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.

In the Daring Baker Hosts’ words:

“Anna: The recipe I tested is from Good Housekeeping – I chose it because it was simple and required only ingredients I personally always have in my kitchen. Plus, it was so funky I HAD to try it, and luckily that worked out. I made my house around Halloween and decided to take advantage of the spooky goodies I could only get at that time of year.”

“Y: I tested a Scandinavian recipe from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book. I chose a Beatrice Ojakangas’ recipe because I love her book, and usually have great success with her recipes. I was also attracted to the ingredients she had in her gingerbread. If you’re using this recipe, please be aware that in general, gingerbread for houses is usually designed less for taste and more for its ability to be sturdy and long lasting.”

To see photos and get tips and notes on baking a gingerbread house, and to see our requirements for this challenge, visit TheDaringKitchen.com.

This was quite the fun project! I used the recipe Anna tested from Good Housekeeping. It called for 9 ½ (yes 9) cups of flour. That tipped me off that I was making a lot of dough, but didn’t know how much until it was too late. For the future, if you are planning to make a smaller house, you are probably safe to half that recipe. I made one small house and millions of cookies afterwards.

When I first brainstormed ideas for what type of house to build, I did in fact consider creating a Twilight-inspired design(you can read my Twilight-obsessed post here). After searching on the Web did I find out that someone out there already created one (scroll down towards the end)! For reals? Yes! So of course I couldn’t repeat it. Not only that, I don’t really have the skills to do it anyway.

I settled on a simple template that I found on Gingerbreadbydesign.com. It was the “Elf House Template” and featured a steep roof and cute chimney and seemed something I could tackle. While some fellow bakers reported shrinkage with these recipes, I experienced the opposite. My chimney grew so large after baking that I was unable to use it. It was nearly as tall as the house and I waiting too long to try to trim the pieces (once the baked cookie cools, you can’t trim without breaking the entire piece).

No worries. I kept the decoration simple. Spice drops, candy canes and some sprinkles I had from last year’s cookie extravaganza were the main décor. I also used the smaller cookies that I baked as decoration as well (note the snowflake on the house as well as the stars on the roof). In addition to the Christmas trees outside, I also had a little Gingerbread family: Dad, Mom and little girl. Unfortunately I ran out of space and time and so ultimately ate them!

As the glue to keep everything together I used the “Ornamental Frosting” recipe from Good Housekeeping. It was a standard confectioner’s sugar + water + egg powder concoction that tasted terrible. Worse yet, the second batch I made was not as gluey as my first batch, which would come back to bite me in the butt later on. When I made a third batch of frosting, to frost the cookies I eventually took to work (did I mention I made a gazillion cookies with my leftover dough?), I added butter and vanilla and it was much much better.

I finished this “masterpiece” at around eleven at night. I would have preferred to wait until daylight to take a better picture. However, by the next day my roof had toppled over (shoddy craftsmanship?? by the Chinese?? Oh no!).  I was relieved that I thought to take pics that evening. But as a result the lighting is a bit much and the white coconut snow you see there is hidden behind the glare of the lights and aluminum foil I placed everything on.

As I usually am when I first read what the Daring Baker Challenge is going to be, I was a little bit intimidated by the thought of making a house from scratch. But, as usual, I had nothing to fear. The dough was a cinch to make, and I have visions of turning this into a new tradition at my home. By next Christmas I think little Lily will be old enough to help decorate her own little house and we can build our own little village!

Plus, this was far fancier than the graham cracker shack I made at my sister’s a few years ago:

Anna’s Recipe (via Good Housekeeping)

2 1/2 cups (500g) packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups (360mL) heavy cream or whipping cream
1 1/4 cups (425g) molasses
9 1/2 cups (1663g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon(s) baking soda
1 tablespoon(s) ground ginger

1. In very large bowl, with wire whisk (or with an electric mixer), beat brown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and ginger. With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.

2. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; flatten each into a disk to speed chilling. Wrap each disk well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.

3. Grease and flour large cookie sheets (17-inch by 14-inch/43x36cm)

4. Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time on each cookie sheet to about 3/16-inch thickness. (Placing 3/16-inch dowels or rulers on either side of dough to use as a guide will help roll dough to uniform thickness.)

5. Trim excess dough from cookie sheet; wrap and reserve in refrigerator. Chill rolled dough on cookie sheet in refrigerator or freezer at least 10 minutes or until firm enough to cut easily.

6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (149C)

7. Use chilled rolled dough, floured poster board patterns, and sharp paring knife to cut all house pieces on cookie sheet, making sure to leave at least 1 1/4 inches between pieces because dough will expand slightly during baking. Wrap and reserve trimmings in refrigerator. Combine and use trimmings as necessary to complete house and other decorative pieces. Cut and bake large pieces and small pieces separately.

8. Chill for 10 minutes before baking if the dough seems really soft after you cut it. This will discourage too much spreading/warping of the shapes you cut.

9. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until pieces are firm to the touch. Do not overbake; pieces will be too crisp to trim to proper size.

Ornamental Frosting (via Good Housekeeping)

1 package(s) (16-ounce) confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoon(s) meringue powder, (see note below)
Assorted food colorings (optional)
1) In bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, and 1/3 cup warm water until blended and mixture is so stiff that knife drawn through it leaves a clean-cut path, about 5 minutes.

2) If you like, tint frosting with food colorings as desired; keep covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying out. With small spatula, artist’s paintbrushes, or decorating bags with small writing tips, decorate cookies with frosting. (You may need to thin frosting with a little warm water to obtain the right spreading or piping consistency.)

Merry Christmas!