Home sweet home

Christmas is upon us and, naturally, student bakers (complete with tinsel and fairy lights) pop up as far as the eye can see. It’s my favourite time of year, for the simple reason that I can bake as much as I want, using as much sugar as I want, whilst merrily shouting variations of “IT’S CHRISTMAS! DON’T BE A SCROOGE!” into the faces of any critics. The wonderful thing about this recipe is the fact that it doubles up as a Christmas decoration, best placed in the centre of the kitchen table for everyone to gaze at in admiration. It’s also a great house bonding activity – you will need at least 2 other people to help construct the house as it can be a fiddly bit of architecture and then it’s all hands on deck when it comes to decorating!

Gingerbread house

You will need:

• 300g butter or margarine
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g brown sugar
• 225g treacle or golden syrup
• 725g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda or baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Greaseproof paper
• Cling film
• 2 flat baking trays
• Gingerbread house stencils (print off and cut out)
• Piping bag and nozzle

 

• For the glue: (made in 2 batches): 2 free-range egg whites, 500g icing sugar

 

• For decorating the house: Hundreds and thousands, Chocolate buttons, Jelly tots, Snowies/jazzles (I recently entered into a raging argument about the correct name for this sweet. It was not resolved. If you haven’t heard of either of them, then they are white chocolate buttons with coloured sprinkles on top and look very pretty)

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (160 fan) or gas mark 4.

2. Melt the butter, sugar and treacle/golden syrup in a saucepan.

3. Sift the flour, bicarb/baking powder, ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl, then add the melted butter and sugar mixture. Stir it together until it becomes a sticky dough.

4. Sprinkle some flour over a clean surface and flatten the dough until it is about 2cm thick. Wrap in cling film and cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

5. Cut the dough into six pieces. Place some greaseproof paper on a surface and dust over it with flour. Roll out one of the pieces onto the floured paper to about 5mm thickness. Place one of the paper templates on top and cut around. Then place the dough, along with the greaseproof paper, onto a baking tray.

6. Repeat the process with the other 5 pieces of dough – you should end up with 2 side walls, 2 roof tiles and a front and back wall. Use the trimmings to make gingerbread people – or, if you’re feeling adventurous, snowmen and reindeer.

7. Bake the gingerbread for about 15 minutes. The dough should be a deep brown – don’t be tempted to take it out too early as it the gingerbread must be strong enough to hold its structure. Remove the trays from the oven and leave to stand for about an hour, until the gingerbread is completely cool.

8. When you are ready to begin assembling, make the first batch of the icing glue. Separate the egg yolk from the white and then mix the white in a bowl with 250g icing sugar.

9. Spoon the glue into a piping bag and pipe the icing along the edges of the side walls and the front and back walls. Have 2 people holding the house together gently as you pipe, then wait for the icing to dry on your roofless house for at least an hour.

10. Make the second batch of icing glue. Pipe icing along the top edges of the house and glue on the roof panels.

11. Decorate the house using the rest of the icing. Pipe windows and a door and stick buttons and snowies on the sides of the house and sprinkle hundreds and thousands along the roof tops. Or, you could follow the lead of British Bake-Off’s James and use caramel to make cobwebs along the sides of the house. Have fun decorating!