Recipe: Gingerbread

Long time since I've written up a recipe, but Christmas is calling, and how can you not make any food for Christmas?!?!? It's the most important part (jokes). Now I'd just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a joyous 2015. May you have fun bringing this recipe to life and with all your other endeavours in life. Love Tash xx.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (you can also add nutmeg if you like)
• 1/2 cup brown/raw sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses/golden syrup
• 125g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tbsp water

Method:

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, syrup, spices and baking soda until smoother and lighter in colour.
2. Gradually add in the flour and water, mixing until well combined.
3. Knead the dough a bit, until stiff and comes away from the edges of the bowl. Cover in cling wrap and place in fridge to chill for at least 30mins or until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 180c.
5. Lay out a large piece of baking paper on the kitchen bench. Roll the dough out to about 5mm thick. (you can do this in batches for smaller working spaces)
6. For gingerbread men/women, use your cookie cutters to cut them out, place on a flat baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake for about 15 minutes or until firm.

Gingerbread House Construction:

1. Now if you are looking to put in the effort to make a gingerbread house, you must first cut out the templates. Using either paper or cardboard but out the following measurements: 9x15cm rectangle for the front and back wall, 9x17cm rectangle for the 2 roofs, 9cm wide x 9cm high with a slant to a 17cm high centre point (aka. a square and triangle) for the other 2 sides of the house. Optional: for the front door area, 3x4.5cm rectangles for the 2 roofs and 2 side walls, and a 6cm wide x 4.5cm high with a slant to a 7.5cm high centre point for the front doorway.
2. Place these templates on the dough and with a sharp knife, cut out the shapes from the rolled out dough.
3. Again, place on a lined baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until firm.
4. Remove from oven and leave to cool while preparing the icing (recipe below).
5. After the pieces are cooled, start by decorating the pieces with icing as you wish and leave to dry.
6. Then it's time to start building the house. Place some of the white icing in a piping bag with a medium size nozzle
7. Squeeze the icing along the edges of the wall pieces and press them together, use cans or other heavy items to prop up the walls until the icing dries (usually a few minutes)
8. When dry, attach the roofs to each other and the sides of the walls in the same manner. Again prop them up so they don't slide down.
9. Last but not least, time for the front entrance, firstly attach the 3 walls again, and when dry attach the roofs.
10. While you leave this to dry, attach any final decorations e.g. candy canes, gum drops etc.
11. Finally when all pieces are dry, go over all the joints with the star nozzle pipe or whatever design you prefer, just to pretty them up.

Royal Icing:

1. You will need 4 cups of icing sugar, 2 egg whites and 1 tsp of essence of your choosing or lemon juice.
2. Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Sift the icing sugar in if lumpy (I recommend using a normal sieve as the sugar almost broke my mechanical sifter).
3. Using an electric beater, beat until smooth and glossy with soft peaks. If the mixture is too runny, just add more sugar, that's what I had to do, because there is nothing worse having icing running down the sides of your beautiful house.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gingerbread-house-recipe.html