Happy New Year...Gingerbread House!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and here's Wishing you all A Very Happy New Year!! My New Year Resolution is to continue on this new journey of creativity and sharing my food experiences. :)..So What's your New Year Resolution? Please share!!!

Keeping up with the resolution, I am sharing with you my Gingerbread House although too late. Since schools don't reopen for another week, perhaps this could be a good project to beat the Christmas Blues with your kids :)

A year back I was introduced to the wonderful world of decorating Gingerbread Houses. We were visiting Vibes' family on the east coast for Christmas and the all the kids get to decorate their own Gingerbread house. They got me one too and I learnt a thing or two about Royal icing and decorating Gingerbread houses with candies..ooooh how fun!!!!

This year, although not visiting, I decided to continue with the tradition. So off I went to check out gingerbread houses online..so many beautiful houses and images of colorful candies, lovely roofs, pretty pathways..just couldn't decide on one. Now, I am not a candy eater at all, nahh not to worry I compensate all of that with unimaginable amounts of chocolate :P..anyways, bottom line is I didn't want to invest in candies that neither of us will eat, but somehow I really wanted to create something unique..and then Heather's gorgeous Gingerbread House caught my eye..This was absolutely perfect, kind of Gingerbread House for grown-ups like me ;). I absolutely love all the little details that could be incorporated and decided to go down the path of fondant!!

Everything here's fondant. I bought the Wilton ready-to-use fondant available at craft stores like Michaels.

The textured roof shingles and the patterned windows were done with a single toothpick.

I'd really like to Thank the wonderful Youtube videos that helped me create my fondant Snowman and Christmas Tree.
CupcakesandCardio for Snowman
Chef Sam for the Snippety Snip Christmas Tree

Used sugar water and a brush to glue fondant to the house and other fondant accessories.

Cotton balls were used for quick fencing with powdered sugar sifted all over. (Use Marshmallows instead of cotton balls..I didn't have any and it was pouring too heavily to go to the store ;)

I used the exact same template Heather recommends from bbcgoodfood.com, and I did like it a lot. Since, it was my first time assembling a gingerbread house, I can attest it is simple to work with. Get 3 copies of the template, cut them out, place it on the rolled out dough and simply cut with a pizza cutter..Easy breezy!

The Royal icing is also Wilton's ready-to-use mix. Just to construct the house I used about half the package, i.e. 1 cup. Prepare a piping bag with a round tip or you can even use a ziploc bag with 1/4 inch cut in the corner and pipe the royal icing.

These guys made my house a home!!! :)

The template however does miss out on a chimney so I made my own, that in shape of a Santa Hat..Now now whatever makes my inmates happy!!
Thank You Arinamcrrockt for the Santa Hat YouTube video.

See how happy it makes them!

Also, sharing Heather's recipe for the Gingerbread dough. It is a good dough to make a sturdy house, lovely cookies and tastes great, all at the same time..I am surely impressed. Although the cookies did spread out a bit when cooking. For precise house construction, I re-cut the baked shapes while the cookies were hot. Simply place the paper cut-outs on the cookies and re-cut with a pizza cutter. (Be very careful to not burn yourself, I did, not pretty :( ). Obviously, don't have pics, cos I had to work quickly!

Alright, now that all notes and show-off is out the way, let's get to the recipe, shall we? :P

Gingerbread Dough (yields the recommended template + 1 dozen cookies)

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes - Gingerbread Dough

3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
3 teaspoons Ground Ginger (I like packing a good amount of ginger flavor)
1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon  Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 sticks or 1 cup Butter, at room temperature (I almost always use salted butter)
1/2 cup packed + 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons Turbinado Sugar (optional, if you don't have this just substitute with equal amount of brown sugar)
1/2 cup Molasses, not black strap
1 large Egg
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Keep aside.

Using the paddle attachment of a standing mixer or a hand-held one, beat butter in another large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add brown and turbinado sugar; beat for another 2-3 minutes, until fluffy.

Add molasses; beat until fluffy, about 2 more minutes. I spray the inside of the measuring cup with some cooking spray before measuring the molasses. All of it comes right out into the bowl when you are ready to add.

Add egg; beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low; beat in vanilla.

Add all the flour mixture at once and beat only until blended at a low speed. Gather the dough into a ball.

Divide the gathered ball into 2. Wrap them in individual plastic wraps and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. It should be chilled well and firm.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to  ¼-inch thickness. Place gingerbread house templates and cut shapes with a pizza cutter. Or use decorative cookie cutters to cut-out shapes and transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps, roll out dough, and cut more shapes/cookies, repeating until all dough is used.

Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are firm on top and slightly darker around edges, about 8 minutes for smaller shapes and up to 12-14 minutes for larger shapes. Watch them after the 10 minute mark.

Remove them and allow to cool undisturbed for 5 minutes in the sheet pan. Then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Use the Royal icing and start building your house. I used a left over cake board from my husband's birthday cake ;). But I really liked the instructions at Cakewhiz.

Wishing you all A Safe, Happy and Prosperous New Year!!! Happy Gingerbreading!!! :)