Gingerbread House Recipe?????

[sucrechef]

Me and my big mouth.....My boss, the client and I were discussing some holiday decorations and I suggested a Gingerbread Village to be on display from Thanksgiving through the end of the year. They LOVED the idea and now I am trying to find a recipe specifically for Gingerbread structures. I have in the past found that the recipe for cookies will not hold up for display purposes for any decent length of time.
Any ideas????

[cakerookie]

Go here http://home.comcast.net/~frankysattic/index.html theres a lot of good info here considering trying it myself. Also Panini would be a good person to talk to. Also the above link has a forum to ask questions.

Rgds Rook

[AprilB]

There are a lot of recipes for gingerbread that work well for houses. It's not really a bread and not really a cookie. The end result ends up pretty hard as well unless you use a recipe that you need to use a cardboard frame on the inside. (gingerbiscotti?)

I'm going to be looking into the same thing so I'll let you know what I find in the next couple of days.

April

[HotChef]

if it will be a litle 'table 'model, some 50 cm hight, a normal gingerbread recipe will do fine .
when i did a gingebread house it is usually 3-4 m high, more or less like a little garden shed.
the 'carcass' is made from plywoodand the ginger bread sheets glued on with fondant.
for the recipe i increase the flower content by 50 %, the result is a real 'brick' but it will hold up for the whole month.. and in order to have the lobby smelling of gingerbread i also add a lot of nutmeg..
in the end the kids will eat it anyway most of the time we did a 'dismantling' ceremony in the lobby with lots of kids around. and well, they can keep the 'bricks'

[felixe the dog]

Whatever recipe you use, make sure that it has a good long bake, followed by some time in an oven with low heat, to dry it out like a board.
Seal the back ( chocolate, egg wash etc) and finish the structure with food lacquer. This all helps in the life of the house.
Royal icing is fine to stick it together, but boiled sugar or chocolate are quicker setting if you need to assemble it quickly.
It may be a gingerbread house but don't get weighed down in tradition.

[panini]

We raffle a large one off every year. It sits on a 4x8' piece of plywood. The winner will usually donate it back.
We also do many smaller ones for the shop customers. We have basically refined the dough down to a cookie dough that you would use for ginger boys. It's really not that far from a spicy standard cookie dough.
hth

[nowIamone]

Last year about this time I was inspired to build a gingerbread house for a central Christmas decoration.

I used a large cookie sheet for each panel.
It ended up being 3 stories, (or 2 full, plus the attic floor under the gables) it had two wings, a wrap around porch, a bay window, a nut covered fireplace chimney, a reindeer stable across the back. We put a small candle lamp inside so it shined through our hard candy "glass" windows. We built it through the month of November in one corner of the dining room; our regulars checked the progress every time they came in. We finished it with a snow covered yard fenced with yogurt covered pretzels, a skating pond, train & track traveling through a tunnel, decorated trees, sledding hill, etc. Over 50 lbs of powdered sugar before we were done.

It created a lot of attention, was on the front page of the paper.

The biggest problem I had was that it continued to dry out, for weeks. I'd walk by and see a 1/2inch gap traveling up a corner for 2 entire floors, that I had to fill with frosting. The dry cold winter air and the ventilation fans really took it's toll. So, I'd plan my house decor to allow for additional icing on the corners as warranted.