Daring Bakers Challenge: December 2009

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.

Seeing as Anna's recipe called for molasses, which I'm not even sure what it is, though a very quick (and by a very quick I mean a three-seconds) google told me it had something to do with both sugar and horses, I decided to go with Y's recipe (plus, I'm swedish, so not choosing it would've almost been a sacrilege, although I suppose altering the recipe could be considered that as well. You see, after having read a very wise post made by MandyM in the DB forum, I decided to reduce the amount of flour from 825 to 625 grams and it worked wonderfully - the dough did not turn out dry, nor did it shrink (with the exception of the first batch in the oven -but I'm certain that one only shrank because I'd forgotten to change the oven mode from the "quick heating" mode as the second one did not shrink at all)

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas http://astore.amazon.com/thedarkit-20/detail/0816634963

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] - I used 625

Templates (nice and greasy, eh?), Decorated walls, Gingerbread... It's like christmas in a box, without a box. The sugar windows were made by melting a cup of a sugar and pouring it in the cut out windows, then allowing it to cool. Piece of cake.

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.

I got my template from milda.se, you can download a pdf file with it HERE

Royal Icing:
1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

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.

I wish I had an intriguing story to tell about the process, especially seeing as this was my first Daring Baker's challenge, but I don't. In fact, the most exciting part of it was burning my finger on melted sugar and ending up with a rather cool looking blister. I wish I'd taken a picture of it, it was that awesome.