Gingerbread house - eating yours or decoration only?

[toomanyshoes]

So do you use your GB as decoration only or do you eat it? If so, how far in advance do you make it? (how long will it keep/stay fresh)

thanks

[Erin_25]

We will be putting ours on the table & then not long after eating it LOL. DS1 & my niece will decorate it (we got a kit) Christmas eve....so fairly fresh and I know they will want to eat it right away.

As for mum, she paid $60 for some fancy one already decorated....and dad freaked LOL...it was decoration last year & this year again - so I guess we will not be eating it gross!

[toomanyshoes]

We've making one from scratch and I just don't know when to make it! Thought about baking it this week and maybe freezing the panels and putting it together christmas eve?

As per usual I have taken on way too much and I'm having trouble finding the time!

[Just Me]

I didn't make a gingerbread house (DH and I tried last year and failed miserably) but we did do gingerbread star Christmas trees with the kids. The kids have given theirs away as gifts so I suppose they will probably be eaten. [link removed for privacy reasons - please PM me if you would like the link ]

Instead of a piping bag to put the icing on, we got a small sauce bottle and filled that with the icing and it was soooo much easier than a piping bag. There was a segment on making gingerbread houses on Better Homes and Gardens a few weeks ago (Fast Ed did it) - he had some great tips for how to do it also. Probably worth a search of the net for that segment (you can watch them online and they are short so they don't take forever to download) before you do it.

How your royal icing works and holds together is very dependent on the weather and humidity. Humidity and royal icing are not a good mix. My gingerbread star tree recipe said it will go okay for 2 weeks though all made up. I gave them away ASAP though because there are lots of little hands to touch things around here and I don't know how long they would really last in a house full of kids.

[Phteven]

We've got a kit but because we will be in a holiday house and it's more about a bit of fun for the kids I'll probably buy some cookie dough and roll it out instead of making gingerbread.

And then we'll be eating it.
We may not even make the house - we might just eat it hehehe

BTW this is the gingerbread recipe we would use if we weren't doing it the lazy way.

Gingerbread Women.

* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 3/4 cup golden syrup
* 90g butter
* 1 tbsp ground ginger
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp fresh, grated ginger
* 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
* 500g plain flour
* pinch of salt
* 2 eggs, beaten
Method

Combine the sugar, golden syrup, butter, spices and fresh ginger in a heavy-based pan over low heat, and let melt, stirring. Remove from the heat for 2 minutes, and then stir in the bicarbonate of soda until light and fluffy.

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre, add the eggs and gradually add the syrup, stirring until all the flour is incorporated and you have a dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for an hour.Heat the oven to 180ºC and roll out the dough thinly on a floured surface.

Cut into gingerbread women (or people), stars or rounds, and place on trays lined with baking paper.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the trays.

Cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 25 biscuits, or 12 "people"

Chef: Jill Dupleix Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday November 13, 2004

[Beach Mama]

Yum - am going to use your recipe this arvo Onyx!!

[Lisa]

We usually make our gingerbread house in the week before Christmas. It is never for decoration and purely to eat. It is decorative for a couple of hours or days before it gets demolished by the kids. I use a recipe and dimensions on the Taste webpage.


(Sent from my phone, so I apologise if it makes no sense.)

[Glamourcide]

I'm hoping we get to eat ours this year, I'm using a recipe for chocolate gingerbread that I found online. Did a practice run just to test the dough last week, and it was delicious, just the right texture and combination of chocolate and spices, so I'll definitely be using it again!

I'm planning it a bit like this (and if anybody spots any fatal flaws in my plan, please let me know!):
Make the 'cookies' (cut out with a stencil set I bought) on Thursday evening
Allow them to 'set' (they harden up, don't they?) overnight and 'glue' framework together on Friday morning
Begin decorating on Saturday evening, allowing overnight for icing to harden properly
Leave in a cool, airtight spot and put it on the table before dinner on Saturday night
...Eat?

Biscuits, cakes etc in our house never last more than 48 hours... so can anybody tell me if 4-day old biscuit is okay to eat? It's really humid and hot up here, so I'm also wondering about storage - is the fridge okay or will it get damp and soggy in there?

[Erin_25]

we are once again going with a kit this year but instead of a house we found a Christmas train kit at Woolies. This kids are train mad and were so excited when I got it, can not wait to do this one.

[Rach75]

I'm hoping we get to eat ours this year, I'm using a recipe for chocolate gingerbread that I found online. Did a practice run just to test the dough last week, and it was delicious, just the right texture and combination of chocolate and spices, so I'll definitely be using it again!

I'm planning it a bit like this (and if anybody spots any fatal flaws in my plan, please let me know!):
Make the 'cookies' (cut out with a stencil set I bought) on Thursday evening
Allow them to 'set' (they harden up, don't they?) overnight and 'glue' framework together on Friday morning
Begin decorating on Saturday evening, allowing overnight for icing to harden properly
Leave in a cool, airtight spot and put it on the table before dinner on Saturday night
...Eat?

Biscuits, cakes etc in our house never last more than 48 hours... so can anybody tell me if 4-day old biscuit is okay to eat? It's really humid and hot up here, so I'm also wondering about storage - is the fridge okay or will it get damp and soggy in there?

I dont make them but wanted to comment to donna I'd be making them a bit closer if it gets as wet and humid as last year which it is predicted to them they could possibly go mushy in 4 dayd

[Beach Mama]

I am making one today to eat! About to roll it out and bake, just a question for the icing, I don't want to use Royal Icing because DS has an egg allergy(welllll he has pretty much grown out of it but want to be safe and not use raw egg anyhooooo) and I have some white choc melts to use instead - just wondering if I will need to mix the choc with some icing sugar as well or cream to make it like a ganache??? Anyone got any ideas!!