FARGO 鈥� If you have plans to make your very own gingerbread house from scratch this holiday season, this construction-grade gingerbread is the dough for you. I first discovered this sturdy gingerbread when I was recruited last spring to be a featured baker for the , a unique and festive community event featuring beautifully crafted gingerbread homes, benefitting Friends of the Children Fargo-Moorhead.
This charming parade is currently on display and open to the public at West Acres Shopping Center until Dec. 27. You can also by making a donation to Friends of the Children, an organization with a mission dedicated to 鈥渋mpacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with professional mentors for 12+ years, no matter what.鈥�
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This is a mission with real purpose, and I am honored to be among the bakers featured in the parade.
As the name implies, construction-grade gingerbread is engineered for construction, not consumption, because it becomes hard and firm when baked, making it ideal for building gingerbread houses. My recipe calls for vegetable shortening versus butter, and there is no leavening agent in the dough, so your cutouts will hold their shape well with little to no spread. You don鈥檛 even need to include the spices, but then you won鈥檛 enjoy the heavenly holiday fragrance that fills the kitchen as the gingerbread bakes.
Each of the seven bakers participating in this event were partnered with a local design team to help shape the theme and vision for their house. I had the pleasure of working with Leah Martin and Judie Madsen from the stellar design team at Scheels Home and Hardware in Fargo, who picked the theme 鈥淢id-Mod Merry House,鈥� featuring a Palm Springs-style midcentury-modern home, surrounded by sand, grass, cacti and a swimming pool.
Think: white walls, clean lines, sunshine 鈥nd Christmas.
My design team and I created templates for each part of our house, which I used to cut the dough into each specific shape. You can find a wide variety of free templates online or even create your own design. Royal icing is traditionally used to assemble and decorate a gingerbread house, but if you are not planning to eat your house, I highly recommend using a hot glue gun during assembly as it is super strong and sets quickly.
Even though construction gingerbread isn鈥檛 ideal for eating, my baker鈥檚 brief stated that all materials used to decorate the houses should be edible, or at least edible in appearance. I loved this part of the challenge and found it fun to see how creative I could get with candy and cookies. My design team wanted palm trees, so I used rolled wafer cookies for the trunks and green Airheads taffy to shape the leaves, with a striped peppermint candy pot to hold them in.
Use your imagination and edible treats to add whimsy to your gingerbread scene: Sarah made this edible snowman using marshmallows, pretzels, sour streamer candies, cloves, Rolo chocolate candies and Oreo cookies.
I used crushed gingerbread cookies to create the sand borders and dyed coconut for the grass. I crushed and melted butterscotch hard candies for the windows and placed various sizes of Oreo cookies for the sidewalk pavers. Speckled breath mints form the border around the swimming pool, which I filled with some strange, blue candy goo called Icee Squeeze Gel. I found candy penguins and flamingos to accent the scene, and I made a variety of cacti using melted candy wafers shaped in silicone molds. I even created a fully edible snowman using marshmallows, pretzels and candy.
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I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this part of the process, as I don鈥檛 consider myself a particularly crafty person. It would be even more fun with kids on hand to help.
If you are looking for a fun and festive way to kick off your holiday season, grab your friends and family and visit the Parade of Gingerbread Homes this weekend or anytime through Dec. 27. And if you make a gingerbread house from scratch, please be sure to send me a photo.
Have a happy, blessed and delicious Thanksgiving, and cheers to the start of the holiday baking season!
If you go
What: Parade of Gingerbread Homes, a fundraising event to benefit Friends of the Children Fargo-Moorhead
Where: West Acres Mall in Fargo
When: Nov. 17 through Dec. 27 during mall hours
Info: To learn more about the work being done at Friends of the Children Fargo-Moorhead and how you can get involved, visit
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Construction-Grade Gingerbread
Makes: Enough for 3 small gingerbread houses
Ingredients:
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7 ounces vegetable shortening, melted
3陆 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
陆 teaspoon ginger
陆 teaspoon nutmeg
陆 teaspoon cloves
陆 teaspoon salt
戮 cup sugar
2 cups corn syrup or molasses
1 large egg
Directions:
Melt the shortening in the microwave or on the stovetop until fully liquid; set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, spices and salt until well combined; set aside. You could also use 2陆 teaspoons of a pumpkin spice blend, or skip the spices altogether.
Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add the melted and cooled shortening, corn syrup (or molasses) and sugar. Whisk on medium-low speed for 1 minute to combine. Add the egg and mix again on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Switch to the paddle attachment and add the flour mixture. Mix on the lowest speed until the flour begins to incorporate, then increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough comes together, about 1 minute.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead it into a ball. Divide the ball in half and press each half into a rectangular disk about 1 inch thick. If not using immediately, wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 1 week, or freeze for several months in an airtight container. Thaw frozen dough at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.
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Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Position one oven rack in the lower third of the oven, and the other rack in the center so that you can bake 2 sheets at the same time.
Roll the disk out on a piece of parchment paper or lightly floured surface, rolling as evenly as possible, until it is 录-inch thick. Sprinkle the dough and your rolling pin with flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking as you roll. Place the rolled dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to help the cutouts hold their shape in the oven.
To make the cutouts:
Keep the dough on the parchment paper. Place your templates on the dough, leaving at least 1 inch between each piece. Use a sharp knife or bench scraper to cut evenly around each shape and remove the scraps to roll out again for additional pieces. Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill before baking.
Bake at 300 degrees until the gingerbread is firm and the edges are golden brown, about 1 hour. Remove the gingerbread from the oven and keep the shapes on the baking sheets until completely cool before moving. For the best result, let the cutouts sit at room temperature overnight, uncovered, so that they are fully dry before assembling. Assemble the next day, or store indefinitely.
Sarah鈥檚 tips:
- This is a very firm, construction-grade gingerbread and is not ideal for eating. As such, I highly recommend using a hot glue gun to assemble your gingerbread house instead of royal icing 鈥� it is fast and easy and dries almost instantly.
- Royal icing is ideal for decorating gingerbread houses, and you can make your own or buy it from a craft store. Water may be added by the half-teaspoon to thin the icing out to desired consistency. Buttercream may also be used but is not as reliable as royal icing.
- Corn syrup makes the dough more pliable for rolling, while molasses adds richer color. Both work well, so the choice is yours.
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