Gingerbread house kits
Gingerbread dough
This recipe makes about 100 small houses. It’s best to mix in big bertha and use on the same day. The dough dries out (at least where we live) so if you want to make this ahead add less flour.
Cream together:
600 g shortening
1360 g sugar (if you use brown sugar omit the 100g mollasses
100 g mollasses
Add, one at a time
12 eggs
740 g mollasses
740 g log cabin syrup (corn syrup can be used instead)
Whisk in a separate bowl:
900 g flour
4 g baking powder
32 g ginger
32 g cinnamon
4 g cloves or allspice
12 g salt
Mix above spice/flour mixture into wet ingredients. Note, add spices to taste, feel free to make dough more spicy.
Add remaining flour (2700g total)
900 g flour
900 g flour
900 g flour
If necessary add an additional 200g flour. Dough should not be sticky and easy to mold.
Preheat oven to 375. Roll into 1/8 inch sheets on sil-pats. Cut out houses, carefully remove scraps. Re-roll scraps. If possible, don’t bake right away. Let cut shapes dry out, at least 30 min before baking. All ovens are different, bake until done. Edges should be crisp, centers of shapes completely dry. Makes about 100 3in houses.
Glue for houses
We use cooked sugar to glue houses together. I have an inexpensive plug-in burner so we can sit and do this on the island. A lot of these recipes have log cabin syrup instead of corn syrup. That’s because sometimes Costco has corn syrup in bulk, sometimes they don’t. Log cabin syrup is basically corn syrup so it works. This recipe also is great for stained glass windows. For that I would use corn syrup (for a lighter color) and not the log cabin syrup.
Boil to hard crack stage (290F for Salt Lake City, UT)
100 g sugar
80 g cabin syrup
Make sure sugar is dissolved. Keep warm while dipping.
Enough for 25-30 houses. With helpers this can be doubled. The sugar syrup starts to get weird after a lot of cooling and reheating.
Recipe for windows
This is the original recipe we used for glue and windows
Boil to hard crack stage (290F for Salt Lake City, UT)
100 g sugar (1/2 c)
50 g corn syrup (1/4 c)
30 g water (1/8 c)
Royal icing
Meringue powder is the safest way to make royal icing, and it’s so simple.
Whisk in a large standing mixer:
4 lb powdered sugar
100 g meringue powder
Add water, and beat until stiff peaks form. Scrape sides of bowl as you go
1 1/4 c. water
Makes about 75 bags of icing, 30g per bag.
Royal icing 2 – with egg whites
3 egg whites
1 lb powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tarter (optional)
Beat it. Not for pregnant women, immune compromised individuals, etc.
