It’s December which means its time to start wishing everyone a very happy holidays!! Over the next month I am going to be building the ultimate Papery & Cakery gingerbread house. Every Wednesday, I’ll fill you in with different parts of the process and give you step-by-step tutorials.

This week I am focusing on square one: making and baking the dough.

I created a template for the house, which I found on the internet. I printed the template on text paper, and then taped the pieces to thick cardboard and cut out the pattern.

This gingerbread dough is meant to be used for building a house and not for eating. It is much stronger * check back next week for a gingerbread recipe to make yummy cookies * This dough is pretty much just for show and will hold up the sturdy walls of the house.

Gather all the ingredients.

Place 9 cups of all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in bowl.

In a microwave safe bowl place 2 cups light corn syrup, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 1 1/4 cups margarine. Microwave until margarine is melted and sugar is no longer grainy. Mix wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

Allow dough to rest for half an hour. Then roll out to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface (or on floured parchment paper).

Transfer all of the slabs to a baking sheet with either a Silpat liner or parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes, until the sides are lightly browned. Remove from oven and trim the cookies as needed. I put the templates over the hot cookie and trimmed off * using a pizza cutter * any excess cookie caused by the dough spreading during baking.

Allow the slabs to dry out overnight. (Prepare for decorations galore!!)

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe click here: Structural Gingerbread.htm

Check back next Wednesday for assembling the house!

xoxo,

Ali