Gingerbread Houses

[Chef Dave]

My culinary arts class spent the last week producing and assembling gingerbread houses. Each student designed a cardboard stencil, made gingerbread dough, rolled the dough out, and cut out the shapes for his or her house. Each student baked the dough, covered a heavy cardboard base with aluminum foil, and used icing dough to assemble the house. Students then used pretzels, candy, cookies, corn chex and other items to decorate their homes. The "yards" were then landscaped with "snow" made with white cake frosting. As a final touch, the roof of each house was dusted with a bit of powdered sugar to create the illusion of a fresh snow fall.

The students did a great job!

After school, they came to the culinary arts lab to collect their treasures. Since their hands were full carrying the gingerbread houses, I walked with them so I could open the school's front door.

As we were walking out, a student who had been in last year's culinary arts class saw the gingerbread houses.

"Wow!" she said. "Those houses are 'the bomb.' They're AWESOME! They even look like they're made of gingerbread."

I was puzzled by the last expression. "What do you mean they look like they're made of gingerbread?"

The student told me that my predecessor had allowed her class to assemble gingerbread houses ... but not having the time or interest to have the students bake real gingerbread, she had her class use cardboard.

My students gleefully announced that the houses were really made of gingerbread.

"Oh," said the student, "You mean your teacher got you some gingerbread graham crackers."

"No," insisted my students. "We actually made the dough, baked it, and built the houses using real gingerbread cookie dough."

The student's mouth dropped open. "You actually MADE THAT?"

The next thing I knew, the culinary arts students were surrounded by several dozen teenagers. Everyone wanted to look at "real gingerbread houses." Several students later told me that next year they plan to sign up for culinary arts. :)

[3rdgradeteach]

Chef Dave...thanks for all those cool recipes and ideas...it was so cool to read and see...I really thought of you this week as our art teacher decided they would make some as well and it was a slight disaster from my prospective.
Our school is private so we have to provide things for our classes if we really want to do something special...and the art class only had enough in the budget to get 2 of the kits....which was just not enough....I thought it was a little ridiculous to say the least, but you know..
So, I never mentioned everything I learned from your posts because it was just to late in the game.......things were already in progress...but next time!!! I will be ready for them....lol.....I appreciate what you did for the kids! They will remember it and YOU forever!

[Chef Dave]

...and the art class only had enough in the budget to get 2 of the kits....which was just not enough....

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

Kits are a waste of money. Although they are convenient, your dollars will go further if you just build your own. Gingerbread houses are really not hard to make.

I understand that most classes don't have access to an oven. When I was an elementary teacher, I had a portable convection oven and my tiny oven would have been woefully insufficient for my entire class.

So with this being said, I would recommend use of gingerbread graham crackers or regular graham crackers.

Your art teacher could solicit contributions from parents.

You would need:

* eggs
* bags of powdered sugar
* small plastic zip lock bags to hold the icing
* large zip lock bags to hold cardboard stencils and cut crackers.
* boxes of gingerbread graham crackers or regular graham crackers
* assorted candies, pretzels, corn chex, cookies etc.

Each kid would also need to bring a sheet of cardboard covered with aluminum foil.

The school will need to supply or borrow a couple of kitchen aid mixers with whip attachments for making the icing. You will need a bottle of cream of tartar. (One bottle will go a long way). Paring knives and cutting boards will be needed to cut the crackers. I would also recommend the use of spatulas to
transfer the icing glue to the zip lock bags, plastic knives to help spread the icing, and one sifter to help sift powdered sugar (see session 4).

How could you make the gingerbread houses?

First Session

The kids could spend one class period designing their houses using graph paper. When I had my culinary arts class design their houses, I limited them to two sheets of graph paper. The entire design had to fit on these two sheets.

I would recommend that your houses be a bit smaller and that the entire design fit on a half sheet. The design would need one side with arched roof support, one "front" of the house, and one half of a roof. Since houses are generally symmetrical, the front of the house could double as a pattern for the back. The same would be true of the side and the roof. Care would also have to be taken to make sure that no single part of the house was bigger than an entire graham cracker.

Once the patterns are made, they should be mounted on cardboard using glue sticks and cut out.

The patterns could then be stored in large zip lock bags until needed. Each bag would be labeled with the student's name.

Second Session

During the second session, the art teacher would model how to use the cardboard stencils to trace and cut the crackers.

The cracker would be placed on a cutting board. The stencil would be gently placed on top of the cracker. The paring knife would be used to cut the cracker. The cracker should be cut with a gentle sawing motion because too much downward thrust will compress the cracker and cause it to break.

The sliced pieces should be carefully stored in the student zip lock bags.

Third Session

If the art teacher and/or parent volunteers made icing cement ahead of time, the glue could be portioned out among several zip lock bags. Remember to seal them because exposure to air will cause the glue to dry and harden.

Icing glue is made by mixing 2 egg whites with 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1/8th of a teaspoon of cream of tartar, and two teaspoons of water.

For this session, students will need cardboard bases covered with aluminum foil. The third session would be used to erect the four walls of the house. Once the walls are up, additional icing should be gently spread inside the house using a plastic knife.

Once the walls are up, I would let the houses sit for fifteen or twenty minutes to give the glue time to harden. If the walls seem sturdy, the roof sections could then be added.

Fourth Session

During this session, students would need additional icing glue to add doors and windows. Doors can be made via vanilla wafers or other rectangular cookies. Windows can be made using a single lifesaver, the top of an Oreo cookie, a pretzel, or nearly anything else.

Candy could then be used to ornament the house.

If time and money permitted, cake icing could cover the aluminum foil to create the illusion of snow. If you do this, be sure to leave at least a 1/2 inch margin around the base support otherwise whoever picks up the base will be getting frosting all over his or her fingers.

As a final touch, "dust" the house using a sifter of powdered sugar to create the illusion of a fresh snow fall.

I would recommend that all gingerbread houses go home the same day they're made to avoid sanitation problems. As tempting as it might be to have these houses on display, the presence of so many gingerbread houses could attract ants and other pests.

In my culinary arts lab, we have bun pan racks that accommodate large sheet pans. The gingerbread houses were stored on sheet pans that were placed on the bun pan rack. The entire rack was then wheeled into the walk-in cooler for safe overnight storage.

http://www.acemart.com/renderImage.image?imageName=graphics/00000001/products/KELBP-RACK.jpg&width=200&height=200&padding=0

Information on how to bake and assemble a gingerbread house may be found in the seasonal board of this forum:
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4765