Gingerbread House-Part 1

This week's project is something that everyone has done to some extent or another. We're building a gingerbread house. I will be dividing this into our three days because there is simply too much to talk about and to do for us to squeeze into one day. Today's focus will be on the gingerbread itself and the baking and cutting process. I will also be sharing some tips and tricks to get the best looking gingerbread possible.

For my gingerbread recipe, I used this one from HGTV. It's a simple recipe, and as long as you are comfortable with cookie dough you should be fine. I did have to double the recipe to have enough for the whole house. For each batch you will divide the dough in half and roll it out.

The template is actually one that my dad made years ago. He was a CAD drafter at the time and he put together his own blueprints for a gingerbread cathedral. We tried making it once together, but we became impatient with the roof and the whole thing collapsed. I tried making it again the first Christmas I spent with my now husband's family. It stayed upright that time, but I haven't tried it since. So I decided to bring it back out to share with you. At the moment I can't figure out how to share the PDF on here as a link, but if you email me I can send it to you. Just print them, cut them out, and use them to cut out your house pieces.

After making the dough according to the directions, you are told to place it in the fridge to chill. However, when you take it out to roll it, it's too hard and rolling it out is difficult. If you were to instead place your ball of dough between two sheets of parchment paper, you can roll it out, and then place your rolled out sheet of dough in the fridge to chill. It is so much easier for me to do it this way and honestly I refuse to go back.

The dough does need to chill for at least an hour to keep the edges clean when baking. Room temperature dough goes flat and spreads out in the oven. When it is chilled you can use the cutouts from your template to cut out all of your pieces. The roof piece does need to be mirrored when you cut it for the second time. Also, I am intentionally not cutting a few pieces for you here, because I plan on talking about them in part two.

The final step for today is baking the dough. I usually start with abut 8-10 minutes, and I check periodically until the edges start to darken. That usually means that the gingerbread is going to be more crisp and therefore better able to hold its weight when used as part of the house. I do also like to leave it out to fully cool and dry out for a few hours before I begin to work with it.

For part two, we will be talking about icing and stained glass cathedral windows. Please join me as I continue to try to build this gingerbread house!