Our staff share the secret to a tasty Gingerbread House
by
21/12/2015
We love a good recipe for the whole family at Christmas time. Claudia from our Marketing Department has shared the secret behind her delicious, fun and good-looking Christmas gingerbread house inspired by the Taste.com recipe, with a few differences.
What do you think? Sounds good doesn’t it.
Ingredients
Gingerbread
- 3 ½ cups self-rising flour
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup brown sugar- firmly packed
- 185g butter chopped
- ½ golden syrup
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup pure icing sugar
Royal Icing
- 2 egg whites
- 3 cups pure icing sugar
Gingerbread template
Use cardboard for your cut outs
- 2 x 13cm x19cm rectangles - Roof
- 2 x 11.5am x 16cm rectangles - Side walls
- 2 x 16cm x 19cm rectangles - Front and back walls. To create gables measure 11cm from the base of the 19cm sides, then mark midway on the 16cm at the top. Join dots.
Method
- Combine self-rising flour, plain flour, pure icing sugar, ginger, cinnamon and sugar into a Mixmaster bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon.
- Add chopped butter into the bowl and use your finger tips to combine until mixture resembles breadcrumbs (don’t forget to lick your fingers afterwards! Oh and then wash your hands too!)
- Whisk golden syrup and eggs together in a jug until combined.
- Put the bowl onto the Mixmaster (if you have one, otherwise use a food processor) and turn onto ‘knead’ mode, add egg and golden syrup mixture. Using the Mixmaster, knead until dough comes together and is smooth. If you are lacking a Mixmaster you are going to have to do this with your hands, which can be a lot of fun too!
- Cut dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap (ensure that you taste test the dough before halving so each piece is still equal). Refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 180°C. (Don’t think that you have turned the oven on but have actually forgotten).
- Roll dough, 1 helping at a time, between 2 sheets baking paper until 5mm thick. Remove top layer of baking paper and using cardboard cut outs, cut the shapes from the dough. Place baking paper with ginger bread on an oven tray.
- Bake gingerbread pieces for 15 minutes. (Hopefully you baked a spare piece as a tester for the family).
- Royal Icing: Using a Mixmaster beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add in pure icing sugar, beating until thick. Avoid splashing self or others in face with icing mixture.
- Use icing to join the walls together and to decorate your house. To join walls place unopened cans to support walls until icing dries. It is recommended to join the four walls first, wait until icing dries (at least 1 hour), and attach the roof (use cans to support roof from slipping). For best results, allow icing that joins the walls and roof at least 24 hours to dry before decorating. Don’t forget to lick the bowl!
To decorate my gingerbread house I used the below ingredients, however you could use whatever you would like:
- 2 x packets of freckles
- 1 x family size packet of crispy M&M’s
- 2 x packets of coconut ice
- 1 x packet of purple licorice
- 1 x packet of flake bites
- 1 x packet of mint balls
- 1 x packet of strawberries and cream
- 1 x packet of assorted jellies
- Some icing sugar to dust.
NB: depending on how much you would like to decorate or how much icing you used in the tasting process, you will need to make another batch of royal icing.