Gingerbread Yup that time of the year again

Hi there rchrisitan56,

Boy, am I glad I quit making them!
Wait a minute, that wasn't very helpful...

Just yesterday I posted a photo of the Gingerbread Chateau I had to make every year.
They were about half the size you are looking to make.

After the first four years of experimentation with good tasting gingerbread I finally ended up making something more akin to molasses and ginger dead dough! Not quite, but it certainley wasn't a great eat! Basically you have to reduce the sugar and the shortening. I just moved and don't have a clue where "the recipe" is. Sorry... :cry:

I see you are in Florida and humidity is your worst enemy. Flour and sugar are hydroscopic to a great degree when you take into account the length of time they will be exposed to just the air in the room. Even as crisp as you can make it, as time moves along (I don't think you are waiting until the night before the event to start!) the structure will absorb moistue and that will affect your structural integrity.

There are certain cheats you can do to help keep it up though and what I always ended up doing was slow baking 1 1/2" square "beams" to assist in the structure. I really went off the deep end and made V shaped, Alum. foil molds to hold them in shape, at least for the corner supports. Bake for color, and then dehydrate them.

LOTS of Royal icing too! I used some poured sugar and a little pastillage on mine.

Since you said centerpiece and not house, I am thinking you are going wild on this. Good for you! :smiles::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy:

Thicker for the supports and real thin for whatever else you have in mind.


I don't even know why I am in here though since I am no Pastry Chef!

Until then, I hope this old Army cook has given some food for thought.

Good luck my friend!

I would like to see how it turns out!

TAKE A PHOTO or tell someone else to!

my gingerbread house i made today

collapsed and smashed in to bits on the floor today
i was not a happy chicky

it was my first time making one , it took me 4 hours to stick the candy and ice it and i was so peeved when it smashed in to bits

do you have to let the sides dry properly with the royal icing glue before you put the roof on ......

any other tips anybody wants to share

Oh tessa, I am very sorry to hear about your problems. :(

When I was making them I usaully did it over a 6-8 day period. (See my photo and you will understand. I still had the cooking to do, eh!)

My primary and key processes ended up in the following order-

• Make all my templates out of parchment first
• Make multiple batchs of the ginger bread and then blend the different batches to ensure uniformity.
• Main walls and big pieces get made first and allowed to dry.
• Giant batch of Royal icing, with extra meringue powder

I used a 1" base of plywood for moving the beast when it was done, so that needs to be prepped. I would just smear it with Royal icing and use a ribbon around the edges.

While the Royal icing base is still wet, I would place the 4 walls and put the "beams" into the corners with a generous amount of icing. (For beams, see above) Then let it set overnight, at least.

Until the walls are stable, don't proceed. Only a really small house can be done in one sitting. (Yeah, I know, big help NOW!:o)

Actually, to make the walls a bit more sturdy, do some "stained glass windows". When doing the prep for your walls, cut out whatever shape window you want as the candy will melt to fill any shape of the space. Circles, Triangles, freeform, etc.

Break some pieces of hard candies and use them to fill the windows during the last 2-3 minutes of baking. Otherwise they will discolor and turn into caramel.

Hint- After the gingerbread has been in the oven for about 10 minutes, remove and trim the interior of the windows because the dough will spread a little.

You do want to have the pieces small so they will melt quickly. Try to design the color pattern though, because just putting in a handful of small pieces ends up looking like mud.

Only after the whole structure is dried and sound should you proceed to decorating.

When you make a Gingerbread house, think of it more like bridge construction or furniture making and not so much about a baked good or confection.

It is late here and i need some sleep. I will post more tomorrow...

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your advice , your wonderful

i think maybe i should have assemebled it all over a few days

I have so much on at the moment , i have 15 christmas cakes to ice by monday, 12 dozen cookies, 12 dozen candies, fruit mince tarts to bake, finish the christmas shopping and wrap all the pressies, find time to earn money as in work , and clean and pack up two houses ready to move just after christmas

so i think i will attempt another gingerbread house once we have moved in to the new place and have settled in to being back at school in january

Re:

look online for recipes called Pfefferkuchen it is the recipe for houses that I use. holds up to big sized houses and wierd shapes, like some of the ones I've done. in the photo gallery.