Gingerbread House How-To
Given my love of baking and crafting, I’ve always wanted to make a gingerbread house, and not surprisingly, Laurel is totally on board with this idea. In anticipation of today’s early school closing, I hunted for some leads so Laurel and I could enjoy some time plotting our gingerbread structures and making templates. Following are my three favorite how-to's, which have useful information for both novice and experienced bakers. I’ll also jot notes on our process in case we come up with any particularly brilliant or time saving ideas to share for future use. Happy building!
From Simply Recipes:
I like the Simply Recipes resource because it’s from a personal blog and includes good photos and detailed instructions with lots of helpful personal tips. I also like that – by virtue of being written by a person baking at home, not in a professional kitchen - the post includes normal baking photos. Meaning, the author shows broken pieces (and tells you how to fix them) and unevenly baked edges, yet the final result is cute. It’s a good reminder that the process need not be perfect – you can cover any problem areas with decorations. Templates are included.
From Cookie Magazine:
Cookie offers a more streamlined how-to, best suited to experienced bakers who understand baking lingo and process. What I think is really cute about this post is that they include templates for a brownstone, ranch house, and garage. Perfect for urban and suburban representation.
From King Arthur Flour:
King Arthur Flour offers a somewhat insane 14-page PDF guide to constructing a gingerbread house, but it’s a really handy reference for first time builders and novice bakers in that it includes a ton of annotated photos to help you navigate the baking and construction process. The decorating photos - including trees cleverly built on ice cream cones – are impressive, and templates are provided.
The first and second images are credited to Simply Recipes, the third to Cookie Magazine, and the fourth to the King Arthur Flour guide.