the best dough

Gingerbread House Recipe

1/3 cup soft shortening

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1-1/2 cups dark molasses

2/3 cup cold water

7 cups flour

2 tsps. Baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Cream the shortening and sugar in a large stand mixer.
2.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fluffy. 
3. Add the molasses, salt, soda, ginger, and cinnamon.
4.  Mix completely. Add the flour, one cup at a time. 
5. The dough will become very stiff, and the bowl will be quite full.
6.  Once the flour is incorporated, turn the mixer off. It is a very stiff dough, and the object is to incorporate the flour, nothing more.
7. Roll dough to a generous 1/8” thickness directly on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
8.  Trace around paper stencils (available for publication) to cut out the walls and roof of a gingerbread house.
9.  Lift away the excess dough on the cookie sheet with a spatula or knife.
10.  Be sure to leave some space between the pieces—the dough does expand while baking.
11. Bake at 375 degrees for between 10 and 14 minutes.
12.  Slightly over-baked (short of burning) is better than slightly under-baked as you need rigidity for constructing gingerbread houses.
13. Let the cookie pieces cool completely before assembly—even overnight. 
14. When cooling and storing, do not stack the pieces more than three high. If you do, the pressure will cause warm cookies to cement together.

Operation Gingerbread’s Top 10 Tips:

Tip 1: Buy the cheapest store brand of shortening you can find. Something full of trans-fat goodness. I’m all for getting rid of trans-fats as a general principle. You will get much better performance with the cheap stuff. It’s not like a huge house-shaped cookie is good for you, anyway. Just exercise moderation.

Tip 2: Don’t roll out the dough on the counter and transfer to a cookie sheet to bake. Grease the cookie sheet and roll the dough directly on the pan. Trace around your templates and lift the excess away.

You might have noticed that I didn’t roll directly on the pan. That brings me to…

Tip 3: Especially if you are going to be making multiple houses, roll the dough out on parchment paper. I raid my pastry-chef-mother’s stash of perfectly pre-cut sheets, and each year vow that I should pre-cut a massive stack of my own. They’re really handy.

But the parchment paper slips and slides all over the counter, you say! Fear not...

Tip 4: Simply put a Silpat down on the counter. Put the parchment on top of the Silpat and ta-da, it sticks! Be careful not to get flour under the Silpat, though, or you’ll have to clean everything thoroughly to get it to stick again.

But I don’t have a Silpat, you say! Simply take a clean dishcloth, get it wet, and squeeze the dickens out of it. You want it to be barely damp. Put that down on your counter, and put either your cookie sheet (if you’re not using parchment paper) or your parchment paper on top. The parchment will get a little damp, but it’s not a problem, I promise.

Tip 5: Your dough will spread at least a bit while cooking, especially since this recipe doesn’t require chilling before rolling (and is WAY easier to roll because of that little fact). If you want the pieces to fit together with precision–and that’s pretty important in construction of the real or cookie kind you’ll need to trim the edges. Do this immediately after pulling the cookies out of the oven. Don’t even wait 30 seconds! You need to move very quickly, while the cookies are still very hot! Use your template and a sharp paring knife and trim the excess away.

Tip 6: Let pieces cool completely before daring to stack any up to save space. Once completely cool, you can stack the pieces three or four high to save counter and cooling rack space. Do not stack higher! If you do, you run the risk of the pieces cementing to each other. 

If you’re going to assemble more than one house, use a large disposable pastry bag. You want to have to refill as infrequently as possible.

Tip 8: Cake circles make perfect, pretty bases for small houses.

Yes, I buy them 100 at a time and they have so many uses

For larger houses, I cut cardboard boxes into rectangles, and cover with freezer paper, dull side out. It makes a nice, snowy white, inexpensive base. While it’s not strictly necessary to make the house on a base, it’s much sturdier, and I love having room to landscape around my gingerbread houses.

Tip 9: Especially if you’re going to make multiple houses, seriously consider an A-frame design. Not only does it look cute and germanic, it’s also super easy to assemble!

Santa's little helper's job, holding the first two pieces for me:

And then it stands up on its own while I assemble the rest:

If you’re going to make more elaborate designs, especially ones with four walls and a roof, assemble in stages. Adhere the walls together, and prop them in place with cans. DON’T add the roof yet! Wait a few hours, come back, and then you can add the roof. Be sure your royal icing is nice and thick, especially if you have a steep pitch to your roof, and if possible, stack cans to reach right under the eaves, to hold the roof in place should it start to slip before the icing sets up.

Tip 10: Don’t underestimate the decorative power of royal icing. Don’t get me wrong, I love to decorate with candy! But that can get really expensive, and using royal icing as its own decorative element can look absolutely gorgeous!

If you’re going to do decorative piping, or if you’re going to put on heavy candies, it’s much easier to do the decorating before the house is assembled.