Saturday, December 26, 2009

Quick And Easy Christmas Gingerbread House


Back when my children were still in grammar school, we used to make one Gingerbread house every Christmas and this is the simplest recipe for making it that I've come across to date. Of course, this recipe is strictly for decorative purposes since I use a hot glue gun and real egg whites. However, no one where we live carries meringue powder, so I found a recipe for Royal Icing that uses egg whites instead of the powder, making it all quite simple.
 


The icing does harden rather quickly, so you must work as fast as possible. However, I have found that if you use a pastry bag, it lasts longer before hardening. So, it's best to gather all the things you will need before you start.


 

I begin by covering a large, thick piece of cardboard with aluminum foil, to be used as the base. Next, I cut off the top of two large juice cartons to my desired height and hot glue each one to the base. Then you can start gluing the graham crackers to the juice cartons, making arches with them to form the rooftops.  Don't worry about the gaps as you will be able to fill them all in with the icing.





Once you finish filling in all the gaps with Royal Icing, add the candies however you like. You will also be attaching the candies with the icing. However, if you run out of the icing you can always use the glue gun again.



Things You Will Need For The Gingerbread House Assembly:


 
hot glue gun

glue sticks

red and green licorice sticks


assorted Christmas candies

1 bag of red hots


1 pkg. of small candy canes



1 box of graham crackers

1 large bag of powdered sugar


2 large egg whites


1 lemon



1 pastry bag

 






Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adorable little gingerbread house. Any gingerbread man would be happy to call it home.

kathyvegas said...

Oh how pretty! I love the graham cracker idea, I never thought of that and it just makes perfect sense. A lot more sound than any gingerbread that would come out of my oven, that's for sure. BTW, you can find that egg white powder wherever they sell Wilton cake decorating supplies. My Michael's arts & craft store here carries it.

The Peach Tart said...

That's lovely. I've never attempted one but you made it sound not so intimidating.