As I mentioned in another thread I am currently a Home Ec teacher. In our Interior Design class we are making Gingerbread Houses. I was wondering if anyone had a Heavy duty gingerbread recipe that would create thick structural walls. Thanks in advance. Polly

-- Polly (jserg45@hotmail.com), December 15, 2001

Answers

The people who do this for store window displays cheat a little by installing drinking straws within the slabs before assembling.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), December 15, 2001.

LOL! Mitch, I didn't know that! That's great - gingerbread rebar! :-)

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), December 15, 2001.

INSIDE the slabs? Like they bake the straws inside the walls? What keeps the plastic from melting? Or do they 'glue' them to the insides of the walls -- and what do they use for glue?

I wonder if those bamboo skewers (like for shish-ke-bobs) would be usable? I think they could be baked right inside the walls and take the heat of baking.

Now here's a thought -- how about a 'strawbale' house? You could use shredded wheat biscuits!

-- Joy F {Southern Wisconsin} (CatFlunky@excite.com), December 15, 2001.

I once had a ladyfriend who was a caterer, she would take the regular slabs, stand them between two book ends on edge, take a straw and clip it so there was two points, this was used to bore holes in the slabs where cut to length straws were inserted, icing covered the ends. I guess anything the right size and stiffness would work. File this under the Food/Construction catagory!!

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), December 15, 2001.

what is the recipe for a gingerbread house anyway? Thanks, Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), December 15, 2001.

This is similar to my recipe that I use --

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/4 cup dark Karo syrup

1/3 cup water

7/8 cup butter

1 tablespoon orange zest -- grated

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon ginger

1/2 tablespoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

Boil sugar, syrup, and water in a small saucepan. Put the butter and spices in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the hot sugar mixture. Stir until butter has melted. Cool. Stir together baking soda and flour. Mix all ingredients together to make a smooth dough. Divide into fourths, shape into flattened rounds, about 1/2" thick -- wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours. If you regrigerate overnight it is very hard to roll out)

Roll out one portion of the dough at a time. Cut out shapes from the dough with cookie cutters. Place the cookies on cold, greased cookie sheets. Bake the cookies at 400F (5-8 min for regular cookies).

This is very close to the recipe that I have used (and can't find now) If you need it very rugged, roll it out a quarter inch thick, but for eating cookies, the thinner the better. My recipe did not call for orange zest or cardamon. I'd omit the cardamon if this is for house making as it is expensive, and even for eating, the cinnamon & ginger flavors will mask it out.

You can make 'glass' in the windows when baking the pieces by putting a piece of aluminum foil under the wall in the window area, then sprinkling in bits of broken clear Lifesavers candies into the hole. The candy will melt, and when you remove the cooled cookie from the pan, you will have 'glass' in the windows. Yellow is very attractive, but you can also make 'stained glass' cathedral windows in other colors too.

-- Z. (zorro@incog.neto), December 18, 2001.