We built this city on rock and roll
Dec. 17th, 2012 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaI've written here before about going to Cake Parties - the principle is simple: make cake, take cake to party, eat cake. Then we tried a pie party, which worked pretty well. This time the host decreed we were going to have a Christmas party. She would provide us with turkey curry and mulled cider, the rest of us were to bring Christmassy cakes.
The trouble is, once other guests had bagged mince pies and Christmas cake, I couldn't think of anything else. Stollen? Christmassy, but the party includes a lot of marizpan-haters (and I suck at yeast-based cookery). Chocolate log? Meh, I can't get that excited about chocolate.
Then, sitting in the pub a few weeks back, Jamie said "why don't you make a gingerbread house?"
Now, I love cooking. I am, however, better suited to the bung-it-in-and-then-taste approach of, say, stews than I am to the precise arts of bakery. Also, my icing skills are very limited. Still, a gingerbread house sounded like fun, and the BBC obligingly provided a simple-looking recipe with templates.
Although I do rate the BBC food site as a resource for recipes, it has one huge problem: all the recipes are only in metric quantities. This isn't insurmountable; I did n years of education using SI units, and am capable of spinning my scales round to use those new-fangled gram things. However, I don't think in metric. So I cheerfully measured out the flour... 600g flour, ok, that's that mark on the scale, that's looking like a lot, 600g, wait a minute! That's, like, more than a pound of flour! How the hell much gingerbread am I making here?
I'd also run into problems with the golden syrup. I wish people would measure syrup by weight in recipes, not by the tablespoonful. A tablespoonful of treacle is a very approximate beast. The recipe said seven, but by the time I'd done five I already thought it was looking a bit silly and stopped.
Whether it was actually looking silly, or whether my dough took offence at my using Stork instead of butter (dairy-allergic friends), is unclear but things looked quite unhappy when mixed together. The recipe suggested a remedy if the dough wouldn't come together, but not if it were practically of a pouring consistency. I opted for more flour and a period of chilling in the fridge, and it came out OK in the end.
So, you[*] cut the bits out using the template...
Do not attempt to follow the BBC's advice and roll out the dough on baking parchment. At least, not unless you have patented some form of parchment with non-slip grip on one side to stop the stuff from sliding madly around on the worktop.
Then you bake the panels, and trim them back to size. BBC's instructions said to allow them to "firm up" before trimming. I say, trim 'em straight out the oven. BBC's way results in ginger shrapnel all over the kitchen, mine results in burnt fingers. Pay your money, take your choice.
You now have a flatpack:
By the way, yes I've seen pictures of the GBBO gingerbread collisseum. And a gingerbread Serenity. I'm fundamentally making a shed :)
And you start gluing it together:
The glue is royal icing, which I've neither made nor used before, so wasn't completely sure what I was aiming for. I committed one of the cardinal sins of icing-making - chucking all the dry ingredients in at once. Maybe my eggs were on the small side. Maybe the omens were wrong. But I think my icing came out too stiff... it worked pretty well as glue, but I'm fairly sure that it wouldn't have been right for doing proper stuff with.
You're supposed to allow the walls to dry for a few hours before adding the roof. I filled in the time by going to Kentish Town to see Rancid, then came home and glued the roof on before bed. I left some handy biscuit cutters supporting the weight overnight, just in case.
And in the morning... yay, everything was stable. Bring on the sweets! I'd wanted some edible glitter, but could only find shimmery spray paint... so I spray painted the roof tiles gold[**] before icing them. The flaked almonds recommended in the recipe looked like an awful lot of bother, and I didn't think they brought a whole lot to the party.
The BBC's instructional video showed how to make icicles along the endges of the roof... which I quite failed to do. I'm unsure if this was down to poor-consistency icing, a too-small icing nozzle, or fundamental lack of talent.
And a nice window at the back:
The recipe generously said I could make leftover dough into tree shapes "if I liked"... but I figured my biscuit-cutter repertoire limited me to stars or squirrels. Tempting as it was to surround my house with giant squirrels, I did some stars.
And the house went to the party, and was demolished by small children. And I came home and realised I still had shedloads of gingerbread dough and royal icing, and decided it was time to ditch this Christmas business.
[*] One of the things I always look at in someone else is their hands. I've often claimed (though not verified) that I could recognise a lot of my friends by just their hands. It seems, however, that I wouldn't recognise my own from this photo.
[**] I also lightly spray painted the bread bin, the stereo, areas of the worktop and quite a lot of myself.
The trouble is, once other guests had bagged mince pies and Christmas cake, I couldn't think of anything else. Stollen? Christmassy, but the party includes a lot of marizpan-haters (and I suck at yeast-based cookery). Chocolate log? Meh, I can't get that excited about chocolate.
Then, sitting in the pub a few weeks back, Jamie said "why don't you make a gingerbread house?"
Now, I love cooking. I am, however, better suited to the bung-it-in-and-then-taste approach of, say, stews than I am to the precise arts of bakery. Also, my icing skills are very limited. Still, a gingerbread house sounded like fun, and the BBC obligingly provided a simple-looking recipe with templates.
Although I do rate the BBC food site as a resource for recipes, it has one huge problem: all the recipes are only in metric quantities. This isn't insurmountable; I did n years of education using SI units, and am capable of spinning my scales round to use those new-fangled gram things. However, I don't think in metric. So I cheerfully measured out the flour... 600g flour, ok, that's that mark on the scale, that's looking like a lot, 600g, wait a minute! That's, like, more than a pound of flour! How the hell much gingerbread am I making here?
I'd also run into problems with the golden syrup. I wish people would measure syrup by weight in recipes, not by the tablespoonful. A tablespoonful of treacle is a very approximate beast. The recipe said seven, but by the time I'd done five I already thought it was looking a bit silly and stopped.
Whether it was actually looking silly, or whether my dough took offence at my using Stork instead of butter (dairy-allergic friends), is unclear but things looked quite unhappy when mixed together. The recipe suggested a remedy if the dough wouldn't come together, but not if it were practically of a pouring consistency. I opted for more flour and a period of chilling in the fridge, and it came out OK in the end.
So, you[*] cut the bits out using the template...
Do not attempt to follow the BBC's advice and roll out the dough on baking parchment. At least, not unless you have patented some form of parchment with non-slip grip on one side to stop the stuff from sliding madly around on the worktop.
Then you bake the panels, and trim them back to size. BBC's instructions said to allow them to "firm up" before trimming. I say, trim 'em straight out the oven. BBC's way results in ginger shrapnel all over the kitchen, mine results in burnt fingers. Pay your money, take your choice.
You now have a flatpack:
By the way, yes I've seen pictures of the GBBO gingerbread collisseum. And a gingerbread Serenity. I'm fundamentally making a shed :)
And you start gluing it together:
The glue is royal icing, which I've neither made nor used before, so wasn't completely sure what I was aiming for. I committed one of the cardinal sins of icing-making - chucking all the dry ingredients in at once. Maybe my eggs were on the small side. Maybe the omens were wrong. But I think my icing came out too stiff... it worked pretty well as glue, but I'm fairly sure that it wouldn't have been right for doing proper stuff with.
You're supposed to allow the walls to dry for a few hours before adding the roof. I filled in the time by going to Kentish Town to see Rancid, then came home and glued the roof on before bed. I left some handy biscuit cutters supporting the weight overnight, just in case.
And in the morning... yay, everything was stable. Bring on the sweets! I'd wanted some edible glitter, but could only find shimmery spray paint... so I spray painted the roof tiles gold[**] before icing them. The flaked almonds recommended in the recipe looked like an awful lot of bother, and I didn't think they brought a whole lot to the party.
The BBC's instructional video showed how to make icicles along the endges of the roof... which I quite failed to do. I'm unsure if this was down to poor-consistency icing, a too-small icing nozzle, or fundamental lack of talent.
And a nice window at the back:
The recipe generously said I could make leftover dough into tree shapes "if I liked"... but I figured my biscuit-cutter repertoire limited me to stars or squirrels. Tempting as it was to surround my house with giant squirrels, I did some stars.
And the house went to the party, and was demolished by small children. And I came home and realised I still had shedloads of gingerbread dough and royal icing, and decided it was time to ditch this Christmas business.
[*] One of the things I always look at in someone else is their hands. I've often claimed (though not verified) that I could recognise a lot of my friends by just their hands. It seems, however, that I wouldn't recognise my own from this photo.
[**] I also lightly spray painted the bread bin, the stereo, areas of the worktop and quite a lot of myself.
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Starship
Date: 2012-12-17 03:30 pm (UTC)Almost!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:32 pm (UTC)The house is really a lot easier than I thought. It's time-consuming, but only in that you have to keep waiting for bits to dry. And now that someone's suggested putting chilli in the gingerbread, I'm kinda keen to have another go...
Also also, apparently if you cut out windows and put crushed boiled sweets in them before baking, you can make stained glass...
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:36 pm (UTC)Sadly, there is no way I'd ever have time to make such a thing during the proper season for it to be eaten at Xmas. Hmmm, maybe a gingerbread summerhouse.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:14 pm (UTC)What you shouldn't do, though, is use them as Christmas tree decorations in a cold damp room, because what happens is that overnight, condensation collects on the stained glass bits, resulting in sticky puddles underneath.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:37 pm (UTC)I have that Starship single on 7" vinyl :)
On a gingerbread theme the only other Christmassy thing that immediately comes to mind is Lebkuchen - though they're not very English. Also I guess christmas pudding, and in our house trifle.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:44 pm (UTC)I think of steep roofs like that as being very European-Alps, though whether they actually exist is another question. I'd have preferred to make something more English-looking, but not being well-versed in the finer points of gingerbread architecture thought I'd play it safe and follow the instructions first time. Actually, I think the stuff is pretty robust and any simple house shape would be a goer.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 06:53 pm (UTC)If in doubt, add more icing.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:44 pm (UTC)Then again, my gingerbread had a tendency to go really soft within about five minutes, which didn't exactly help :)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:50 pm (UTC)Although I still vote for the PacMan vignette as the cooler of the two. 8-)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 03:57 pm (UTC)You obviously read cooler magazines than I do... the star-tree sounds great. Did you do proper icing with the icing, or just gluing?
I saw something a little like the same idea, but for a cupcake, on a friend of mine's cake-making website at the weekend. Linking directly to the picture is defeating me, but if you go here (http://www.pennys-from-heaven.com/#/seasonal/4570605681) and look at the middle picture you'd get the idea.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 04:27 pm (UTC)Now chocolate chip cookie houses, using melted dark chocolate as glue... those were much more fun :D
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 04:42 pm (UTC)(Also, I never thought I'd get an excuse to use the 'badly drawn house' icon again!)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 04:59 pm (UTC)Still I'm a very generous sort, and I concede the existence of people who like chocolate more than they like ginger and treacle, so you may stick to your cookie-houses :)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:26 pm (UTC)Also, hand-shaped cookie cutters were fun to play with and lots of food coloring meant we went a bit crazy.
And now I have cravings for the Pfefferkuchen we used to make each year.... Saturday & baking can't happen soon enough!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:11 pm (UTC)I've not really encountered other houses anywhere before now, though after I'd resolved to make one, I did see ready-made ones for sale in a posh shop in Cheltenham. They were pretty pricey, though! (£20 for something much tinier than the one I made.)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:15 pm (UTC)Aldi do one too but theirs is a bit thicker and the gingerbread is a bit chewier and "gingerier" than the IKEA ones. http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/product_range/product_range_27598.htm
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:22 pm (UTC)http://www.johnlewis.com/231666815/Product.aspx
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 06:27 pm (UTC)I have not attempted gingerbread architecture, but I have made baked-in designs on gingerbread biscuits, which impresses...you just add a bit of cocoa powder to a small portion of your dough, kneading it in well so the colour is uniform (didn't measure, just added til the colour was visibly darker than the rest of the dough). Flatten your cocoa'd dough, sandwich between layers of clingfilm (the cocoa makes it a bit crumbly, so do this or it will fall apart), and roll v thin (1-2mm? As thin as you can manage without it breaking up). Roll out the rest of your dough (tucking the ends of your parchment under a heavy & sufficiently large-area'd chopping board might have helped with your sliding problem?), if anything a tiny bit thicker than you want the final thing to be & lightly score the outlines of your intended pieces onto it. Trim the coloured dough into suitable designs (strips for straight lines, or cut into wide stripes & repeatedly use a round cutter to get curves. I'm sure you can nest different sized stars etc if you want to get really clever!), and lay out your design on the main dough. Lightly lay a piece of clingfilm over the whole thing, and carefully roll over the whole lot, until you have a smooth surface. Properly cut out your design. Bake. Accept awe :)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 06:51 pm (UTC)Your kitchen worksurface looks suspiciously like mine...
http://ceb.dreamwidth.org/86330.html#cutid1
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 11:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 10:18 pm (UTC)You so should have gone with the squirrels!
And the house looks fantastic.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 08:59 am (UTC)P.s. like the windows powered kenwood mixer :)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 11:39 am (UTC)My boiler is also Windows-powered. Well, I somehow ended up with two Windows ME stickers, and I couldn't work out what else to do with them ;)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-19 10:15 pm (UTC)