Jamie Magazine
By Georgina Hayden
1 hr plus resting & cooling
Not Too Tricky
serves 16
About the recipe
This magical gingerbread house is great for making with kids in the run-up to Christmas.
Recipe From
Ingredients
4 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons treacle
160g muscovado sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
200g unsalted butter (cold)
1 orange
460g plain flour, plus extra
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 free-range egg whites
500g icing sugar
sweets and edible glitter, to decorate
Method
- Put a small saucepan on a low heat, add the maple syrup, treacle, sugar, ginger and cinnamon with 4 tablespoons of water and combine with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring until the mixture boils.
- Carefully take the pan off the heat, then cube up and add the butter, saving 1 piece. Let it all melt in, stirring to combine, then grate in the orange zest.
- Stir in the flour and baking powder until everything comes together as a dough – if it’s very sticky, dust it with flour, then wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease a baking tray with the reserved butter.
- Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour, then roll the dough out to about 5mm thick.
- Using a sharp knife, cut out pieces for your house. You’ll need six pieces, in three different shapes measuring: sides: 20cm x 14cm; roof: 21cm x 7cm; gable ends: 10cm (base) x 14cm (outer sides) x 18cm (apex). Any scraps can be pressed together and rolled out for the next pieces.
- Place your house pieces onto the tray, leaving a 1cm gap between them. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden and slightly darker around the edges.
- Let the gingerbread cool completely before icing.
- Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks then, while whisking, gradually mix in the icing sugar till you have a dense stiff meringue. Use this to glue your gingerbread pieces together.
- Decorate with sweets, using more of the icing as glue, then very lightly dust with glitter for sparkly snow.
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