Monday, December 28, 2009

Daring Bakers' December Challenge--A Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.


I chose the gingerbread from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, and the only change I made was using white sugar+blackstrap molasses, as I didn't have any brown sugar in the house. This made my dough much darker, but I think it also added a really nice flavour.


















This was my first Daring Bakers' Challenge, and of course I posted last night just before the deadline! I had a lot of trouble with the dough--it wasn't dry exactly, but so crumbly and difficult to roll out and drape over the template. My fancy template consisted of a mixing bowl and a toilet paper tube covered in foil.

Here is the dough right after taking it out of the fridge. I had to leave it at room temperature for about 4 hours before I had any hope of rolling it out.





















Next, I got it rolled out, but forgot to put it on wax paper, so had no way of getting it off the table. Finally, I got it rolled out, but see how it kept cracking at the edges?

It baked up nicely, without puffing too much, except it took the igloo a lot longer than the reindeer and snowman, so they are burnt. That's what icing and icing sugar are for, right?


















Next, I made the blocks out of icing and let it dry overnight. I liked the way it looked with the dark gingerbread and the blocks, but I decided to flood the whole thing with icing the next morning:


















My nephew can hardly wait to get his hands on it!


9 comments:

Jill @ Jillicious Discoveries said...

I love the reindeer and your igloo is fantastic! So creative! :)

Mary said...

Yay! My first comment! Thanks a lot! I did the igloo because I don't like decorating nearly as much as baking. I did enjoy making the blocks, though. I had a look at yours, and now I have a much better idea how to post a Daring Bakers' Challenge. Thanks, and for the decorating inspiration too.
:)

Lauren said...

Congrats on your first challenge! I love the igloo - its simply gorgeous!

chef_d said...

Great job on your first challenge!

Joana Galvez said...

I LOVE IT!!!!! It's fantastic!!! Love the idea of the igloo.

sweetakery said...

Your igloo looks amazing!. love the reindeer! Congrats on your first challenge!

Jonna from Hel said...

Well done on your first challenge! Cute igloo!!

Anonymous said...

That's adorable! Nice twist on the gingerbread "house" making it an igloo.

Angie said...

Is that our Auntie in the background?! I make gingerbread courtesy of my Grandma Fee EVERY year at Christmas. She used to make it with Kevin and I and it is one of my favourite memories....Ironically, my Murray is allergic to eggs and milk. One of the only cookies he can eat is gingerbread, so we are passing the tradition on...and he loves it!