We love helping you with your big house, so we thought we could help with a little one. The following recipe is a good one posted by Elise on “Simply Recipes.”
HOW TO MAKE THE DOUGH:
INGREDIENTS
• 6 cups all purpose flour• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup dark molasses
• 1 Tbsp water
METHOD
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and well blended. Beat in the eggs, molasses and water until well combined.
3. Beat half of the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until well blended and smooth. Stir in the remaining flour. Knead (or use your mixer's dough hook) until well blended. If dough is too soft, add a little more flour.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours, preferably overnight. You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time. Let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling out.
5. At this point, you’ll want to roll out your dough and cut your pieces. It helps to prepare patterns on cardboard beforehand so your measurements are accurate. As many of us unfortunately know, if your pieces don’t match up, your house will collapse. Rub flour on your dough and rolling pin to avoid stickiness
6. Bake in a 350°F oven until the edges are just beginning to darken, 11-15 minutes for the large pieces, 6-8 minutes for the small pieces. Rotate the cookie sheets half way through the baking for more even browning. Remove the sheets to racks to cool, about 15 minutes.
7. While the pieces are still slightly warm, lay the pattern pieces over them and use a large straight chef's knife to trim off any parts of the pieces that have through cooking spread beyond the pattern.
8. Remove pieces to cool directly on racks to cool completely.
After your pieces are cool, you can start building your house! I recommend using store-bought frosting at this stage. As delicious as many home-made frostings are, if they aren’t the right consistency, everything is bound to fall apart. Decorate at your will! And don’t forget to lick your fingers along the way!
