Making memories....one gingerbread house at a time!

It always amazes me how quickly Christmas can sneak up on me. I think that "this year" I will be ready and have everything done and ready for the big day with my family. Well, unfortunately I often forget to factor in that "life" still happens, even during a season of making memories and spending precious time with our loved ones.

For a very long time, I have wanted to make a gingerbread house from scratch and decorate it for the Christmas season. Many a night, I have sat in front of the television watching the shows featuring these edible works of art, the competitions to create them and the various other options on the subject that seem to creep into our living rooms this time of year. That dream was forgotten for a time when I was learning to navigate this world of gluten-free eating.

This year, however, was different. I was presented with a challenge of sorts, to create a gluten-free gingerbread house for a blog. Yes, I am aware that Christmas is only days away, but it is not too late for you to jump in and make some memories with your kids or just have fun creating one on your own as I did. What a fun way to spend an afternoon when the hustle and bustle of Christmas has died down. A fun way to extend the festivities, if you will.

Planning, as with any project, is important when making a gingerbread house. I can tell you, from experience, that things go much smoother if you plan out each step before you dive in. Suffice it to say, I had my challenges in this project, but hopefully my challenges will not be yours as well.

Your first step is to find a good recipe for gingerbread cookies and houses, thankfully you have that part already done for you. I love this recipe, the flavor is perfect and the texture is as close as I think you will find in a traditional gingerbread cookie made with gluten-rich flours.

Now that you have your recipe, finding a house design is the next step. I found some wonderful designs at Bob Vila's web site, but doing a search on the Internet for gingerbread house designs will bring up many more options to fit your desired look.

The recipe for the gingerbread cookies here on Gling will make one of the houses on Bob Vila's site, if you are looking for a bigger project, you may end up having to make more than one batch of dough. If that is the case, I would suggest that you only make one batch at a time. Get as many pieces as you can baked from the first batch before trying to make more. The beauty of these houses is that they can easily be done in steps like this. Having your house pieces totally cooled is important before you begin to assemble your house.

So, you have your recipe and your house plan. Now, print out your house plan and get all of the pieces cut out before you start mixing up your dough. This dough will dry out on you if you are not careful, so having all of your template pieces ready is a must.

Once you have your dough ready to roll out, a good tip, especially when you are making a gingerbread house is to use one quarter inch wooden dowels to help guide you in your rolling. Place the dowels on your work surface with the dough between them. Make sure that they are not any farther apart than your rolling pin is long. You are going to use these dowels to roll your rolling pin over to insure that you do not roll your dough out thinner than that quarter of an inch. This worked beautifully for me, though a bit awkward at first, until I got the hang of it.

Another great tip for this project is to roll your dough out on parchment paper, leaving it on the paper when you cut and also bake your dough. This is a huge headache saver when you go to transfer your dough to the baking sheets. With most houses you are going to be dealing with large pieces of dough that will make up the walls and roof of your house. Keeping them as uniform as possible will help you achieve the desired look.

The cookie dough is a bit on the dry side, but should hold together nicely. Having a wet dough will not work well for this cookie, so resist the urge to add too much water when working the dough. Keeping the dough you are not working with covered with a damp dish towel will help.

Cutting your template pieces is quite easy. I used a steak knife, but you could also use a pizza cutter. Try to get as many of your pieces cut from each portion of dough as you can. This dough seems to dry out easily, so reworking much of the dough is no the best idea. There is no getting around it with big wall pieces and such. If you are going to want to use trees, snowmen or anything else to accent your "yard" try to cut them out with your house walls and such.

Now baking these construction pieces is easy. I have stoneware baking pans that worked wonderfully, but if you have a couple of insulated baking sheets, they will work nicely as well. If you do not have insulated baking sheets, take two regular baking sheets and place a crinkled up piece of aluminum foil that has been mostly flattened between them. This will give your pans a bit of air between them.

Once your cookies are baked, let them cool on a cooling rack for a bit. You will want them to be totally cooled before starting to "build" your house. While they are cooling, you can be deciding on what kind of decorations you want to use on your house and also what your house will be built on. I used a flat piece of stoneware that I had in my cupboard, and covered it with parchment paper. A thick piece of cardboard would work as well, just be careful if you have to move your house. It would be a shame to have all of your hard work fall apart.

To decorate my house, I used red and green candy coated chocolate pieces, peppermint candies, decorating sugar crystals, chocolate kisses and royal icing as the construction adhesive. If you are wanting to avoid using raw egg whites for your icing, there are recipes on line that call for meringue powder, I just opted for the one with egg whites.

Make sure you have all of these items ready to go when you are ready to start assembling your house. Trust me, this will save you a bit of panic when you realize that the peppermint candies are wrapped and you need one "now" and your hands are covered in the "glue" that is royal icing.

Another wonderful tool is a cake decorating piping bag with a small round tip on it. If you do not have one of these, do not go out and buy one. A simple zipper bag will work nicely. Just load your royal icing into your bag and cut off a very small portion of a corner when you are ready to start "piping" your icing. Resist the urge to cut this hole to large until you play with the icing a bit and see how large of an opening you really need. This icing is very sticky and you will have frosting in places you do not want it if you are not careful. Not to worry if you do end up with a finger print or two, they can be covered with a piece of candy or some decorative frosting piping in its place.

Once you are ready to start building your house, find some quart jars or glass drinking glasses to be your extra "hands" if you are working alone. They work beautifully to stand next to your walls when putting them together. It does not take long for the icing to harden, but you will find that having the extra help will relieve a bit of stress when it does not harden as quickly as you want to move forward with your construction process.

You will want to pipe a line of icing on your board for each wall of your house. This will help your house to stay put and not shift when it is moved or even while you are building. Use the icing everywhere you want a joint to stay together. It does not have to be "pretty" when you are constructing, but try not to get too carried away with your icing either. A lot can be covered up with tasty candies, but you will be adding more icing to hold those candies. It will not take you long to find the perfect amount needed to hold your pieces in place.

Have fun with these tasty cookies and houses. I would suggest that you make some cookies to eat if you are not wanting to eat the house right away, or at all. Your kids will thank you. I know mine have asked me every day since I made this gingerbread house if they could eat it yet. I'll have to make a batch of the cookies soon to save my house until at least Christmas afternoon!

If you decide to take on a gingerbread challenge, I do hope you will post a picture of it to our photo section. I would LOVE to see what you create! Have a wonderful Christmas with your families and make some memories with your loved ones!