Have you ever made a gingerbread house? The tradition of making and decorating gingerbread houses began in Germany in the early 1800s, supposedly popularised by the not-so-Christmassy fairytale of Hansel & Gretel. In the story, the Hansel and Gretel approach a witch's house, made of bread, roofed with cakes and the windows made of sugar.... I won't spoil it by going on..
These days, many families make a December afternoon out of getting together in the kitchen to create a yummy house, just for fun. Why not gather your troupes and get baking too - Lauren and the kids can show you how.
For houses, you need:
1.25kg (7 cups) flour
1 tspn salt
1 tspn baking soda
1 1/2 tbspn ground ginger (or 1 tbspn finely grated fresh)
2 tspns ground cinnamon
2 tspns ground nutmeg
400g unsalted butter
320g ginger honey
1 whole egg
4 eggyolks
Royal icing:250g icing sugar
1
eggwhite
1/2 tspn fresh
lemonjuice
To make:
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees C (325 F)
- Sift flour, salt, baking soda and spices together in a large bowl
- Put the butter, sugar and ginger honey in a large bowl and mix with hand-held electric beaters on medium speed until pale and creamy
- Add the egg and egg yolks in a slow stream and mix until well combined
- Add the dry ingredients, in three batched, until thoroughly mixed through.
- Divide the dough into four even-sized portions and flatten each portion into a disc. Cover in beeswax or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, or for up to 3 days
- When ready to construct, remove from the fridge and allow dough to soften slightly
- Roll out each disc between 2 sheets of beeswax paper until about 3mm thick
- Cut into desired shapes using knife
- Re-roll to make use of all the dough
- Place the shapes on baking trays and bake, in batches for 15-20 minutes, or until slightly puffed and golden
- Allow to cool on the trays, meanwhile, make the icing!
- Sift the icing sugar through a fine sieve
- Place the egg whites in a bowl and add 1 tbspn of the icing sugar, using a wooden spoon, beat to form a smooth paste, then keep adding the sugar, 1 tbspn at a time, beating well after each addition
- Stir in the lemon juice
- Place icing in a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle and get crazy with your decorating!
- Assemble house, use icing as glue to hold together
