Construct a well-built house for the holidays

BY MARIA NOEL GROVES | FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • Published December 03, 2008

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Unless you have a culinary degree, an incredibly steady hand and a few months to spare, you probably wontt be able to recreate those breathtaking gingerbread houses that dazzle from bakeshop windows.

The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be on your way to a merrier Christmas.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up on your gingerbread dreams. The trick is that instead of trying to create an architectural wonder, focus on creating lasting memories. In other words, just have fun.

“It’s one of those Hallmark moments, almost corny at times. This is what childhood is supposed to be about,” says Marc Haymon, a baking instructor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

So here’s some tips from the experts on making a memorable gingerbread house.

Templates

Plan, measure and create templates first. Cut the templates out of cardboard, then check that they fit together. Once your dough is rolled, you will use these template and a sharp knife to cut the sections of your house.

If the cookies spread during cooking, the templates also can be used to trim them as soon as they come out of the oven.

This also is the time to design windows, doors or other features, which must be cut out of the dough before it is baked. But beginners really should stick with a simple, four-wall, one-door, two-or-threewindow design.

If you’re stumped for design ideas, check out “How to Build a Gingerbread House” by Christina Banner or “The Gingerbread Architect” by Susan Matheson and Lauren Chattman.

Dough

Use a gingerbread recipe intended for houses; others don’t produce cookies that are strong enough. Once the dough is mixed, it is refrigerated before it is cut and shaped, then baked. The dough can be refrigerated for a week or frozen for a month.

Matheson and Chattman suggest rolling the dough onto parchment paper, cutting it on the parchment, then removing the scraps and transferring the dough (still on the paper) to baking sheets and baking.

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