Adventures in Gingerbread

Making Gingerbread Houses has always been a Dixon Family Tradition. At least it has since before the time that Rob & I knew each other which has been about 16 years now! Wowza! Grandma Sue usually makes the houses. There have been years where we have helped some, but she has graciously offered to do most of the making while we have mainly decorated the houses. Well, last Halloween I decided to make Haunted Houses. I borrowed her cutters and got to work. That was the first time that I learned just how much work is involved in making these cute, little houses. This year for Christmas we decided to order our own set of cutters and make our own traditional, Christmas Gingerbread Houses.

Here are the cutters that we ordered. They turned out to make cute houses, but they aren't as sturdy as Grandma's houses, so it was more difficult to get uniform houses. This set did come with a cute tree, though. That was a fun addition, and the windows are arched, which is also a fun variation. Next year I will have to come up with something to put in the window since it is quite large:

The next step is making all of the Gingerbread dough. One batch yields 3 houses, using Grandma's cutter pattern. Our cutters didn't quite yield that much. The houses are a tad-bit bigger. My goal was to make 12 houses, so I made 5 batches of dough, staying up until 4:15 in the morning this past Saturday. Yikes! That was mainly because we didn't get our cutters until a few days before, and I had a feeling that if I didn't just suck it up and get started on them then it might not happen this year. Hopefully next year won't be so rushed. Here is Clark doing the next step, rolling out the dough:

And Cody helping bake the dough after I had cut it out, as well as sampling the dough, but he is a teenager after-all. I can't really blame him:

Jacqueline came up with some fun ideas for how to decorate the trees. She used M&M's, sprinkles, and red licorice for the garland. She did this all by herself! So creative; they looked amazing as you can see:

On Saturday, the night following the night that I stayed up until 4:15, Rob and I stayed up late again cutting out houses so that we would have two houses that we could bring to some friends who live about 45 min away. I was going to be in that area the next night anyway for a church fireside. We knew that the dough would need time to cool before it could be assembled with the royal icing. So we were up until around 3:15 that night. Then after church we rushed home to assemble the houses and decorate them to bring to our friends. A little weary and worse for the wear, but mission accomplished (and totally worth it) or so we thought. Pretty cute if I do say so myself, right?




Well, as it turned out only one of the houses made it there in one piece. The other one decided that it would rather fall to pieces. I didn't hit any bumps in the road or anything. I think it just didn't have enough time to properly set. We were really rushed that Sunday because we were having my family over to dinner and had to be at a church fireside by 6. My friend, Clair, one of the recipients of the in-tact house even mixed up some icing for me to use to try to repair the other one. It turned out to be a lost cause because on of the sides that hold up the roof was cracked in half. Even toothpicks weren't going to hold this thing together. Anyway, long story short... one set of friends got a cute house & the others got this picture with a note that said, 'it's the thought that counts, right?' LOL. *Sidenote: I was able to make another house for the friends whose house fell apart, and they will get it on Christmas when we are back in their area. :)

Here are a couple more that I made and decorated for some of Rob's work friends and a family at church that we are friends with:

By the time we had finished these last 4 houses I was feeling pretty sick of gingerbread to be honest. I love this Dixon-family tradition and I want to keep it going, but I was having so much trouble. First, I had a small slip when making the dough because the recipe calls for you to add the eggs to a warm mixture on the stove, and the first time I tried it my eggs cooked. I was able to salvage it an make adjustments for the remaining batches of dough to prevent that from happening again, so that wasn't too bad. Then when I went to roll out the dough it was dry and brittle. It kept cracking which was getting me nowhere fast, so Rob called who else?! Grandma Sue; she is a lifesaver. She suggested mixing it up in the Kitchen Aid again with a little bit of water, so I tried that which made a world of difference. Things went a lot more smoothly from that point forward. Then the only hiccup was that the cutters were flimsy, and I found it difficult to keep the shape of the houses, especially when transferring it from the rolling surface to the cookie sheet. Rob finally came up with the idea of rolling the dough out on the cookie pan and cutting it on that surface. That worked like a charm because then all that you had to do was remove the excess dough and bake it.

Anyway, Grandma Sue, you are amazing! She cranks these things out like they are batches of sugar cookies. I don't know how she does it. She is a beast, and I mean that in the best possible way! There's no stopping her! She used to make batches of houses and take them to nursing homes to do with the residents. She did it with all of the ladies in Relief Society at Church, and she's done it with my Sister-in-law's Girl Scout troops. I have told her so many times that my hat is off to her, and I am hoping that it will become easier for me the more that I practice. My Sister-in-law, Theresa, seems to have gotten the hang of it, so I am hoping that there is hope for me and this isn't some kind of a superpower only possessed by Grandma Sue.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with my results this year. I got a total of 9 houses (including the broken one). I had a goal of 12, and I could still reach it, but Christmas is in just a few days, so I am going to be happy with the 8 surviving houses that we got. My dream of making houses for the sisters I Visit Teach, for each of my kiddos, Rob's work friends, the kids teachers, the neighbors, and my family members who I wanted to invite over to make one that they could take home will have to wait for a future date in time. I did try, though! :) Next year we will already have our cutters, so I can start sooner, and maybe I should invite Grandma Sue over to teach us the tricks of the trade. Grandma, I just want to say that we love you and this Gingerbread House tradition that you started all those years ago! I promise that I will keep at it until I am a pro, like you & can pass that skill on to our kids, and onto their families as well. Love you so much!

Below are pictures of our kiddos (Cody, Jacqui, Carissa, and Clark) with Kaylee & Jacob (Lynette's younger siblings) decorating the last of our houses:

Cody helping hold the houses as I put them together. He's my human clamp. Rob even used some tape to help hold the roofs on as they set. Hey, that's ingenuity right there:

The houses are ready & the table is prepped with candy for the kiddos to use on their houses:

Carissa & Cody were hiding.

Jake was being silly.

Kaylee too.

Carissa joined in on the fun.

Cody kept hiding behind the icing bags. We still see you. :)

Just a few other tid-bits about our Gingerbread House Tradition:

- They are completely edible & I have been told quite yummy, but I never eat them. I just love to look at them. Rob is pretty much the same, and the kids only pick at the candy.

-The first time that Rob came to my house he and his mom were delivering us a Gingerbread house. Our eyes locked & we fell in love. :)