Daring Bakers December 2009: Gingerbread house

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.

Hola a todos,

Hoy es el último día para publicar mi post con el reto mensual de las Daring Bakers y voy muy justa de tiempo. Otro día añadiré la traducción al castellano de la receta porque merece la pena. Teniendo en cuenta la prisa y la presión con la que trabajé y que era la primera vez que hacía algo así estoy contenta de cómo quedó. Espero que os guste. Aprovecho para desearos a todos Felices Fiestas y un maravilloso 2010. Nos leemos el año que viene!

Hello everybody,

I made it! I was about to give up because the lack of time but I'm so happy I made a last minute effort. I baked my pieces yesterday evening (December 26th) and assembled the house this morning. It could have looked better, I know, but this is my first gingerbread house and I'm quite satisfied with the results.

The funny thing is that a couple of months ago I was shopping in IKEA and in the swedish grocery I saw the box with the complete kit to assemble a house, and I thought "this is the kind of thing I'll never do myself. I definitely can't."

LOL

Never say never wil be my motto from now on.

Thank you very much Anna and Y for such a beautiful challenge.

My choice was the recipe from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, which I found to be perfect.

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]

Instructions:

1. 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.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. 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.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 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.]



5. 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:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

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.



Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year for everybody!