Ginger Bread House Recipe

By mmmmmm (Guest Post)

Does this icing recipe really work?

By joan in westchester (Guest Post)

this is the easiest way to make a hard gingerbread dough:

1 box gingerbread cake mix
Enough water to make a dough with a cookie dough consistency

Follow "construction" directions

I have used this and it works great!

By

silverilex

i used this recipe this past christmas and it worked great and smelled fantastic all the way through the holidays. this isn't traditional gingerbread, but it's great to use. you don't have to refrigerate it for too long, it rolls out thin, and bakes into sturdy cookies to make the walls and roof. also i'm putting in a recipe for 'icing glue' that i found on the web. sets fast and is hard as concrete. we made 8 houses and none of them crumbled or fell apart.
Spice Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
flour for rolling
Instructions
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Cream brown sugar and butter together in a large bowl. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Add the dry ingredients gradually and mix until combined.

Divide the dough in two halves. Flatten each half and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two baking sheets. Lightly flour a work surface and your rolling pin. Roll out each dough piece until very thin. Cut cookies with a cookie cutter, roll out remaining dough and cut again. Repeat with the second dough piece.

Put cookies on the baking sheets and bake until the edges start to darken, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool.

Decorate any way you like.

ICING GLUE FOR GINGERBREAD HOUSES
3 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3- 31/2 cups icing sugar
in a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to foam. add the cream of tartar and beat until the whites are stiff but not dry. gradually beat in the icing sugar, beating for about 5 minutes until it reaches spreading consistency. keep it covered and refrigerate until needed . dries very fast.