Homeade Gingerbread Houses.1

 Monday night and Tuesday night were full of baking for the hubs and I. We made gingerbread houses from scratch for our small group. I have never made one without a pre-made box kit. So I was pretty stoked.
It's kind of our tradition to make a gingerbread house. His mom always bought us a kit and we spent hours decorating it and making reindeer with graham crakers. I wanted to do one again this year and now we get to do it with all of our friends. But first the dough...


25 pounds of flour Hubs scored for me from Costco




the gingerbread dough that tastes way too good





 I used one of my homeade cookie cutters to make trees!! They were actually the perfect size!
It was fun to make a mess of flour and dough and run back and forth making it. However Joshua is not a fan of messes and made sure to vaccuum up every crumb when we were done :)

all ready to be built

Tuesday night was special though!!! Our friends Liz & Daniel came over to help make the next round! Also the boys went and got Indian food, we listened to music, drank wine and had an truly awesome random hang out. I was feeling a little drained from all the Monday cookie making and our sink started spewing water out the side that night so cookies didn't excite me. But Liz came over with the right amount of positivity and smiles (She has the most warming smile!) So I was rebooted!

Plus we make some cookies with the "Stained Glass" effect of putting jolly ranchers in the middle of them. Liz got creative and started mixing colors which looked quite AWESOME!
So of course we had to try some but they are a little challenging to eat. The boys fared better than the girls. We wanted to mix the flavors but then the soft cookie couldn't be eaten because the jolly ranchers stuck our teeth together. :) You've been warned!
It was such a blessing to be able to have them come over and help!

 Be on the lookout for Gingerbread.2!!! We have some awesome houses!!!



impressed?!



Gingerbread Recipe:

1/2 cup butter; softened

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup molasses- the good kind!

2 eggs

4-4 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 + a few pinches of cinnamon

1/2 + a few pinches of ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1   mix together butter and brown sugar

2   then mix in the molasses & eggs

3   dump in the 1 1/2 cups of flour and all the spices and such

4   mix it together well

5   1/2 cup at a time add the remaining flour and mix slowly, you may end up having to

      finish mixing by hand it gets tough to use the mixer

6   on a floured surface roll the dough a bit to get flour on it and then roll out the dough to

      about 1/8" thick, if you want to make large gingerbread houses you may want it

      to be a little thicker structurally

7   then cut out the shapes you want and put them on a greased cookie sheet

8   bake for 7-10 minutes, only until edges slightly begin to brown

9   let them cool a few minutes on the pan then take them off to cool the rest of the

      way before using or storing them

we stored them for 2 days before we used them

Icing:

3-4 cups powdered sugar

2 egg whites

1   mix the ingredients together and if it isn't thick enough add a little more powdered

      sugar until you get the desired consistency

2   put the icing in bags and use icing tips if you have them, if not cut a small slit in the

     corner of a plastic baggie and be careful!

It is best to put together the house's walls and roof and let them dry before you begin decorating