Gingerbread house
| Published: 11th December 2007 09:50 |
A cute sweet treat from the continent is popular in Germany and Scandinavia, let you kids help you make and decorate your own beautiful gingerbread house.
Preparation Time: 25 minutes, plus construction and decoration
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
350g plain flour
100g Butter
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
175g soft brown sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp golden syrup
For construction:
3-4 tbsp Caster sugar
1 tbsp Water
For Decoration:
700g Icing Sugar
3 Egg Whites
1 tsp Glycerine
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Food colouring if required
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190oC/gas mark 5. Lightly grease two baking sheets with butter.
2. Place the flour and butter into the mixing bowl and measure out the spices and bicarbonate of soda and add to the bowl.
3. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until it is like fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar to this mixture.
4. Break the egg into a small bowl add the syrup and beat well with a fork. Mix the flour and egg mixture together by hand until it comes together to form a soft dough.
5. Sprinkle a little flour onto a clean work surface, put the dough onto it.
6. 'Knead' the dough - squeeze the dough together, until it becomes smooth.
7. When the dough is smooth, sprinkle a little more flour onto the surface, split the dough into two balls and roll out one ball of the dough until it is approx 5mm in thickness.
8. Using the template cut out the sides of the house and the roof using a sharp knife.
9. Carefully place the biscuits in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until they are golden brown.
10. Allow to cool completely before moving from the tray, as the biscuit is soft when still hot.
11. Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan until golden and liquid, this is to be used as glue to construct your house. Caution! Molten sugar is very nasty stuff to spill on your skin; do not let children help with this stage. Assemble the base and then the roof of your house.
12. You are now ready to decorate, use writing icing or royal icing in a piping bag.
13. For the royal icing, lightly beat the egg whites, stir in the sifted icing sugar, a little at a time stirring well. Add the lemon juice and glycerine and whisk until smooth. You can adjust the runniness of the icing by adding either a little more icing sugar or a little water, until it's suitable to pipe.
By Emma Allsopp
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