Tag Archive for: Gingerbread houses

Lemonade and Gingerbread Angels

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I am trying so hard to get into the Christmas spirit!!  But when it is over 80 degrees, and Walker and two of his buddies have a ragingly successful lemonade stand in the middle of December, it just does not feel like Christmas.  So to combat the feelings of summer, I made gingerbread angels over the weekend.  They are so pretty, and now the house smells like cinnamon and nutmeg and all sorts of Christmasy smells, and it is back in the frigid 70s today, so a little less like summer.  I got a very cute picture of my angels pre decorations and wanted to get one post decorations, but Walker and his friends ate them too quickly.  I love this recipe because it is so easy, but the one trick I think is to make sure you roll out the dough thinly enough because the gingerbread definitely rises in the oven.

Gingerbread Men (or Angels)

Cream:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses

Sift:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Add dry ingredients to the butter- sugar mixture alternately with about 1/4- 1/2 cup water, or enough to be able to roll out the dough.  Cut into shapes for a house or into gingerbread men and bake on double waxed paper.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Gingerbread House Party

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We went to my sister’s gingerbread house party in New York last weekend, and Walker was so disappointed that he couldn’t take his gingerbread house on the plane home, we decided to have a gingerbread house party as well.  Thanks to my mother’s genius when she was making houses for my sister’s party, she made five extra, because who doesn’t need extra gingerbread houses lying around?  There were so many great things about this party.  The first was that the only thing I had to do was buy the candy.  I can do that.  I can do that well.  The only problem there is making sure all of the candy actually gets home.  Here is the candy set up.

The second great thing about this party was the three families we had come over to help us decorate the houses.  Two of the families are very old friends of mine who I have know since I was born practically, and we all three went from 1st through 12th grade together, and that includes boarding school in Connecticut.  We had grown up decorating gingerbread houses together as children, and it was so much fun to watch our own children start this tradition for themselves.

The third thing I loved about this party was where my sweet old dog, Nemo, positioned himself.  Now, since I didn’t actually have to do anything for this party other than buy the candy, and since I am currently at my real job without my mother’s recipe book in front of me, I can’t post at this time the recipe for gingerbread houses, but I will do an update this afternoon when I get home.

I might be biased, but I think these four gingerbread houses are the best gingerbread houses ever to be built.  It is such a fun Christmas activity to do with children, and so much fun to eat after!

Update: Of course my wonderful mother sent me the recipe as soon as she read this!!

Gingerbread House/Men

 Cream:
¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup dark molasses

 Sift:
3 ½ cups unbleached flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda

Add dry ingredients to the butter- sugar mixture alternately withabout ¼ – ½ cup water, or enough to be able to roll out the dough. Cut into shapes for a house or into Gingerbread men and bake on doubled, or even tripled layers of waxed paper. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Icing Cement

Mix 3 egg whites at room temperature until they are very peaked and dry. Slowly add one box of powdered sugar.