Kim Dannies: Lifestyle & Adventure writing

Building Holiday Traditions in the Kitchen
November 25, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving! With a four-day holiday, it’s time to make a fast segue into Christmas preparations while everyone is home to help out. For twenty-four years my extended family has been baking a neighborhood’s worth of gingerbread houses on the day after Thanksgiving. Everyone pitches in to help: daughters, nieces, nephews, sisters and my mom. We bake 14 houses- this gives each child one to decorate, and a few extras to donate to favorite causes. We do all the baking on day one. My sister, Jody, is the dough expert and roller, my sister, Beth, runs the ovens, and I am the counter- my job is to ensure that we end up with enough gingerbread sections to form14 proper houses. My mom, the conductor of our crazy cooking orchestra, runs interference, and the kids help out with everything.

The next day we assemble the houses. We use a thick glue-like sugar frosting that takes a bit of skill and a lot of praying to hold the fortresses together. The houses are placed on firm pieces of cardboard (12”x14”) that are covered in foil. Once the houses are set (24 hours), we hold a decorating party. Long tables are set up with festive plastic tablecloths, and a ton of candy is divided into plastic cups along with individual cups of frosting and plastic knives. When choosing candy we think “variety and volume”; we love lifesavers, candy canes, gummy bears, necco wafers-you name it, we’ll use it. Anything goes in the decorating department too, often what begins as a nightmare house ends up becoming the dream house. (Years of experience have taught me to suck on a piece of hard candy and hold the critique.) Our traditional delivery also includes a tag that reads “It is traditional to eat your gingerbread house on the first day of the New Year for good luck all year long.” Good luck on this project, it’s worth the effort, it’s fun and a real memory maker. E-mail me if you have questions!

Gingerbread House Dough
This recipe makes 10 houses that look small at first, but become much larger by the time the roofs are added and it is decorated. Roofs: 4.5x6.75” bake 2/house; Front and back: 5.5x4.5 in an “A” frame, bake 2/house;Sides: 2.25x 6.75”, bake 2 /house.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together: 6 eggs, 3 cups Crisco, 3 cups of brown sugar, 3 tablespoons EACH of cinnamon and ginger, 3 cups molasses, and 2 tablespoons of vinegar.

Add 16.5 cups of flour and 5 tablespoons of baking soda. Mix well by hand until dough forms. Portion out two hands full of dough onto a floured work surface and roll with a pin until it is about one forth of an inch thick. Cut house sections. Repeat. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Frosting: Beat together 2 pounds of confectionary sugar, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and three egg whites. I just keep making this stuff until we are done, so plan to have at least 10 bags of sugar and lots of eggs on hand. (I make chocolate mousse with the leftover egg yolks.)