Gingerbread House Villa Kunterbund

Preparation:

1. First make paper templates according to the dimensions given on the template. One for the two roof panels and one for the 2 triangles for the front and rear. Cut the door out of a triangle, and two unequal triangles for the chimney. The leftovers can also be used to make decorative parts, or they can be used for sauces and desserts, or they can also be eaten with a cup of coffee. The dimensions for the above-mentioned parts of the house can be seen by clicking on the right arrow on photo no.10.

Dough:

1. Mix the flour, spices, baking powder, powdered sugar and cocoa in a large bowl. Dissolve honey, syrup and butter in a saucepan over mild heat. First add the eggs to the flour mixture and work in with the dough hook of the hand mixer (or food processor). Then pour in the liquid, but slightly cooled honey mixture with the dough hook running and knead in until a tough dough is formed. It is very compact, but not easy to roll out. Its amount is enough for 2 whole and one 3/4 sheet.
2. Preheat the oven to 175 ° O / bottom heat. Then brush the baking sheet a little with butter and glue a suitable piece of baking paper to it (this way it cannot slide back and forth when you apply it). Now add enough dough in several portions that you can spread it out and smooth it out into an approx. 5 mm thin sheet. This is very easy by wetting the palms of the hands with water over and over again. So you can easily spread it into all corners and edges, the surface becomes nice and smooth and shiny due to the wetness of the water. Make holes in the finished plate and slide the sheet metal into the oven on the 2nd rail from below. The baking time is 10 – 13 minutes. Then pull the sheet of dough including the paper from the tray onto the worktop and, while still warm, cut out the required parts using the templates. Then let it cool down completely and only then remove it from the paper.
3. When the first parts have been cut, grease the sheet again a little, stick on baking paper, apply the second sheet of dough as described above, bake and cut out. The 3rd sheet of dough does not have to fill the tray completely. It can also be a bit uneven at the edges, which then doesn’t seem so “sterile”. It later serves as the subsurface for the house.

Assembly:

1. I have made the experience that a house with parts that have been cut out and not already baked in shape can be glued better with dissolved couverture than with the powdered sugar and egg whites mixture. Since the edges are porous and not smooth, they soak up the couverture quickly, it holds better and attracts faster. So everything can be glued together quite easily – without having to use 4 hands. The first thing to do is to coat the lower and left sloping side of the triangle with the door and place it so far back on the floor slab that a small front garden remains free and the later house is closed with the rear edge of the floor slab (in front of the Measure glue with a roof plate). Then you coat the lower (narrower) side of a roof plate and place it on the left side of the triangle so that it is about 2 cm above it and a small roof overhang is created. Then, to stabilize, place a cup or something similar from below against the rear part of the roof plate, coat the lower and left side of the 2nd triangle thickly with couverture, glue it under the rear part of the roof plate as in the front removes the cup. Now you coat the right edges of the front and rear triangles as well as the lower edge of the 2nd roof panel and place them on the triangles. Finally, gently and lightly press everything with the flat of your hands and the house is already there. The cut-out door must then be coated with couverture on its lower and left edge and glued against the right door opening (standing open). For the chimney, the two unequal triangles must first be glued together with couverture and only then painted on the elongated, strongly sloping underside and glued against the roof. If you like, you can use the leftover dough to make a small bench and a fence ….. The egg white mass will later only be used to decorate and stick on the decoration.
2. When the house is now standing, it should rest for about 1 hour before decorating and become really stable through the hardening of the couverture.
3. For the snow, the egg whites are beaten very stiffly. When it starts to set, the powdered sugar must be added little by little while whipping. When it is used up, the mass has to be beaten until it shines, is quite tough, but can be squirted well. Then you fill it into a piping bag with a hole nozzle about 5 mm in size and use it to decorate the house and stick the decoration on.
4. Since this dough is not as hard as a conventional honey cake dough for gingerbread houses (I’ve already bitten my teeth on some …; -.)), Even smaller children can nibble (or suck) on it. It can be subsequently cut out or cut into shape. Here, too, you can let your imagination run wild, and the children can join in with everything.
5. So have fun with the possible rebuilding and later nibbling ………. greetings ………. a “Santa Claus” … ;-)))
6. The preparation times given below include making the templates and dough, baking, cutting and assembling. The time for the decoration is not included as it is up to you how long it takes.