THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Mom, I'm bored
SOURCE: Sherrie Boyer
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
BUILDING a gingerbread house is like letting your children live in fantasy with Hansel and Gretel for a day. What child wouldn't savor the chance to meld cookie and candy, agonizing over whether to build with or eat each M&M?
This is a marvelous and easy activity - if done in stages. Build it over three days or a week. That way, the dough, the baked bread and you all have a chance to rest.
We mixed dough on Wednesday and baked on Friday. Sunday, we built our foot-high A-frame on foil-covered cardboard. The yard was a field of icing, matted down by piles of M&Ms, courtesy of Maddie. Allio carefully made rose windows with chocolate chips and redhots on squares of gingerbread, which she then glued to the peaks of the house.
``When are we going to start eating?'' Maddie asked as we finished the roof, her cheeks and hands full of candy.
To make our favorite, a honey gingerbread house, mix 1 cup each sugar and shortening with 1 cup plus two tablespoons brown sugar. Add 4 eggs, 3 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon each ginger and cinnamon, 2 teaspoons baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. When mixed, add 6 cups flour. Refrigerate in a sealed container.
Then draw a house pattern on shirt cardboard or manila folders. Put the pattern together with tape to be sure you've made every side.
On the second day (the dough must refrigerate first), roll out a pile of dough between wax paper to less than 1/4 inch thick. Remove one sheet of wax paper. Lay patterns (lightly or they'll stick) and cut. Roll the roof a wee bit thinner. Remove excess dough. Flip ever so carefully onto extremely well-greased cookie sheets. Remove last piece of wax paper. Cut outlines for windows and doors as per pattern, but leave intact. On windows, a vertical line down the middle makes shutters.
Bake at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes. Place pattern on top and trim immediately, working fast because the dough is only soft while warm. If the dough hardens or sticks, cover with a damp cloth and rebake for one minute. Remove the gingerbread from the pan. Remove windows and doors. Let it set at least overnight, up to a week, before building.
To build, you'll need glue - really architectural frosting. Make it fresh on the third day. Combine one box confectioners sugar, 3 egg whites, and 1/2 teaspoon each cream of tartar and vanilla on low speed. Mix 5 to 8 minutes on high speed until soft peaks form with a spoon. Pour immediately into sandwich-size resealable plastic bags. Recipe yields three fairly full bags. To use, snip a tiny hole in a corner and squeeze.
Build the house on cardboard wrapped with foil or plastic wrap over white paper to look like snow. Put the back and one side together first, smearing the bottom edge and adjoining corner of each. You may need canned goods or glasses as support for now. The icing hardens very fast. Add the second side, then the front. Wait.
While you wait, decorate the yard. Use pretzels as a fence, candy canes as lampposts.
Then add the roof. It will slip, so stand a glass or stack of Duplos where the gutters should be and hope for the best. Decorate.
This same process works for a house made from graham crackers and ready-made icing. Use six squares for the sides and roof, and two triangles from one square for the A-frame. Smear the sides of a child's milk carton with icing and slap on the sides. Do the same for the triangles and roof. Pipe icing down the seams and decorate. by CNB