I don’t know where she got the idea, but a couple of weeks ago, Julia told me that she wanted to make a “spooky gingerbread house” for Halloween –and that we should use peanut butter cups for flowerpots on the front steps. How could I resist?
On the way to school the next day, we decided that our house should be like the Chelsea townhouses that decorate for Halloween and welcome throngs of trick-or-treaters, Julia among them. Our haunted townhouse is detached, though, to allow for more decoration. It also has a graveyard, which, as far as I know, isn’t common in the neighborhood.
It’s built of “structural gingerbread” (a strong and stable –though not particularly tasty– form of the classic cookie dough) glued together with melted sugar (for the larger pieces), and royal icing (for smaller ones). To decorate, we piped royal icing with a pastry bag and a #3 pastry tip and used classic Halloween candy –candy corns, black licorice, sugar pumpkins, and orange and black sprinkles. And, of course, Julia’s peanut butter cups.
The process of building the house wasn’t particularly difficult, but it was time-consuming and we spread the work out over several days to keep it from feeling like a chore.
We started with a photo of our inspiration, a classic Chelsea townhouse.
Then we built a model out of cardboard, taping the pieces together so they could be easily disassembled and used as patterns for our gingerbread pieces.
Next we mixed up our structural gingerbread (recipe below), rolled it out and used our cardboard patterns to cut out the pieces of the house.
After baking and cooling, we glued the larger pieces together with melted sugar (recipe below).
After completing engineering and heavy construction, we followed our imaginations to decorate our house with tinted and piped royal icing (recipe below) and Halloween candy.
We’re already thinking about the Holiday version.
Recipes
Structural Gingerbread
(This house used 2 1/2 recipes)
2 cups (475ml) dark corn syrup
1 1/2 cups (350ml) firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups (300ml) margarine
9 cups (2l) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1. In a large saucepan or in a microwave-safe bowl, heat the corn syrup, margarine and brown sugar until the margarine has melted. Stir until the sugar has dissolved completely and the mixture is smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and spices. Add the sugar mixture and mix well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F (177C).
4. Roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick on baking mats or parchment cut to fit baking sheets. Arrange the cardboard patterns on the dough and cut around them, leaving at least a half inch between pieces. Remove the excess dough (and roll it out again to make more pieces).
5. Transfer the baking mat or parchment to baking sheets and bake 12-15 minutes or until the pieces are firm and beginning to brown at the edges. Cool completely before removing.
Molten Sugar Glue
Place 1/2 cup of white sugar in a small skillet or saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until the sugar has melted, swirling the pan to incorporate the unmelted into the melted sugar. Apply immediately to house pieces by dipping them in or spooning the sugar onto them (taking great care not to burn yourself). Reheat if the sugar becomes too firm to work with.
Royal Icing
1 pound confectioner’s sugar
1 egg white
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Mix ingredients together until smooth and spread or pipe (with a #2 or #3 pastry tip) onto house pieces to stick them together and decorate them. Icing may be tinted with food coloring. If icing gets too stiff, thin with a few drops of water.
