So, I was pretty excited about this challenge.  When I really started to think about it, I got a little sad.  I had no one to help me!  No one to stay up til 2 am with, piping icing on gingerbread cars to put in the gingerbread carport.  No one to spend hours with, piping icicles on the eaves. To make things even more difficult, we’re going out of town for the holidays so no one is really going to see it.  My great excitement for my gingerbread house was dwindling.

Despite my negativity toward this challenge, I was determined to complete it.  I am glad I did, because I ended up having a fun time despite the fact that my house looks like a bunch of 3-year olds decorated it for me.  Merry Christmas!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I used the gingerbread recipe from Good Housekeeping.  I have made gingerbread for a gingerbread house before, and never had such a hard time with the dough.  Your dough needs to be sturdier than gingerbread you would use for cookies.  This dough was so dry and crumbly that I almost gave up on the house altogether.  I ended up being able to roll it out and cut it into the shapes for the house, but it took a lot of time, patience and self-control not to throw the gingerbread on the floor and give up.

I made royal icing as the glue to hold the house together.  You can buy meringue powder to make this, but using egg whites is easy and much less expensive.  Here is the recipe I used.  It hardens up very well, and pipes easily from a pastry bag or zip-loc.

Royal Icing

• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, peppermint or any flavor extract

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs whites and cream of tartar until foamy.
2. With mixer running on low, add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time.
3. Beat on medium speed until stiff and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
4. You can add food coloring if desired.  If not, place icing in pastry bag and pipe onto gingerbread.

After making the icing, it was time to assemble my lovely gingerbread house.  I open the container where I stored my walls and roof pieces to discover that one wall had cracked into two pieces.

Thankfully, the pieces were not shattered, just split down the middle.  But again, I considered giving up.  I figured that I would try to put it together first and then abandon the project if things started to head downhill.  It was a Christmas miracle!  I managed to put the house pieces together and you could barely see the crack.  Lovely.

I put cans of food inside the house and on the outer walls for support.  I let this phase of construction set up for a few hours before attaching the roof pieces.  Since I am always thinking and never make mistakes (ha!) I left a can of food inside the house when I attached the roof, so the only resident of this house is a can of pickled jalapeños.  It was pretty funny to both Ben and me.

Now, we decorate!  I bought a bunch of different candies, and proceeded from here without a plan.

I started with a Cinnamon Toast Crunch roof.  So cute!  Little sugary shingles.

Then I make a walkway with peppermint patties.

I lined the front of the house with gum drops, and attached candy cane pillars.

I made the log pile out of Oreo cookie sticks.  Tootsie rolls work well for a log pile also.

I am proud of this tree.  I think it is adorable.  I cut a few things out with the leftover gingerbread dough, including this little tree and my little gingerbread man.  I used green gumdrops and green Jujyfruits along with one single yellow gumdrop as the star for my tree.  I like the contrasting textures and slightly different greens.

A candy rock wall.

Good n’ Plentys serve as the bricks for this wall.

The back of the house is embarrassing!  What was I thinking?  Maybe I just wanted to finish the house?  I do not know, but it is not exactly a work of art.  Hershey bars and Jujyfruits.  I’m sure someone could’ve done something incredible with these candies, but I could not.

This wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had making a gingerbread house, but I had a good time.  This is something that I hope to do every year.  Next time, I will recruit some friends to help me.

I had a fun time decorating and getting everything ready for the party.  I think I could be very happy as a party planner.  Aside from the tiny breakdown I had on the living room floor when I had yet to take a shower, still had more things to prep and set up, and it was only an hour till the party started, I did an OK job!  Well, if you want the real story, ask Ben.  Or just let me know and I will fill you in on all the nitty gritty details that made my day so horrifically hilarious.

Along with the cookies, we had veggies and a creamy dill dip, crackers and cheese.  To drink I made apple cider and got a Starbucks traveler coffee box, which I highly recommend when you have other things to do for a party, and making coffee isn’t something you want to spend time doing.  Ben bought some very nice carafes to store the coffee, and I am so glad.  I think they will come in handy in my future as a hostess.

I read quite a few online articles, and a few in magazines about hosting the “perfect” cookie exchange.  I had no idea that there were so many ways to swap cookies!  Here is what I did, and it seemed to work.

1. Who? What? When? Decide who you want to invite and when to have your party.  I invited 10 people and had the party on Saturday afternoon at 3pm.
2. Invites Order or make invitations.  I got mine at tinyprints.com
3. Give Guests the Details Include instructions for the exchange with the invitation.  You have some options when it comes to how many cookies you will have guests make.  Some exchanges have guests make a dozen cookies for each person and a dozen to share.  This seemed a bit much to me, so I told everyone to make 4 dozen; 1 dozen to share and 3 dozen to exchange.  This was a good amount for our group of 7.  It really depends on how many people you invite, how many cookies you want people to go home with, and how much you want to bake.  It’s up to you.
4. RSVP Make sure to get an RSVP from your guests so you know how much food, packaging, etc. you will need.  I asked people to tell me the kind of cookies they would be making so that we didn’t end up with any duplicates.
5. Decorate I didn’t do much more than what I already had up for Christmas; our tree, my marshmallow wreath and my other blue and silver decorations.  Again, it’s a personal preference, but make it at least a bit festive.
6. Food and Drink A Christmas party calls for apple cider.  I made mine in the crock pot, and it made my house smell wonderful.  I also served coffee.  Since it was a late afternoon party there was no need for tons of food, but it is good to have some salty to offset the sweet.  The fresh veggies, dip, cheese and crackers were had were good choices for the party.
7. Cookie Table Have enough trays and serving pieces for people to display their cookies.  I also had people make labels for their cookies so we would know who brought what.
8. Wrapping Table Have a place where people can put their exchange cookies.  This is also where I had boxes, bags and parchment for people to package their cookies to bring home.

We had Tea Cakes, Candy Cane Cookies, Snickers Cookies, Peppernuts, Snicker-doodles, Gingersnaps, Gingerbread People, Coconut Crunch Bars and Buffalo Chip Cookies.

I made gingersnaps as my exchange cookie.  This is a cookie I will always associate with Christmas and my mother.  We had (and still have) these every year.  Mine did not turn out quite like my mom’s, and they probably never will.  These cookies are softer than some gingersnaps, have a great crunchy exterior and have great spice flavor.  They also freeze really well.  So you can make the full batch of 6 dozen, eat some now, freeze the rest and take them out as you need to over the holidays.

Gingersnaps

• 1 ½  c. shortening
• ½  c. light molasses
• 2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 c. flour
• 4 tsp. soda
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ginger

1. Beat shortening, sugar and molasses until fluffy.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time then add in vanilla.
3. Stir in all dry ingredients.
4. Roll dough into balls, roll in sugar, and place on baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350°  for 10 minutes.