A couple Christmases ago, my family and I started a tradition of building gingerbread houses on Christmas morning. The tradition started as a way to engage a few of us in a fun, approachable activity on Christmas morning while my parents were preparing food for the rest of the family. This was back in 2015, the year my younger brother, Yu, met his girlfriend, Audrey. Audrey was my sister-in-law, Steph’s cousin. Steph had wanted to bring Audrey over to celebrate Christmas with our family. We didn’t know Audrey too well, so we wanted to pick an approachable activity for everyone to partake in on Christmas morning. When I was thinking about what morning activity we could do, I wanted an activity where individuals of any age and skill level could enjoy. The activity also had to be something festive for the holidays. I decided to make a trip to the local supermarket to see what games were available for purchase. As I was browsing for games, I came across a gingerbread house kit in the seasonal aisle. I knew it would be the perfect Christmas morning activity. I purchased the kit and brought it home thinking it would be a good way to bond with Steph and Audrey. On Christmas morning, Pete, Steph, and Audrey arrived to my family’s home in Brooklyn. Steph, Audrey, and I opened up the gingerbread house kit and started building the house right away without even reading the instructions. We kept struggling to piece together the house on top of the platform provided in the box. After multiple attempts, we picked up the instructional booklet to see where we may have gone wrong. We realized we had flipped the platform upside down. It took us almost 30 minutes to realize our error, scrape off some of the decorating icing, and rebuild the house. All three of us had a blast building the house that year. The gingerbread house turned out to be a great get-to-know-you activity and I ended up really enjoying the time I spent with Steph and Audrey. Each Christmas after, whenever I do return home for the holidays, we would buy a gingerbread house kit and build the gingerbread house on Christmas morning. For this year though, I wanted to improve upon the tradition and make gingerbread house pieces from scratch. I planned out my game plan for gingerbread house making 2018. One week before Christmas, I ordered a set of gingerbread house cookie cutters and had them shipped to my family’s home in Brooklyn. On the day of my arrival to New York City, I sent my younger brother a list of ingredients we needed to build gingerbread houses (and make holiday bark) so he could pick up the ingredients beforehand. Once Kevin and I arrived in Brooklyn, we met up with my younger brother for dinner and finished picking up a few remaining ingredients for holiday baking. A day before Christmas, I measured out all of the ingredients for the pumpkin spice gingerbread house cookies, prepared the dough to use on Christmas morning, and chilled the dough in the refrigerator. On Christmas morning, Audrey (who I call little one) came over early to roll out the cookie dough with me. Audrey was excited to make the gingerbread cookies from scratch. She confessed this was her first time making cookies from scratch. We rolled out the dough, cut out as many pieces as we could, baked the cookies, cooled the cookies, built the house, and went crazy decorating on Christmas morning. We even managed to squeeze in some time to get our nails done.
Pumpkin Spice Gingerbread Houses:
For the pumpkin spice gingerbread cookies:
· 4 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
· 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice)
· ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
· ½ cup dark brown sugar
· ½ cup molasses
· 1 large egg, room temperature
For the decorating icing:
· 3 (pasteurized) egg whites
· 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
· 1 pound (16 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
Directions:
1) In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
2) In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and molasses until fluffy. Add the large egg. Continue mixing until incorporated. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Continue the mixer on medium-low speed until the dough begins to form. Pour the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Press the dough into a disc. Wrap the dough up in plastic wrap. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight.
3) When ready to bake the pumpkin spice gingerbread cookies, preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take the dough out from the refrigerator. Divide the dough in half. Let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes before rolling out the dough. After 15 minutes, roll out half of the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Use a pentagon and rectangle cookie cutter to cut out 2 pentagon shapes and 4 rectangle shapes. Arrange the cookies with at least ½ inch spacing between each cookie onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake the cookies in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough if making two gingerbread houses. Otherwise, save the dough for rolling out other cookie shapes for serving.
4) While the cookies are baking, begin preparing the decorating icing. In a stand mixer, whip the pasteurized egg whites until soft peaks form. Add in the cream of tartar and confectioners’ sugar. Continue whipping until a shiny icing begins to form and all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
5) To assemble the house, measure out the length and width of the house on a flat serving plate. Add icing onto the plate forming a rectangular shape. Press the two pentagons on opposite sides of one another onto the plate. Add icing to the borders of two rectangular cookies. Press the two rectangular cookies on the two opposite sides of the pentagons. Use more icing to secure the house if necessary. Add icing on the borders of the remaining two pieces of rectangles. Press the two rectangles onto the top of the pentagons to form a roof. Add a line of icing at the top where the two rectangular roof pieces meet. Go crazy with decorating the house.
Takeaways: When baking the pumpkin spice gingerbread cookies, I baked the first batch of cookies for closer to 15 minutes and the second batch closer to 12 minutes. The cookies baked for a longer amount of time were crispier and worked better for making gingerbread houses. The cookies baked for a shorter amount of time were softer and perfect for serving as treats for guests. The dough yielded about two full houses with some leftover dough for making other cookie shapes.