![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/gbhouse3.jpg\" "\\"gbhouse3\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe December 2009 Daring Bakers\u2019 challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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I used the gingerbread recipe from Good Housekeeping<\/a>. \u00a0I have made gingerbread for a gingerbread house before, and never had such a hard time with the dough. \u00a0Your dough needs to be sturdier than gingerbread you would use for cookies. \u00a0This dough was so dry and crumbly that I almost gave up on the house altogether. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n I made royal icing as the glue to hold the house together. \u00a0You can buy meringue powder to make this, but using egg whites is easy and much less expensive. \u00a0Here is the recipe I used. \u00a0It hardens up very well, and pipes easily from a pastry bag or zip-loc.<\/p>\n After making the icing, it was time to assemble my lovely gingerbread house. \u00a0I open the container where I stored my walls and roof pieces to discover that one wall had cracked into two pieces.<\/p>\n Thankfully, the pieces were not shattered, just split down the middle. \u00a0But again, I considered giving up. \u00a0I figured that I would try to put it together first and then abandon the project if things started to head downhill. \u00a0It was a Christmas miracle! \u00a0I managed to put the house pieces together and you could barely see the crack. \u00a0Lovely.<\/p>\n I put cans of food inside the house and on the outer walls for support. \u00a0I let this phase of construction set up for a few hours before attaching the roof pieces. \u00a0Since 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 jalape\u00f1os. \u00a0It was pretty funny to both Ben and me.<\/p>\n Now, we decorate! \u00a0I bought a bunch of different candies, and proceeded from here without a plan.<\/p>\n I started with a Cinnamon Toast Crunch roof. \u00a0So cute! \u00a0Little sugary shingles.<\/p>\n Then I make a walkway with peppermint patties.<\/p>\n I lined the front of the house with gum drops, and attached candy cane pillars.<\/p>\n I made the log pile out of Oreo cookie sticks. \u00a0Tootsie rolls work well for a log pile also.<\/p>\n I am proud of this tree. \u00a0I think it is adorable. \u00a0I cut a few things out with the leftover gingerbread dough, including this little tree and my little gingerbread man. \u00a0I used green gumdrops and green Jujyfruits along with one single yellow gumdrop as the star for my tree. \u00a0I like the contrasting textures and slightly different greens.<\/p>\n A candy rock wall.<\/p>\n Good n’ Plentys serve as the bricks for this wall.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nRoyal Icing<\/h5>\n
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