Construction Gingerbread for Small-Scale & Large-Scale Projects

This is the King Arthur Flour Company gingerbread construction recipe. It's got way too much flour in it to be tasty for eating, but it smells nice and it holds up well for gingerbread construction and is fairly easy to work with. I did find that I still needed to let it dry out for a day (after baking) before I built with it. You can also overcook gingerbread a little to dry it out more (just be careful not to make it brittle).

King Arthur Flour Construction Gingerbread for Small-Scale Projects

3/4 cup (6 oz.) buttermilk

6 tbsp. (3 oz., 3/4 stick) butter or margarine

1 cup (8 oz.) brown sugar

1/2 cup (6 oz.) molasses

1 large egg

5 cups (21 1/4 oz.) all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

In a large saucepan, heat the butter in the buttermilk until it is just melted and remove from the heat. Add the brown sugar and molasses and beat in the egg. Whisk the spices, salt and baking soda together with one cup of flour. Add this to the wet mixture and mix until incorporated.

Add flour one cup at a time until you have a smooth, stiff dough. It should be stiff enough to be flexible, but not crumbly or sticky. Divide the dough in half, wrap it in plastic and flatten it out before chilling in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Take one of your bags of dough out of the refrigerator, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Divide the dough into two pieces. Put one of the pieces back in the refrigerator while you work with the other half. If you have a cookie sheet with no sides, you can roll your dough out directly on it. If your cookie sheets have edges on them, turn them over and roll out the dough on the back. You can also roll out the dough on a piece of parchment paper, and use the paper to transfer the dough to your baking sheet.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle that’s about 1/4-inch thick. Roll your dough as evenly as possible, covering as much of the baking sheet as possible. Cut your pieces (scraps can be re- rolled). Take the reserved piece of dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out. Cut your pieces (scraps can be re-rolled).

Bake the gingerbread pieces at 350°F for 15–18 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown. Remove them from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. After 10 minutes, run a spatula under the pieces to free them up from the baking sheets. Allow the pieces to finish cooling on the cookie sheets completely.

For a printable version of this recipe, go here.

Das Pfefferkuchehnhausschen for Large-Scale Projects

I made this recipe with my mom and sisters every Christmas for as long as I can remember. We’d often build 2- and 3-story houses that were a foot wide and at least as long.

It’s a traditional German recipe designed for house building. This stuff is thick and sturdy. Keep in mind that this recipe works best when it has been left to “season” for 2 weeks after baking. It dries out and becomes super-hard and is fabulous for heavy and large gingerbread house construction. I do not recommend this recipe for smaller gingerbread houses, only for larger, heavier projects.

Even though you’re not eating it, the spices make it smell incredible!

Each recipe makes about 1-1/2 baking sheets of dough

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup molasses

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

5 cups pre-sifted white all-purpose flour

Cream shortening and sugar in standing mixer. Add egg and molasses.

Add vinegar, baking soda, salt and spices. Add flour gradually. (You may need to knead in the last cups of lour by hand).

Pour 1/4 or so of vegetable oil on large, heavy baking sheet with sides. Roll out dough with rolling pin until it fills the baking sheet on all sides and meets the corners. You should keep adding vegetable oil to the top of the dough as necessary to help it roll out slick and smooth. Remove any excess dough that does not disappear beneath the rolling pin and mesh flatly into the pan. Use that dough in another pan of gingerbread.

Cut gingerbread house pieces in gingerbread and leave them in the pan. You don’t need to separate the pieces out from the surrounding scraps at this time. Just be sure to cut all the way through to the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F until very well done (remember, this is for building, not for eating, and you want it dry). Depending on your oven and other factors, this can take as little as 20 minutes or as much as 35 minutes or more.

When  you pull the pans out of the oven, re-trace your design cuts in the gingerbread (if you don’t, you won’t be able to separate your house pieces from the surrounding scraps when the gingerbread has dried).

Let gingerbread cool in the baking sheets until it’s no longer too hot to handle. Carefully remove the house pieces and set on cooling racks to cool completely.

Gingerbread used for building should “season” about 2 weeks before being used to build with so it can dry out. This is especially important in a humid climate. (Be sure to keep the gingerbread in another room besides the kitchen or wash room to minimize exposure to moisture and humidity).

For a printable version of this recipe, go here.