Daring Bakers 21: Gingerbread House

I'm late..... again.... with my Daring Bakers post for this month, but I only just got it finished. This month the challenge was a Christmassy one in that we had to make a Gingerbread House!

I have to admit I had a few problems with this one. There were two different recipes to work from for this, I thought I'd save reading any further and just do the first one, but ended in disaster for me because the dough ended up way too dry and I still had more flour to add! I asked my fellow DBers for advice and was told to add a little milk or water until it comes together so I gave it a go but it just didn't want to mix, I ended up with firm clumps swimming in milk, so that was off to the bin. I read on and tried out the second recipe which worked much better this time, but did need extra water to bring it together too, but not much and I think it turned out well in the end.....



... I'm rather proud of my little piece of architecture, but to be honest not sure a Wicked Witch would feel safe living in it.

PS I halved this recipe to make a smaller house, I also only used half the dough on the house and made gingerbread "cookies" with the rest.

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)

Recipe

from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Simple Syrup: I skipped this part and glued it all together using the icing
2 cups (400g) sugar

Place in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling and the sugar dissolves. Dredge or brush the edges of the pieces to glue them together. If the syrup crystallizes, remake it.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.





The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Mum's Christmas Cake

I'm a big fan of Christmas cake and every year Mum would have bought me my own cake to nibble away at. This year I decided to make it myself and used the recipe from Mum's cook book. I had a load of fun making this, and half way through realised I didn't have a big enough bowl to mix the cake batter and fruit mix together so rushed out to Tesco and bought an 8 litre bowl for £2!!!! Bargain. I'm excited to use it for making big batches of rice krispie buns and things! I know I'm like a child.

Anyways on with the recipe....



Mum's Christmas Cake

Ingredients
1/2 lb sultanas
1/2 lb currants
1/2 lb raisins
1/4 lb candied peel or green glacé cherries
1/4 lb red glacé cherries
2 oz shredded almonds
2 oz ground almonds
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon

1/2lb butter
1/2 lb soft brown sugar
5 eggs
1/2 lb plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
Splash of spirits (or if you're like me some orange juice)

Recipe
1. Line and grease an 8" round tin (or 7" square tin).
2. Mix the sultanas, currants, raisins, candied peel, cherries, almonds and orange/lemon rind in one bowl and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together but not so much because the fruit may sink if there's a lot of air)
4. In a separate bowl mix the flour, mixed spice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
5. Mix an egg into the creamed butter, then some flour, then an egg, then some flour - keep alternating until all the eggs and flour have been mixed in.
6. Mix the batter and fruit mix together well, stir in the spirits (/orange juice) and pour into your cake tin.
7. Just before baking sprinkle a little water on top.
8. Bake in the oven at 325˚F for 1 hour
9. Bake for a further hour at 300˚F
10 Bake for one more hour at 275˚F. (During the baking try not to open the oven)
11. Leave to cool in the tin before removing it.

I covered mine with marzipan and white icing but it's fine without and can be stored in a cool place, wrapped in greaseproof paper and foil.



For some other Christmas recipes check out my posts from last year:
Jamie's Mince Pies - which I've made this year again
Traditional Mince Pies
Ginger Glazed Gammon/Ham
Sage, Sausage and Apricot Stuffing
Christmas Roast veggies

Garlic and Chili Chicken with Basil

It's been a while since I blogged about something I've cooked or baked so here goes.....

For our first anniversary we were given a cookbook published by one of the local schools. I have had a few recipes from it bookmarked for a while, but forgot I had this book until recently. I decided to make the recipe for garlic and chili chicken with basil because I had all the ingredients to hand and the recipe was also submitted to the book by one of the girls in my youth group whose mum happens to be an awesome cook! How could I resist?

I'm glad I made this, it was delicious and moreish, and was a great way to use up the chili I had. I'm looking forward to making more dishes from this book



Garlic and Chili Chicken with Basil

Ingredients
600g chicken breast, diced
1 small red chilli, deseeded and sliced
1 small green chilli, deseeded and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed2 tsbp olive oil
1" ginger, peeled and finely sliced My addition to the recipe
2 tsbp lemon juice
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 red pepper, chopped
1 cup chicken stock
2 onions, diced
2 tsp cornflour
4 spring onions, sliced thinly
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

Recipe
1. Combine chicken, chillies, garlic, lemon juice, oyster sauce and ginger in a bowl and leave to marinade for 3 hours.
2. Heat half the oil in a pan or wok. Stir fry the chicken until browned. Remove from the wok.
3. Heat the remaining oil in the wok and stir fry the onion and pepper until soft.
4. Return the chicken to the wok and add the cornflour and stock. Stir until the mixture thickens slightly.
5. Stir in the basil and spring onion. Serve with rice.

Rob's Christmas turkey

My hubby isn't that keen on cooking, unless it's BBQ or steak, however he decided to take charge of the turkey for Christmas, and I'm hoping it's a tradition that continues!

I thought I'd tell what all he did to the turkey and show the results.

The night before (but it can be done just before putting the turkey in the oven) he mixed herbs (sage and parsley) into some butter and softened it. Separated the skin from the meat on the breast and spread the butter underneath. Rubbed some oil all over the skin of the bird then a little more of the butter mix. Covered the breast in strips of bacon and wrapped the legs and wings in foil.


We peeled and quartered some white and red onions, smashed some root ginger with a knife and placed it all in the bottom of the cooking tray (along with the giblets). Set the turkey on top and roasted for 3.5 hrs (it was a 10lb turkey), rested for half hour, then carved. Delicious and simple!

Our first ever turkey!

Marinade Madness

Yesterday at the butchers Rob and I picked out what we wanted for dinner tonight. Rob got a steak, I got a couple of chicken drumsticks. and here's what we did with them:


Steak in Herb Marinade

Serves 1

Ingredients
1 Sirloin Steak
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Recipe
1. Grind the rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper in mortar and pestle (If you don't have a mortar and pestle put it in a food bag and bash the life out of it with the end of a rolling pin)
2. Mix this with the oil, worcestershire sauce and garlic.
3. Place steak on a plate and cover in the marinade. Leave to stand for 3 hours in room temperature, turning occassionally.
4. Heat frying pan (don't add oil - there's enough in the marinade)
5. Fry the steak on each side for 3 minutes (Rob likes a medium rare steak - adjust this time according to what way you like your steak)


Lemon Chicken Drumsticks

Serves 1

Ingredients
2 or 3 chicken drumsticks
2 tablespoons honey
1 lemon, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced

Recipe
1. Place chicken into an oven proof dish
2. Pour the honey over the chicken and place the garlic and lemon slices on top.
3. Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 190C


All of the above served with a choice of veg (sweetcorn for me, peas for Rob), baked potato and ciabatta to share.