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     Title: Gingerbread House Construction
Categories: Info, Holiday, Cakes
     Yield: 1 help file

          Gingerbread

 First I made templates out of corrugated cardboard.  Two side
 walls, a front and back wall, two roof sections, two porch roof
 sections, two porch floor sections.  (My gingerbread house is a
 two-story American farmhouse with a corner porch.)

 I prepared and rolled out the dough on baking parchment, then laid
 the cardboard down and cut out the walls.  After the cutouts were
 cut, I removed the cardboard.  I also cut out the windows to leave
 open holes. Before baking, I poured melted sugar into the windows
 to make "glass."

 Then I baked the gingerbread sections. After they were baked, but
 still warm, I put the cardboard back on them to see if they were
 the same size, because cookie dough often spreads a little when it
 bakes.  Sure enough, the pieces needed trimming. So I trimmed them
 with a sharp knife, and Lynnie and I ate the bits we cut off.
 Next, I put all the house parts on racks to cool overnight.

 The next day, the cookie pieces were cooled and dry.  I put the
 walls together with royal icing, propped them up with mason jars
 so they would stand, and left for work. When I came home that
 night, the icing had set and the walls were solid.

 Next I glued the roof and porch floor in place with the icing.
 The roof wanted to slide off the pitch of the walls, so I kept it
 in place with a couple of straight pins (I removed the pins after
 the icing hardened.) Then I left these bits to harden overnight.

 The next morning, I put on the porch roof.  It needed to be
 propped with mason jars, too.  I also put on the porch columns
 (candy canes) to hold the front of the roof up.  When I got back
 from work that night, the house was ready to finish.

 The roof came first: I buttered the roof with a nice thick layer
 of royal icing and shingled it with Necco wafers.  Shingled, mind
 you, over- lapping the the wafers like little slate shingles, not
 putting them edge-to-edge. I did that on both the main roof and
 the porch roof.

 Next, I piped white frosting around the windows and door, for
 molding. I piped red frosting on the windows for the window panes.
 Between the windows I glued little candy wreaths, then piped green
 frosting between them to make holly bunting, and piped red bows to
 "hold it" there. I made the foundation out of sugar cubes, and
 downspouts from candy canes. And I glued various Christmas candies
 all around the house for decoration. When I was all done, I made
 frosting icicles hanging from the eaves.

 From: Dave Sacerdote Date: 16 Dec 96 National Cooking Echo Ä

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