Our annual gingerbread building day was absolutely wonderful! Early in the morning I whipped up the royal icing
and then I assembled the houses.
putting the chimneys on last
The troups showed up with their bags and bags of candy and started to work.
Here they are about half way through.
And here are the finished homes.
I love this yearly tradition. This year we wrapped up with home made pizza courtesy of the DH
Nothing says Christmas like whipped shortbread.
but sometimes when you need a good cookie for your tea an almond and craberry biscotti, dipped in chocolate, can be just the right thing.
are very important to me. Perhaps the most important thing is that every kid who ever made one will tell you about it. The memory of making gingerbread houses totally justifies the huge amount of time that you need to devote. Baking your own gingerbread leaves that spectacular aroma in your house for days.
I try my best not to orchestrate the appearance of the house. I should probably make my own next time
each house is unique and they are getting more and more elaborate as the kids’ fine motor skills become more developed. They last just til someone starts breaking pieces off of the roof and then that’s it they’re gone.
Well we made some this week. I just love them, they are so…….caramel and nuts and shortbread and chocolate. O.K. I love them to death. Would you like to watch us make them?
We started off by making the shortbread base, we made ours realllly big, 15×21 actually.
Then we dissolved the sugar, corn syrup and brown sugar and brought it boil and cooked it until it reached 350. (you need a candy thermometer for this).
I added the butter
brought the sugar mixture back to a boil and cooked it til it reached 250 F.
then I added a ton of sliced almonds and poured the sticky mess onto the shortbread base and baked it in the oven for about 18 minuts. I’d show you pictures of the sticky mess but there were only 2 of us in the kitchen and all of our hands were holding hot things.
Once the florentines had cooled we dumped them upside down, scored the back first with a bread knife and then cut through the whole cookie/nut caramel with a chef’s knife. The cutting part is the easy party. The we tempered some semi sweet chocolate and drizzled the babies.
Phew they’re in the package and they are done!
These cookies and all of our holiday sweets are truly one of a kind creations. Our cookies are made from scratch with all natural ingredients and they are all baked by hand. They make an excellent gift….if you don’t eat them yourself first. We’re all sold out this year but if the thought of sending the best cookies EVER appeals to you please let us know by about August so that we can schedule you it too!
This Friday was supposed to be my day off after my email was caught up and my client menus were sent out. I was supposed to have a glorious afternoon shopping at the One of a Kind Show but somehow life gets in the way and by the time that I had my ‘work’ done I only had 2 hours til I had to pick up my son from school so……I baked off some gingerbread. It’s snowy here in Toronto and I wanted the house to have a holiday feel to it so what better way then to make gingerbread cookies.
I baked cookie ornaments.
I will decorate these and then package them up for sale to make your tree beautiful and edible at the same time.
I use the Wilton Gingerbread recipe. I truly have been using it for about 20 years. It is reliable, extremely tasty and very sturdy. It’s the perfect dough for gingerbread houses which I will make a little later on in the month. I make the dough in my 5 quart mixer. The dough is pliable and easy to work with while it’s still warm but as it sits it becomes tougher so don’t be tempted to make this dough in advance (I learned the hard way with a full 23 litre pail of g/bread dough).
Keep tuned to watch the decorating in progress. If you looking for a good client gift a dozen of these gingerbread cookie ornaments sells for $15.
See you next time.