2D Gingerbread Houses
Makes 10 houses and a few tiny gingerbread people
All the joy involved in decorating a gingerbread house can be had more easily when the architecture is two-dimensional! Starting with a good gingerbread cookie dough, houses, large or small, are cut and baked. Plenty of baking fun and creativity are unleashed with a little white icing and chosen candies defining the lines and adorning the cookies. Bake the cookie “canvases” ahead of time and plan a decorating party with your favorite bakers, young or old.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 egg, large
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Icing (see below)
Sprinkles and mini candies for decorating
Directions:
(1) In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light – about 2-3 minutes.
(2) Add the molasses, egg, and vanilla extract to the butter-sugar mixture. Beat until well combined.
(3) In a separate medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. When all the dry ingredients are evenly distributed, add to the butter-sugar mixture a third at a time. The dough will be rather stiff.
(4) Remove the dough from the bowl, divide in half and place each half on a piece of waxed or parchment paper. Flatten into a half-inch disk, cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight. This chilling phase will assist greatly in reducing any stickiness in the dough.
(5) When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Place the house pattern on the dough and cut around it with the tip of a paring knife.
(6) Transfer the cut-out houses to a lined baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges begin to brown and a light finger press in the center bounces back. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool and set on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cooled.
(7) Once the cookies are fully cooled, decorate and embellish your houses with icing and candies.
Piping Icing
Makes about 1.5 cups
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 to 3 tablespoons whole milk
Food coloring (if using multiple colors)
(1) In a medium bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and one tablespoon of milk. Mix together by hand with a wooden spoon or sturdy whisk. (Mixing by hand reduces the production of air bubbles.)
(2) Add additional milk by single teaspoonfuls, mixing to combine after each addition until the desired piping consistency is achieved. Icing with a ribbon* of 8-10 seconds is good for stiff piping lines. When flooding an area with a more fluid icing, a ribbon of about 3-4 seconds is appropriate.
* Ribbons, or ribboning, refers to the pattern of icing that forms when a spoonful of icing is drizzled on to the surface of the icing being mixed. The drizzle forms ribbons that eventually merge into the icing and disappear. The length of time that it takes for the ribbon to disappear is a helpful observation when judging consistencies. |
