Fun, fun, fun!

I don't know how long this Gingerbread house will live, my daughter already tried eating the chimney (can't blame her, luckily I had more mini Mars chocolates left, and "glued" the chimney back in its place).
We'll be decorating the tree this weekend, and the kids are looking forward to more fun.
We even made some handmade decorations for the tree.

Have a nice weekend everyone, and lots of fun!



GINGERBREAD DOUGH

250 g butter
200 g brown sugar
7 TBspoons honey
600 g flour
2 TBspoons baking soda
2 TBspoons ginger

DECORATION

2 egg whites
500 g powdered sugar
sliced almonds
small chocolate bar (e.g. Mars, Bounty, etc.)
candies (e.g. Smarties, etc.)
chocolate covered sticks
coconut flakes

Melt the butter, the sugar and the honey in a saucepan (I actually put 3 TBspoons molasses and 4 TBspoons honey).

Let the mixutre cool a little bit.
In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, the baking soda, and the ginger.
Add the butter and honey mixture, mix with a wooden spoon or hard spatula until you have compact dough.

Add a bit more flour if too sticky, or a bit of water if too hard.

Draw and cut out the shapes in thin cardboard for the front/back, sides and the roof (click on the picture to see it bigger).

Roll out the dough (1/3 at a time) to 1/2 cm thin, and cut out two pieces for each shape.

Place them on the baking sheet lined with baking paper.

For the roof pieces, stick the sliced almonds in parallel lines, so that they look like tiles, before baking them.
Bake all the parts for 10-12 minutes. They need to be a bit harder for building purposes.
I cut out some trees with the leftover dough.
Once they are baked, let them cool for a minute or two, and, since they spread and change the shape a bit while baking, place your cardboard pieces on top and cut off the extra dough, to have nice clean shapes and most important, the same size.
Let them cool completely.
Beat the eggwhites with the powdered sugar until really smooth and dense.

Fill the pastry bag with a medium size round tip (now I'm really wondering what little elf made all my tips disappear, I've got only one -star tip- left °_°).
"Glue" the pieces with the glaze, holding them until you're sure they won't fall apart, sides and the front/back first.

When they're stable, add the roof.

Let your construction to dry, and then add the decorations, the door, the path, whatever you like.

Glue a piece of chocolate on top for chimney.
Sprinkle the house with some powdered sugar for snow effect.

Spread some coconut flakes all around and the house is ready. Add some trees around it, a path.

Use your imagination, I'm sure you can do even better than I did. Most important of all, have fun doing it, get your kids involved and enjoy the happiness in their eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GINGERBREAD KUĆICA

Tijesto:

250 g maslaca
200 g smeđeg šećera
7 žlica meda
600 g brašna
1 žlica sode bikarbone
1-2 žlice đumbira

Ukrašavanje:

2 bjeljanjka
500 g mljevenog šećera
bademi narezani na listiće
1 čokoladica (npr. Mars, Bounty)
bombončići (žele, Smarties, itd)
čokoladni keksi u obliku štapića

Otopite maslac, med i šećer, ostavite da se malo prohladi.
U zdjeli pomiješajte brašno, bikarbonu i đumbir, dodajte smjesu od meda i maslaca,
pa miješajte da se sve poveže i dobijete glatko tijesto. Ako je premekano i ljepljivo dodajte još malo brašna, ako vam je pretvrdo, dodajte malo vode.
Od tanjeg kartona izrežite oblike za pročelje/zaleđe (12×7x15 cm), stranice (7×9 cm) i krov (13×17 cm).
Tijesto podijelite na 3 dijela, pa svaki razvaljajte na 1/2 cm debljine.
Položite oblike od kartona na tijesto i izrežite po dva komada za svaki oblik.
U dva krovna dijela utisnite listiće badema u paralelnim redovima da izgledaju kao crijepovi.
Premjestite ih na pleh obložen papirom za pečenje i pecite 10-12 minuta. Keksi trebaju biti malo tvrđi, ali pazite da ne izgore (kao meni ;)))
Od ostatka tijesta izrežite oblike po želji (ja sam izrezala drvca).
Izrezane kekse ostavite da se ohlade tek 1-2 minute, položite na njih opet oblike od kartona pa ih obrežite da dobijete ravne rubove (tijekom pečenja keksi narastu i malo se izobliče). Ostavite da se potpuno ohlade.
Za glazuru umutite čvrsto bjeljanjke sa šećerom. Premjestite u vrećicu za ukrašavanje s okruglim nastavkom (ili vrećicu za zamrzivač kojoj onda odrežite vrh).
Spojite prvo stranice i pročelje/zaleđe kućice tako što ćete našpricati malo glazure na rubove stranica. Držite ih rukama dok se glazura ne počne stvrdnjavati (par minuta). Ostavite da se dobro stisne, pa onda stavite i krov (našpricajte glazuru na rubove koji će se dodirivati i spoj na vrhu). Držite rukama dok se ne stisne ili poduprite nečim odozdo da krov ne sklizne.
Kad se sve osuši nastavite s ukrašavanjem po želji.
Ja sam stavila mini Mars čokoladicu za dimnjak, čokoladne štapiće za vrata i za stranice kućice da izgleda kao brvnara. Od bombonica napravite ukrase po želji.
Našpricajte glazuru na rubove krova, ukrasite drvca itd.
Posula sam kokosovo brašno oko kućice da izgleda kao snijeg.