This is a very sturdy Gingerbread dough used for making houses large and small.

6 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice (you may use ground cloves instead)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2  sticks butter (room temp.)

1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs (room temp.)

1 cup dark molasses

1 tablespoon water

Stir together all dry ingredients in a lorge bowl and set aside.

With a mixer on medium speed combine the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and well blended.  Slowly beat in the eggs, molasses and water  until well combined.

Beat half of the flour mixture into the molasses mixture.  Beat until well blended and smooth.  Remove from mixer and stir in the remaining flour mixture.  Knead until well blended.  If dough is too soft, add a little more flour.

Wrap the gingerbread in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 5 hours or overnight.  You may make the dough up to 3 days ahead of time.  Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling.

Roll, cut and bake 1/4″ thick pieces at 275 F. for about 1 3/4  hours.  Let set several days before decorating with Royal Icing.

Bellow is an example of the pattern we used to make the gingerbread house pictured above:
Sides of your gingerbread house:

Roof of your gingerbread house:

Front and back of your gingerbread house:

If you are going to follow our pattern, make master pieces from a heavier stock paper, so you can easy follow it when cutting the dough.

Royal Icing Recipe

Before starting please wash your mixing bowl and beaters with hot soapy water, rinse well.  Royal icing will not mix properly if there is a trace of oil in your bowl.

1 lb. sifted confectioner’s sugar (10x sugar)

3 Tablespoons Meringue powder

6-7  Tablespoons warm water

Mix all ingredients in mixing bowl and using a heavy duty mixer beat 10 minutes on medium high speed.

You must keep this icing covered as it will start to harden.

I hope this recipe will help you to create most beautiful gingerbread house for this Christmas. However if you leave close to Brick, NJ and would rather avoid the kitchen mess that comes along with the project like this, you should definitely check out our Gingerbread House making class.

The fact that strawberries can be found in our supermarkets around the year and that they pair quite nicely with the chocolate makes them one of the sweet-lover’s favorite treat. You would be surprised to learn that making chocolate covered strawberries is as easy as it gets. With a little imagination and creativity you can very easy impress your friends and family. The downside? Well, the thing is that the chocolate covered strawberries have a very short shelf life, they must be consumed soon (preferably on the day you make them). But don’t worry, your family and friends will not mind this small inconvenience.

Register for our Chocolate Covered Strawberry Class to learn how easy it is to make them. This class will take place on November 8th, 2010 at 6:30 PM here at the Chocolate Belles. The next Chocolate Covered Strawberries class will be scheduled before Valentine’s Day, make sure to subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss the announcement of the new date for this class.