How to Construct a Gingerbread House

[Chef Dave]

Part One: Production of the Components of a Gingerbread House

It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I'm sitting in my office waiting for the components of my gingerbread house to bake. I'm in the early stages of constructing an edible Victorian house for sale at a school fund raising activity.

Gingerbread houses are amazingly simple to make. They make wonderful centerpieces for a Christmas dinner and if your class has access to an oven, they're a good activity for elementary students. Why? To produce a gingerbread house, students will have to read and follow sequential directions. They will also have to exercise proper measurement.

Construction begins with just two things ... an architectural plan and some gingerbread dough.

In planning my gingerbread house, I like to use graph paper. Since most houses are basically rectangular prisims, the front and the back of the house will be the same length and width. The sides of the house will also be the same length and width. The roof support on either end of the house is a triangle and the roof itself is made of two rectangles.

I strongly recommend combinging the end of each house with the triangular roof support ... otherwise you will have to use the icing/glue to secure the roof support to the top of a wall ... which is cumbersome.

I cut the graph paper out and use a glue stick to glue it to sheets of cardboard. I then cut the cardboard out and cover them with plastic wrap.

After I have my plan in place, I make the gingerbread dough.

Here is a gingerbread recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter
14 ounces of brown sugar
10 ounces of white sugar
2 tablespons of molasses
48 ounces of bread flour
6 eggs
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon of allspice.

Note: As a chef, I prefer to use weight measurements instead of volume. With the exception of liquid measurements, most food service professionals use a digital scale instead of measuring cups. Why? Think about brown sugar. Is there a difference between brown sugar that's loosely packed and tightly packed? Absolutely. If you use a digital scale it doesn't matter how tightly or loosely packed anything is. The measurement will be a great deal more accurate.

I will also note that I prefer to avoid using all-purpose flour. I use cake flour for cakes and bread flour for cookies, tarts, and pies.

Why?

The quality of all purpose flour varies from batch to batch. When flour mills produce flour, they produce bread flour and cake flour and pastry flour. Whatever they have left is mixed together and becomes "all purpose flour."

The amount of each type of flour that is mixed together literally varies from one production run to another ... so AP flour tends to be unreliable in terms of knowing its gluten content.

The dough is made by mixing everything together using the paddle attachment of a kitchen aid mixer.

I then roll out the dough on a sheet of waxed paper and gently lay one of the cardboard templates on top of the dough. A paring knife is used to trace the outline of the template. The excess dough is pulled away.

This process is repeated with every template in the model.

When I construct a gingerbread house, I like to texture some of my pieces. I typically choose the roof and chimney.

To texture the chimney, I use a round piping tip. I gently dot the chimney (after it's been cut) with the tip to create overlapping circles. The circular patterns look a bit like quarried stones.

To texture the roof, I have a pastry decorating tool that I gently drag across the dough to create the illusion of wooden shingles. If you have a lot of patience, you can do the same thing with a paring knife.

In general, I avoid texturing the frame of the building. The reason is that the baking soda in the dough will cause the dough to slightly rise. This doesn't seem to matter for roofs and chimneys but I don't like the effect on the sides of the house.

Once I've finished cutting out the dough, the dough is transferred to greased pans. The pans are baked in a 325 degree oven until cooked ... about 15 minutes.

Once the dough is baked, the gingerbread has to sit overnight to cool and set.

Since my gingerbread just came out of the oven - this is where I'll stop for today. Tomorrow I'll assemble the gingerbread house and if time permits, I'll add part two to this thread.

http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/new/79-1605.jpg
No ... just in case you are wondering, this is not my gingerbread house. My house is more elaborate and includes a roofed porch, a chimney, a bay window, and a turret.

I found this picture at an interesting website called sugarcraft.com. This site will sell patterns for various gingerbread houses, pre-baked ready to assemble gingerbread houses, edible windows, and various tools. They even sell mini accent lights!

http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/new/new.htm

[mopar]

It would be amazing to make gingerbread houses with students. However, many of us are not lucky enough to have access to an oven. Many kitchens are run by outside companies not by the school. I usually have the students use graham crackers and premade icing instead of making them. The students do a nice job following directions though.
I like the idea of having them plan the house first. It would be neat to see what they come up with.
I guess instead of a school oven, I can always have them make the dough and icing and then cook it at home. Similar to my fraction activities on making cookies.

[Chef Dave]

I guess instead of a school oven, I can always have them make the dough and icing and then cook it at home. Similar to my fraction activities on making cookies.

Be aware that the icing should be used within 8 hours. After that it will become rock hard. I would recommend that any icing that's made should be made in small amounts and used the same day that it's made.

When I was an elementary teacher, I actually had a small portable convection oven that I used in my classroom. I used cooking as a culminating activity for our unit on math measurement. Students were divided into small groups and each group went to the cooking center one day per week.

The recipes were drastically scaled down to avoid waste. Students made (at most) 3-4 cookies per recipe.

The first time I began using this center, I had to bite my tongue to avoid intefering. Two girls were in a quandry over the recipe. The recipe called for 1/4 of a teaspoon of baking soda. One of the girls held up a measuring cup and talked her partner into using it because it was clearly labeled "1/4th."

The cookies looked good. They smelled good. When the girls ate them, they immediately spat them out.

We subsequently had a nice chat about the difference between 1/4 of a teaspoon and 1/4 of a cup. Since the girls were bitterly disappointed over not being able to have any freshly baked cookies, I let them run through the activity again during recess ... and voila - perfect success!

It was also a great learning experience for them. I doubt if either of them will ever again confuse teaspoons and cups.

:)

[Chef Dave]

One of the neat things about being a chef instructor is that I have access to plenty of food. Having finished production of my icing, I am having a lunch of hash browned potatoes, breakfast sausage patties, and scambled eggs.

I wasn't really in the mood for scrambled eggs but the icing recipe calls for egg whites. Unwilling to simply throw the yolks away, I scrambled them with some additonal eggs.

Part 2: Assembly

To assemble your gingerbread house, you will need icing, aluminum foil, heavy cardboard for the base, duct tape, and plastic disposable knives for spreading the icing.

The icing is easy to make:

Mix:

* 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
* 2 egg whites
* 3 sifted cups of powdered sugar
* 2 teaspoons of water

Once the icing is made, seal it into a zip lock bag. The icing needs to stay moist because prolonged contact with the air will cause it prematurely dry and harden.

Icing can be piped from the ziplock bag by cutting a small hole in the corner of the bag.

The nice thing about using a ziplock bag instead of a canvas piping bag is that the plastic bag can be thrown away. The canvas bag has to be cleaned ... and dried icing is a pain to clean.

You will also need a heavy base for the gingerbread house. I recommend using heavy cardboard. If you check with the school cafeteria ahead of time, they should be able to save heavy cardboard boxes for you. Cut the carboard into the size base you will need and cover it with alumnium foil. Secure the underside with duct tape to hold the foil in place.

Assemble by starting with a wall. Identify where you want the wall to go. Pipe icing in a straight line and place the wall on the icing. Have a student hold the wall in place while you pipe another line of icing. Add the second wall and gently apply icing to the corner intersection of both walls. Use a plastic knife to spread the icing.

Continue this process until you have all four walls up.

If you formed the end walls with triangular roof supports, assembly of the roof is easy. Simply pipe icing onto the top of each wall and roof support. Gently press the roof into place on either side. Apply additional roof along the top seam between the two roofs.

Allow the icing to dry before you begin applying candy accent/decorations, doors, and windows ... which will be the subject of "part three."

[Boxcar]

I love gingerbread houses. You can be so creative in decorating them!

Making decorated cookies is also fun and easier for those under 5.

[Chef Dave]

Part Three: Decorating a Gingerbread House

This is the simplest and to some extent, the most fun part of assembling a gingerbread house. Different people have different takes on this. Some like to cover their houses with candy. Others try to use candy and other food items to create "realistic" edible model houses.

http://www.forkandbottle.com/Kids/images/gingerbread/xmas_ginger05.gif
This is an example of a candy covered gingerbread house.

http://members.nuvox.net/~zt.proicer/cakepict/gb/house2.gif
Here is an elaborate example of an edible Victorian style house.

I typically use pieces of licorice to highlight the eaves and corners. I sculpt doors and windows from shortbread or gingerbread. Using the tip of a paring knife, I score the surface of each cookie prior to baking to create a "wooden effect."

All windows and doors are hung up using the icing cement. I usually place a bottle of herbs or spices temporarily under each window to support it as it dries.

Be creative! Pretzel sticks can become wooden flooring for the porch. Cereal can be used as shingles. Round bon bons or chocolate covered nuts can be used as ornamental tops for railings. Use the gingerbread icing glue to cement everything into place.

If you have a pastry piping bag, some decorator tips, and some food coloring, color some vanilla frosting and pipe decorations onto your house.

When decorating a house, I like to look at pictures of real life Victorian "gingerbread" houses for inspirational ideas. It should be noted that "gingerbread" was not an actual architectural style like Queen Anne, Gothic Revival, and Italianate. The term "gingerbread" applied to any particularly colorful and ornately decorated house.

http://users.rcn.com/scndempr/dave/bedbreak/east/Geor01.jpg

Once the house has been decorated, I "landscape" the yard. The aluminum foil that covers the cardboard base under the gingerbread house is covered with vanilla cream cake frosting to simulate snow. Dabs of icing are also placed on the roof, porch rails, tops of shutters, and doorways to create the illusion of a fresh snowfall. Noticed that the first two pictures in this thread feature gingerbread houses on white "snow covered" bases.

"Pine trees" can add a nice touch of color to the landscape. I like making my trees using a star cut out pattern for sugar cookies. If you have various size star patterns, you can stack cookies from biggest to smallest - cemented together with icing to create a "tree."

The assembled trees can simply be placed in the icing.

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/recipe_cookies_pics/pistachio_cookie_tree.jpg

Once you have finished decorating your house and landscaped the front yard, dust the house with powdered sugar to add to the illusion of a fresh snowfall.

[Chef Dave]

Here are some additional gingerbread house designs.

http://www.dunstable-ma.gov/images/gingerbread-houses/meredith-knight-elmhaven.gif
This particular architectural style is known as "Colonial Revival." It looks remarkably like my old bed and breakfast back in Pennsylvania which was built in 1873.

If you look closely, you will notice that the entire house has been covered with frosting. The illusion of wooden siding was creating by scoring the icing. Decorative flowers were made using a piping bag. The flowerbeds are actually pieces of gingerbread that were glued to the walls prior to frosting the side of the house. The shingles on the roof are round chocolate mints.

http://albums.mouseplanet.com/WDWGrandFloridianProcessed/15_Gingerbread_House.jpg
This lavish 16 foot tall gingerbread mansion was created by Disney chefs for display at one of their resort hotels.

http://www.geschenkkorb.at/shop2/images/leb-haus-01.jpg
This is a very simplistic gingerbread house. Give special notice to the front of the house. Do you see how the roof support was made as part of the front section? It's a lot easier to put a roof up if the roof support is part of the front wall instead of trying to balance a triangular piece on top of a wall.

http://www.michellescakes.net/misc_gingerbread.bmp
This particular model was built on a round cardboard cake base. You may buy cardboard rounds on-line. You may also purchase them from a culinary crafts store.

[Chef Dave]

http://www.byerschoice.com/PublicCatalogImages/Items/599.jpg
The theme of this house is "cookies and whipped cream." Oreo cookies were used as ornaments and a chocolate graham cookie was used for the front door. The whipped cream is actually vanilla icing that was applied using a pastry bag.

http://www.texascooking.com/gif/new/gingerhouse.jpg
This gingerbread house features candy cane columns, cookie shingles, and red licorice accents. I suspect that the trees are cone shaped pieces of baked gingerbread covered with dark green frosting.

http://www.notmartha.org/images/other/2006dec/gingerbread/litup.jpg
A chef designed this gingerbread high rise for a display in Seattle. The windows are made of dried gelatin and a low voltage light was built inside the high rise.

http://www.inman.com/blogger/uploaded_images/gingerbread-760023.jpg
I thought this gingerbread house was an interesting change of pace. It's a gingerbread doll house.

[Boxcar]

Those are some amazing houses!!!

[teach1027]

These are amazing. When do you find time to do this with your students?

[leafy seadragon]

Thanks Dave, I have always wanted to do this with my own kids for christmas because I love the look of them. I think I will give it a go this year. School here finishes quite late 21/12/07 this Year! but we might pull it off. I usually find the rum truffles, chocolate shortbread and pudding kill me but You've given me enthusiasm. I'll give it a go.

[Chef Dave]

These are amazing. When do you find time to do this with your students?

I am a chef instructor. It is my job to teach culinary arts.

Construction of a gingerbread house will take a minimum of five class periods. I had my beginning students prep lunch earlier in the week so my 4th period advanced students would be free to design cardboard templates for their houses. I cooked lunch.

On Monday our student restaurant will be closed for lunch. Advanced students will have two periods to produce and bake the components for their gingerbread houses. Extra dough will be consolidated and made into gingerbread men for sale with our Christmas cookie platters.

On Tuesday, I will again have beginning culinary students prep for lunch. Advanced students will spend one period assembling their houses.

On Wednesday, beginning culinary students will again assist us by prepping lunch. Advanced students will decorate their houses.

It's all a matter of scheduling and timing which is another skill that's emphasized in culinary arts.

Culinary arts should not be confused with home economics which is a defunct program in Arizona. We are not Betty Crocker cooks. The students I work with are being trained for employment as line cooks or bakers in the professional food service industry. Many who aspire to be chefs will leave high school to enter culinary school.

[3rdgradeteach]

This is soooo cool....all I have ever done is the kit ones....but I think these would even taste a WHOLE lot better! Thanks Chef Dave for all that information! I really enjoyed looking at the different achievements. They are something else. How awesome!

[3rdgradeteach]

I really want to try and make your gingerbread. My husband really loves it and I have wanted to try another recipe for it. What is your opinion of the way yours tastes? Or maybe you have never tasted it. It's hard not to. lol

[Chef Dave]

What is your opinion of the way yours tastes?

I like our gingerbread recipe ... which may be found at the beginning of this thread. It's quite tasty and because we don't skimp on the quality of our ingredients, I think our product is better than the average store bought gingerbread.

For example, our recipe uses butter. A typical store bought piece of gingerbread would use shortening. Shortening is cheaper than butter but has much less flavor.

I should also point out that freshness is a factor. The
longer you keep a gingerbread house, the less tasty it will be. Gingerbread is after all, an organic product. If it isn't eaten within a couple of weeks, it will start to lose flavor and get stale.

[clairbear111]

For my kindergarten students we cover milk cartons with graham crackers and icing to make the base for the house. It's a much more simplified version and easy for the students to make and decorate.

[dsmms]

I love making gingerbread houses. Of course, mine do not look anything like the pictures Chef Dave posted above. Those are beautiful. My daughters made gingerbread houses in kindergarten by gluing grahm crackers onto an 8oz milk carton with royal icing, and then decorating them with candy donated to the class by the parents. They loved it and still remember it fondly. My oldest is a junior in HS this year. It really started a tradition in our family. We make gingerbread houses every year now. We have even progressed to baking the gingerbread ourselves.

[Ebeth]

Sounds like a neat idea, I could even incorporate Math into their building process (like area and perimeter, multiplication, combinations). Cool!