Day 14: Gingerbread Houses

Jay's house

For the first time ever, we made gingerbread houses this year.

When I was a child, we made our "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers. It was a lot of fun, and some lovely memories. In fact, I don't know that I'd ever had gingerbread until I was an adult.

So when December rolled around, I knew I wanted Jay to be able to have memories of making a gingerbread house, and I wanted to do it from scratch, with gingerbread.

I went on the internet to search for recipes and, using this recipe:

Gingerbread House

I made the gingerbread, but used templates that I created. The recipe made enough to make 2 houses, a few mistake pieces, and about 3 dozen small gingerbread people.

Creating these is at least a two day process. The first day is dedicated to making the dough and pieces. It's important to let them cool completely, so let them cool overnight. The next day, the icing is made and used to "glue" the pieces into the proper form. Let it set for at least 30 minutes, then let the decorating begin.

Using the icing and a selection of candies, Jay and his girlfriend Miss S. decorated the houses. There were M&Ms, gumdrops, Nerds, Sweetarts, miniature candy canes, Laffy Taffy, Gobstoppers, and Kisses, all used to great effect.

Miss S's house

 So today's idea: make your own gingerbread houses from scratch.