Holiday 2018 Issue
A HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Gingerbread architecture can be a world of crazy excess. I recall an exhibit years ago that featured a replica of Falling Water, the Frank Lloyd Wright house built o...
Gingerbread House Construction Tips
If this is your first gingerbread house, I would recommend a smaller house or structure. And have fun with it.
Keeping up traditions is never easy.
I like all the work that goes into making a gingerbread house—I see it as a kind of romance. The time and labor gives me reason to pause and think about the holidays, family and why I like to bake.
Here are some gingerbread construction tips I’ve learned along the way:
- Cut your house first out of cardboard. Then, cut out a base, either square or round. These pieces will be your forms for cutting out the gingerbread. If a structure can be made out of cardboard, it can be made out of gingerbread
- Pick a gingerbread cookie recipe that doesn't spread much, if at all, when you bake it. For gingerbread houses, you will want to roll out the dough a little thicker and bake it a little longer to make sure it is not soft. You want this dry
- Do the final rolling of your gingerbread dough on a parchment sheet that fits on your baking sheet.
- Cut out the shapes, leaving a I-inch space between them, and remove the excess gingerbread around the shapes. This leaves the cut shapes directly on the parchment with room around to expand (if they do).When you cut out the holes for the doorway and windows, save the pieces. Use the door piece for the door and use window pieces for shutters.
- After baking the gingerbread, match the shapes to your cardboard forms. If they need a little trimming, do this delicately with a serrated knife.
- When your gingerbread is cool, you can do part of the decorating while the pieces lie fiat.
- Assemble the house with royal icing that has been whipped up to stiff peaks. This whipped icing will be light and easier to pipe, and it will dry faster; Let the assembled house sit overnight before decorating.
- When assembling big houses, have toothpicks handy. Sometimes you need them to hold the sides or roof together until it dries. When the icing is completely dry, gently twist the toothpicks before pulling them out.
- If it is especially humid, attach the gingerbread to the cardboard form using the whipped royal icing, and then assemble. This will prevent the house from crumbling under the humidity
- Royal icing can be whipped to different consistencies to create different snow effects. For a drop, like snowfall, whip it to soft peaks. An icicle drop is whipped to medium peaks.
- Gingerbread houses look great with just icing as decoration. If you want to use candy, pick small, colorful shapes.
- To color your house, spread icing on each piece before assembling, like you would a big cookie. Outline the sides, the windows and any other openings, and fill in with colored icing. This might take up to two days to dry If you work with it too soon, it will crack. From here, you can make lines like bricks, siding or wood. Just remember to let it fully dry before assembling.
- Make sure everything you use to decorate your house is edible. After the holidays, you can have fun crushing the house and breaking it up. Then, eat it with hot chocolate or dunk pieces in milk that has a little bourbon in it!
THE PHOTO SHOOT
Making a gingerbread house in the summer when it was 98 degrees and humid was a challenge. I had summer brain and made every mistake possible. For example, I forgot to attach the gingerbread to cardboard, an important trick during humid weather.
Houses usually have to dry for at least two days before you can move them. As this house was drying, it was absorbing the moisture in the air. All the hard gingerbread was becoming soft.
For the photo shoot, I had to drive the gingerbread house to a real house—the photographer’s house. I drove very carefully, like I had an open hot cup of coffee in my hand. The setting was perfect, an old house with great light. Elana, the photographer; has a terrific eye. But every time we touched the house, a horse would break, a dog would tilt or the fence would fall over. It’s always stressful to make a gingerbread house, but this was nutty. The clock was ticking, and rain was forecasted for the next day. The house collapsed when I brought it back to the shop. Thank goodness we always have milk, and whole milk at that. I was able to dunk the crumbled gingerbread pieces in milk and enjoy the end of this project.
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