Gingerbread Project 2011

  It was the early 1980s when I made my first gingerbread project. Little did I know I'd started a tradition with such staying power. Every November the girls and I look forward to dreaming of the perfect project. This year when I suggested I might not be making one, Tegan let me know that I was wrong. I thought I did it for the kids but this year, with my empty nest, I realized that I do it because I love the whole process from selection to final touches. Even mistakes are delicious.


  We have made a carousel, a replica of our own house, a dinner table with all our family members represented, an ice castle made of sugar cubes, a nativity, an orthodox church, a farm and a train to mention just a few. When we built a miniature of our house, we included a climbing rose made of mini marshmallows up the side of the house and Laura meticulously placed each light bulb on the string of Christmas lights.
  Every year we discuss creating Whoville, but I leave it too long and there isn't time to design it. "Next year – Whoville!" is what we say every Christmas.
  This year, to keep things simple, I decided to go with the lighthouse featured in Canadian Living magazine. This year's gingerbread and royal icing recipes are flawless. The pattern is there too. The only change I made was to make the top removable so I could put a battery operated candle in the top. (Real candles have been nixed by Paul. Long story.)
  This year Laura made her own gingerbread project - a church. She had trouble finding molasses in Germany and not all the candies she wanted were available either, but she did a remarkable job with some beet syrup replacement.

  Krista created the Swedish house from the Martha Stewart Magazine. She believes the chocolate mint shingles on the roof cost more per square foot than an actual roof! Generally speaking MS patterns are overly complicated and since we don't have minions who are professional pastry chefs and artists to help us, ours never look like hers. But this one looks very tasty, don't you think?

Here are a couple of tips if you're making your own project.
• Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. It's easier to manipulate and you aren't adding a ton of flour so the dough at the end is the same consistency as the dough at the beginning.

• Either lift the rolled dough on parchment onto the cookie sheets and cut your shapes directly on the sheet OR

• Cut out your shapes, carefully pull away the dough from around the shape and lift the piece, still connected to parchment, onto the cookie sheet.  (I sliced the parchment around the shapes with a sharp knife to lift the pieces a few at a time. If you try to lift the pieces with a spatula but no parchment, you will deform the piece.
• If you are going to make windows, leave the parchment in place and the candy won't stick to the baking pan. (These frame-like shapes (above) will be windows.  I baked them until mostly done, then added the crushed candies and put them back in a 350º oven for about 3 minutes until the candy melted.)

• When you cook the dough, it should be turning dark brown at the edges.  If you don't cook it enough, it will be too soft to stand up. (See how each piece is still attached to parchment paper for ease of movement.)
• If it breaks during assembly, worry not. Just get some icing and glue it back together.  But let it "set" for 30 minutes on a flat surface before you use it. I think Laura coloured her icing brown for the "repair glue".
• Use cans of food to hold big pieces in place as you assemble. You can lift the structure up and away from the cans after the icing has dried. Or leave them in place if they are hidden.
• Lifesavers make the best windows. Crush them in a bag that cereal comes in. These bags are a little thicker and as you hammer them or roll them, the sharp candy edges won't make holes in the bag as easily.
• When you make your patterns, write what the part is (i.e. roof, left side support, base) and how many you need. After baking, you may need to refer to these pieces for assembly.

• Assemble in sections if necessary. In this case I wanted the top of the tower to be removable.
• Take a picture of what you are building with you when you go to buy candies. We used little fish-shaped candies jumping out of the "ocean" of blue sprinkles. Brown sugar acted as sand and nougat and chocolate-covered almonds look like rocks. 
Next year: Gingerbread Whoville.