Gingerbread House - Daring Bakers Make a Home

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

There were 2 recipes provided for this challenge - I chose Y's recipe for the gingerbread and used a simple sugar syrup for assembling.

Preparation Time for Y's Recipe: 5-10 minutes to mix the dough, 2 hours to chill, 5 minutes to roll, 10 to cut and 15 minutes to bake. Estimated 4-7 hours from start to finish including chilling.

Equipment Needed:
Stand or handheld electric mixer (not required but it will make mixing the dough a lot easier and faster)
Plastic wrap
Rolling pin
Parchment paper
Baking sheets
Cardboard cake board or sheet of thick cardboard
Foil, if desired
Small saucepan
Small pastry brush (optional)
Piping bag with small round tip, or paper cornets if you're comfortable with them

Requirements:
1. Everything needs to be edible - no glue or inner non-food supports allowed.
2. You must bake the gingerbread yourself, whichever recipe you choose. No graham cracker houses please!
3. You must use some sort of template. If you don't use ours, take a picture or link to what you do use in your final post. It doesn't have to be super technical - Anna didn't even measure hers, she just cut out shapes from parchment and made sure the edges matched up.
4. Your house must be able to stand on its own. If you want to go adding balconies with candy stick buttresses or whatever go right ahead, but the main house itself must be free-standing.

Variations: You are welcome to use either recipe we tested, depending on your taste or what is available where you are.
Obviously, you are also allowed to use any sort of candy or sugar decorations you wish. You can even make your own candy to decorate the house! You may give your house any theme you'd like - you don't have to stick to the traditional Christmas house. We are providing a rough template but feel free to find or make your own (there are a lot of great books out there with tons of fun blueprints and ideas). Some books you may want to check out:
Gingerbread: Things to Make and Bake by Teresa Layman http://www.amazon.com/Gingerbread-Things-Make-Teresa-Layman/dp/081093367...
How to Build a Gingerbread House: A Step-by-Step Guide to Sweet Results by Christina Banner http://www.amazon.com/Build-Gingerbread-House-Step-Step/dp/0981580610/re...
Gingerbread Houses by Christa Currie http://www.amazon.com/Gingerbread-Houses-Christa-Currie/dp/0385472676/re...
The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes by Susan Matheson and Lauren Chattman http://www.amazon.com/Gingerbread-Architect-Recipes-Blueprints-American/...
Gingerbread Houses: Baking and Building Memories by Nonnie Cargas http://www.amazon.com/Gingerbread-Houses-Baking-Building-Memories/dp/087...


Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

Method:
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.
2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.
3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.
4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]
5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Simple Syrup:
2 cups (400g) sugar
Place in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling and the sugar dissolves. Dredge or brush the edges of the pieces to glue them together. If the syrup crystallizes, remake it.

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

A Roundup of Festive Breads: BBD #15

In the last month of 2008, it was my delight and joy to host Bread Baking Day #15. This is a monthly event for enthusiastic bread bakers who eagerly drop in from across the world to try their hand at a themed bread baking event and share their lovely results with us all. The brain child of Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte, Bread Baking Day is guest hosted every month by one amongst an ever-growing pool of contributors to this event. As the new year 2009 begins, I pass on the baton to Temperence of High on the Hog. Do visit her blog to know the theme of BBD #16!!

The theme for BBD #15 was Festive Breads keeping in mind the many festivals that grace December. I was delighted to see the enthusiasm of my many foodie friends towards this theme and was overjoyed at the response to the event. In total, I received over 30 entries. To do justice to each entry, I have decided to do this round-up in two parts. Part 2 follows shortly. Kindly note that the entries are organised in the order that I received them. Before I proceed I would like to say a big thank you to each and everyone who participated :) December is a busy month and I appreciate your contribution!!

Uma of Essence of Andhra set the entries rolling by baking a colourful Cranberry Bread with Pureed Fruit. Though skeptical about cranberries in the beginning, she combined them with some semi-sweet chocolate chips to get a fragrant loaf. Uma also used a mashed banana in place of eggs for this recipe and was astounded at the beautiful result.

Location: USA

Sweatha of Tasty Curry Leaf sent in two beautiful entries. The first - Clover Leaf Rolls are attractive dinner or breakfast rolls that are prepared on special festival days. The shape of the cloverleaf is believed to represent the Holy Trinity. Though they are traditionally made with Brioche dough, Sweatha used tofu and soy milk as egg substitutes for these pretty rolls.

Festive Julekage is Sweatha's next entry for BBD #15! A Scandinavian Christmas Bread that is popular in Denmark and Norway, Julekage is essentially a spiced sweet bread filled with nuts and candied fruits. Sweatha tried this bread with and without a sugar icing and loved it in both versions!

Location: New Jersey, USA

Lien a busy mum of two young kids still finds the time to bake an Italian Christmas bread annually to share with her Italian class. This year, she decided to go with the Pandoro, a beautiful golden toned bread that comes from the city of Verona. Baking it at the very last minute ensured that the bread was still warm when Lien cut it for her class. Needless to say there was applause and the bread was a big hit. You can find Lien's recipe at her blog Notitie van Lien.

Location: The Netherlands

Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka kochtopf baked a Christstollen this holiday. The recipe comes from Backer Supke, a German baker whose blog she follows. Having successfully attempted a couple of his recipes, Zorra was encouraged to try the Stollen recipe this Christmas. Chock-full of rum-soaked raisins, candied fruits, and flaked almonds, this recipe yields a beautiful sweet festive bread that tastes best after a week!! Don't think I could wait that long!!

Location: Spain

Soma and her family have always celebrated the holidays and the spirit of sharing. Every year they decorate a beautiful tree, get ready for Santa Claus, and Soma bakes some festive goodies. This holiday Soma baked a traditional anise flavoured Greek Christmas Bread or Christopsomo . Read more about the religious significance of this bread and the tasty outcome of Soma's endeavours at ECurry.

Location: Texas, USA

A Fougasse is a flat bread that is typical of the south of France. Priya has creatively combined dry fruits and orange flower water to bake a Chirstmas Dryfruits Fougasse! Priya says this bread is easy to bake and is delicious to boot. Find it at Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes

Location: Paris, France

Boaz from Grain Power tasted Stollen once at a San Diego local farmer's market. Since then, he has had this festive bread on his 'to bake' list. He followed Andrew Whitely's recipe for Stollen from Bread Matters as the recipe allows for whole wheat flour. Boaz filled his bread with dried fruits and home made marzipan and dusted it with some powdered sugar for a stunning result.

Location: Israel

Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms says that potluck dinners are a part and parcel of the holidays. And what better way to pitch in than to prepare healthy, warm, and yeasty dinner rolls. Oats Whole Wheat and Barley Rolls are just perfect for any such occasion. Following a recipe from Marion Cunningham's The Fannie Farmer Baking Book, Elle found that you can easily prepare between 24-30 pull apart dinner rolls in under 15 minutes!

Location: Northern California

Mary prepared the favourite Dresdener Stollen this Christmas. Mary does true justice to this beautiful bread which is studded with raisins, almonds, and peel, and filled with a sweet almond paste. Visit One Perfect Bite for the touching story behind this bread.

Location: Eugene, OR

Aparna tells us about the origin of the Kugelhopf - the favourite festive bread of Europe on her blog My Diverse Kitchen. She baked her Kugelhopf in a bundt pan and glazed it with a delicious orange glaze! Just look at the wonderful colour of the bread!!

Location: Goa, India

A Braided Fruit Challah is the bread of choice for Yasmeen at Health Nut. She served it with home made Cranberry Preserve. What a very festive combination!! And in the spirit of giving this festival season, Yasmeen brings to notice the work of Blogger Aid to raise money for the World Food Programme.

Location: Cleveland, OHIO, USA

More of the seasonal cranberries but this time with crunchy pine nuts and fennel! Susan of Wild Yeast served a Cranberry Semolina Crown with Pine Nuts and Fennel for Christmas dinner. If you love baguettes, you will love this crusty bread, says Susan. You can also save this bread for later as it tastes wonderful toasted with coffee or a smear of goat's cheese.

Location: California, USA

You will find Part 2 of the roundup at BBD #15 Festive Breads: Second Helping :)

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007-2012. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.