This weekend is the begining of all things Christmas in our house! It is very much my favourite time of the year, and children make it so much more fun!
Todays antics included making gingerbread houses with the kids. Considering they are only-just-three and not-quite-five, they did very well, Miss 3's responce was "this is my most funnest day I'b ebba had!" Below is the recipes we used and a few pictures of the process. Be brave and give it a go, its easier than it looks, you will be surprised at your kids skill and if it all turns to pies, you have a fantastic tasty mess to eat for dessert!
I make one every year and display it on the counter top until Christmas, when the kids are allowed to demolish it, this year they wanted their own.
For the gingerbread:
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 190g butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup dark molasses/treacle/golden syrup - they all work, just give different colour of dough
- 1 Tbsp water
Using an electric mixer (or by hand if you want a workout), beat on medium speed the butter and
brown sugar until fluffy and well blended.
Beat in the eggs, molasses/treacle/syrup and water until well combined.
Add in the spices, salt and baking powder, if you are missing a spice, make it anyway, no one will ever know.
Beat half of the flour into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Stir in the remaining flour. Knead (mix with your hands on the benchtop) until well blended. If the dough is too soft, add a little more flour, it should be a quite stiff dough.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, or pop it in a plastic bag and refrigerate at least two hours, preferably overnight. You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time. Let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling out. (We skipped this bit today and it worked just fine!)
Cutting Out:
For a template you can either find one online or do what we did and make one up! The walls of ours are about 12cm square. You can make a template out of cardboard box to check the measurements are right. This batch of dough makes a lot, there was enough to make 3 small houses or one large house.
Preheat oven to 180C, with the oven rack in the middle. Have several flat trays ready, preferably ones that you know will not warp in the oven heat.
Divide the dough in four. Spread baking paper on a large flat surface for rolling. Dust the paper lightly with flour. Working with one portion of the dough at a time, use a rolling pin (or a glass bottle) to roll out the dough to an even thickness of about 5-8mm - about the thickness of a pencil. Add a little flour to the surface of the dough, and check for sticking as you roll it out. If it sticks to either your rolling pin or the rolling surface, dust with more flour. If the rolled out dough is very soft, you may want to freeze it for an hour before cutting out the patterns.
Rub a little flour over the surface of the dough. Place the pattern pieces on the dough, as many pattern pieces as will fit on the dough. Use a small sharp knife to cut out the pattern pieces from the dough, wiping the knife surface clean frequently. Depending on how soft the dough is, you may need to use scissors to cut the baking paper. If you are not using paper, you may need to use a large metal spatula to transfer the dough pieces to a greased tray. Space the pieces on the tray 2cm apart from each other. If dough pieces stretch during the transfer process, just push them back into shape.
You can cut out a door and window(s) at this point, or you can wait
until after baking, soon after the pieces have come out of the oven
while the walls are still warm.
Bake in a 180°c oven until the edges are just beginning to darken, 15-18 minutes for the large pieces, 6-8 minutes for the small pieces. Rotate the trays half way through the baking for more even browning. Remove the trays to racks to cool, about 15 minutes.
While the pieces are still slightly warm, lay the pattern pieces over them and use a large straight chef's knife to trim off any parts of the pieces that have through cooking spread beyond the pattern.
Remove pieces to cool directly on racks to cool completely.
For the glue to hold it all together you use Royal Icing:
Beat 1 large egg white with 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and 1c icing sugar for 5 minutes. Add a further 1 and 2/3c icing sugar and beat well.
Spoon this into ziplock bags and store as is in the fridge for up to a week. To use simply snip the corner off the bag and squeeze out.
Assembly:
This part is really where the adult help is important. Put a strip of icing on the left and right sides of each of the four walls. Assemble the house on a flat surface, arranging all four walls in quick sucession. These need a few minutes to start setting before you attempt to put the roof on. Don't rush this stage. I left both the houses for 10 minutes before letting the girls loose on them, it might be better to make the dough one day and mum/dad to assemble the houses once the kids are in bed then allow them to decorate them the next day, the white icing sets like concrete after about 24 hours!
My preschooler's abilities to use a piping bag amazed me. Let them loose with a bag of icing, a bowl of lollies and their imagination.
Beat in the eggs, molasses/treacle/syrup and water until well combined.
Add in the spices, salt and baking powder, if you are missing a spice, make it anyway, no one will ever know.
Beat half of the flour into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Stir in the remaining flour. Knead (mix with your hands on the benchtop) until well blended. If the dough is too soft, add a little more flour, it should be a quite stiff dough.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, or pop it in a plastic bag and refrigerate at least two hours, preferably overnight. You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time. Let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling out. (We skipped this bit today and it worked just fine!)
Cutting Out:
For a template you can either find one online or do what we did and make one up! The walls of ours are about 12cm square. You can make a template out of cardboard box to check the measurements are right. This batch of dough makes a lot, there was enough to make 3 small houses or one large house.
Preheat oven to 180C, with the oven rack in the middle. Have several flat trays ready, preferably ones that you know will not warp in the oven heat.
Divide the dough in four. Spread baking paper on a large flat surface for rolling. Dust the paper lightly with flour. Working with one portion of the dough at a time, use a rolling pin (or a glass bottle) to roll out the dough to an even thickness of about 5-8mm - about the thickness of a pencil. Add a little flour to the surface of the dough, and check for sticking as you roll it out. If it sticks to either your rolling pin or the rolling surface, dust with more flour. If the rolled out dough is very soft, you may want to freeze it for an hour before cutting out the patterns.
Rub a little flour over the surface of the dough. Place the pattern pieces on the dough, as many pattern pieces as will fit on the dough. Use a small sharp knife to cut out the pattern pieces from the dough, wiping the knife surface clean frequently. Depending on how soft the dough is, you may need to use scissors to cut the baking paper. If you are not using paper, you may need to use a large metal spatula to transfer the dough pieces to a greased tray. Space the pieces on the tray 2cm apart from each other. If dough pieces stretch during the transfer process, just push them back into shape.
 |
| We used small cookie cutters to make windows and filled with a barley sugar which melts into a window |
Bake in a 180°c oven until the edges are just beginning to darken, 15-18 minutes for the large pieces, 6-8 minutes for the small pieces. Rotate the trays half way through the baking for more even browning. Remove the trays to racks to cool, about 15 minutes.
While the pieces are still slightly warm, lay the pattern pieces over them and use a large straight chef's knife to trim off any parts of the pieces that have through cooking spread beyond the pattern.
Remove pieces to cool directly on racks to cool completely.
For the glue to hold it all together you use Royal Icing:
Beat 1 large egg white with 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and 1c icing sugar for 5 minutes. Add a further 1 and 2/3c icing sugar and beat well.
Spoon this into ziplock bags and store as is in the fridge for up to a week. To use simply snip the corner off the bag and squeeze out.
Assembly:
This part is really where the adult help is important. Put a strip of icing on the left and right sides of each of the four walls. Assemble the house on a flat surface, arranging all four walls in quick sucession. These need a few minutes to start setting before you attempt to put the roof on. Don't rush this stage. I left both the houses for 10 minutes before letting the girls loose on them, it might be better to make the dough one day and mum/dad to assemble the houses once the kids are in bed then allow them to decorate them the next day, the white icing sets like concrete after about 24 hours!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please add a comment, we would love to hear from you!