Our gingerbread house!!

We have cracked it, we have found a gingerbread recipe which is easy to roll out and is still standing now!!

We used the recipe from the other day ‘gingerbread that you can actually roll out,’ we cut out a triangle, measured one side (not the bottom) and then made a roof using that measurement (height) and we made up the other length.

We then rolled our gingerbread out to about the thickness of a £1 coin, then we cut out two triangles and two rectangles, popped them in the oven for 15 minutes at 180C. We continued to use the rest of the gingerbread cutting out stars, trees and men (should get a woman really!) this dough makes quite a lot.

When the front and sides were baked and cooled, we then decorated them ( I say we, my son was directing!) Be aware that a lot of decorations i.e sprinkles have wheat and milk in them so be extra careful when you are checking them (we checked 10 today before finding the blue/ purple balls.)

We waited until the icing was dry and started construction!! I just used the same icing we used to pipe, but ideally we will need to find a stickier icing, so as to fill in the gap we had left. I also used a nesquik container to hold the structure to give one side time to dry. Then I removed the nesquik container and put the front and other side on.

The best part of making gingerbread is that my little boy gets involved, he usually just decorates one for himself to eat though and then leaves me to the rest.

This was our prototype so that we are ready for Christmas, as with everything, just have fun!!

As a reminder of the recipe..

Ingredients

• 350g gluten free plain flour (plus extra for dusting work surface)
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (ensure this is gluten free)
• 100g dairy free butter (the tub stork contains milk, but we use the block stork)
• 175g dark soft brown sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 egg
• icing sugar
• water
• decorations

Method

1. Mix flour, xantham gum, spices, bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
2. Add the butter in chunks and rub in, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (try and keep your hands cold – otherwise it becomes quite sticky). Add in the sugar and mix so that it is even throughout.
3. Add the golden syrup and egg and mix until the mixture starts to come together. Tip mixture out on to floured work surface and form the dough into a smooth ball.
4. Wrap in clingfilm and then chill for 30 minutes (this is usually when I clean up the kitchen or attend to something else I’m trying to bake at the same time – tempting as it might be do not take it out before.)
5. Take out of the fridge and roll out (make sure work surface has a lot of flour on it, it can stick quite easily and roll dough out to about the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a gingerbread man cutter and cut them out ( I put them straight onto a parchment lined baking sheet – the warmer they get the harder they are to move), then re-roll the dough until you have used it all up.
6. Heat the oven to 160C and bake them for approximately 15 minutes until nicely browned.
7. When cooked put them straight on to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before moving them, they start off soft and as they cool they get harder.
8. When the biscuits have cooled completely, mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a fairly thick icing. We decorate them with gluten free sugar decorations as my little boy does not like sweets, but decorate how you please.
9. ENJOY!