Tuesday, March 01, 2011

You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

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On to the post...
Over the weekend I made gingerbread.  It was yummy.  They were supposed to be gingerbread men, but I didn't have a man-cutter, so I used LDK's tulip cutter. They looked like dancing angels.  I got bored with tulip/angels after a time (my dough was a little sticky...there is a difference between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup of molasses, just sayin') and switched to making gingerbread blobs instead.  Then LDK helped me frost them.
This gingerbread making adventure made me realize that I have never made a gingerbread house.   This is mostly due to the fact that making a gingerbread that sticks together and isn't a crumbly mess, yet is still Joy-friendly, has up until now been elusive.  Cybele Pascal fixed that in her allergen-free bakers handbook. (buy the book, it's great!)
The realization that I had never made a gingerbread house stirred a desire in me to make a gingerbread house.  Easter is only 53 days away and seems a fitting time to make a gingerbread house (before you assume I'm crazy, recall how I celebrated Christmas and why I celebrated that way). Beings as I have never made a gingerbread house, I do not know what kind of candy I should get for decorating.  Getting candy is a bit of a challenge for me because in the USA most candy has corn syrup in it and this causes issues for me.  So my options are to either convince Mommy to do a Bulk Barn run and mail (or carrier pigeon) me some corn-free candy or to order online.
Either way, this is going to take time, so I need your feedback now:  What types of candy are absolutely necessary for gingerbread house making?

5 comments:

Angela said...

Okay, so I will keep in mind this is an Easter house and not a Christmas-y one...and I have no idea what's Joy-friendly, so I'm gonna just throw this all out and let you decide what to do with it!
Pretzels - especially the fun shaped ones, make cute picket fences for the perimeter of the house
For the roof - this is the part that is very easy to pick at, and the first thing that people will go for. Choose something that you can put a lot of on in a pretty pattern (eg. M&Ms, skittles)Some people like using Mini-Wheats because it looks like a freshly snowed on thatched roof - cute, but maybe not for your Easter house. I guess you could use un-frosted Mini-Wheats...that are gluten free?? Ha!
We like doing stained-glass windows - frost the outline with your royal icing and then fill in the sections with different colours of gel paste or crystal sprinkles
Okay, that's all I've got for now...plus the kids are not so subtly letting me know it's supper time :)
Have fun! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Joy said...

Pretzels are a tricky thing...I've got some Joy-friendly pretzel stick type things, but that's the closest I can get.
M&M's are completely out, but Skittles from Canada are in, at least they used to be okay. I haven't checked corn content for awhile. I might be able to get joy-friendly jelly beans through.
Mini-wheats...yeah, about that....:)
icing...I'll be making my own. It will be an adventure. I need to get food coloring because paint is not the same as food coloring.
Thanks for all the suggestions!

Moria said...

you could used colored sugur to decorate, I'm not sure how easy/difficult it would be to make it colored but i would think raw sugar with food coloring might work.

Unknown said...

gumdrops...think of the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel....

Nancy Koobs said...

smarties--you can use colour appropriate ones according to the season. Then if you are making gingerbread people--there is always raisins, cranberries or some kind of dried fruit. I love gingerbread and didn't make any this year. I love the smell--but also the taste. Crisp and dry--that's the way I like it--but some like it chewy and soft. There must be a special kind for everybody! ENJOY