I am trying to build gingerbread houses for xmas. The recipe i found on here the dough came out to soft after baking it and letting cool. I need a recipe that will be super strong. The houses are a minimal of 12 inches high and 16 inches wide. So they need to be able to hold up. I followed the directions step by step. So I don't what went wrong. Please help thanks
The recipe I used last year came with a kit that included cookie cutter like parts to the house. It came out very hard and held together well for several weeks.
5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tsp powdered ginger
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp nutmeg
1 Tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1 cup unsulphured molasses
Melt shortening in saucepan. Add sugar and molasses and mix well. Make sure sugar is fully dissolved. Sift the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and ginger together in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir 4 cups of the dry ingredients into the shortening mixture. Mix thoroughly. Then put dough on countertop and mix remaining cup of flour by hand.
Roll the dough onto ungreased cookie sheets to 1/4" thickness and cut out shapes needed. Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes.
I'll be making this recipe again this week. I hope this one works for you.
Ah see that was my problem in the recipe it said nothing about melting the shortening and the temp was lower. Okay I will try it and hopefully it works out. This is the first year me and hubby are trying to do our own since we want to bigger than what the pre-baked kits allow. Thanks
I have been working on my gingerbread house and it was a first for me too. Here's the recipe: http://www.cakewhiz.com/CakeWhiz/post/Gingerbread-house-Baking.aspx
The cookies were hard, tasted yummy and did not fall apart when my house was assembled and decorated.
Hope this helps 
I have been working on my gingerbread house and it was a first for me too. Here's the recipe: http://www.cakewhiz.com/CakeWhiz/post/Gingerbread-house-Baking.aspx
The cookies were hard, tasted yummy and did not fall apart when my house was assembled and decorated.
Hope this helps
You have a nice blog... 
Thanks guys! Those comments made me so happy. I am glad it helped you out.
By the way, i forgot to mention this on the blog but iif you are using those templates, then i printed those at 75% and not 100%. If you print those at 100%, i am pretty sure you would have to double my recipe.
Sorry I forgot to include this in the blog earlier.
Happy gingerbreading
Here's a thread which may help you: http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=604431&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
The recipe I used last year came with a kit that included cookie cutter like parts to the house. It came out very hard and held together well for several weeks.
5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tsp powdered ginger
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp nutmeg
1 Tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1 cup unsulphured molasses
Melt shortening in saucepan. Add sugar and molasses and mix well. Make sure sugar is fully dissolved. Sift the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and ginger together in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir 4 cups of the dry ingredients into the shortening mixture. Mix thoroughly. Then put dough on countertop and mix remaining cup of flour by hand.
Roll the dough onto ungreased cookie sheets to 1/4" thickness and cut out shapes needed. Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes.
I'll be making this recipe again this week. I hope this one works for you.
This is the exact recipe I use as well and let me tell you, it makes some tough gingerbread! One tip is that you will find that this dough gets super tough as it cools down- to make it easier to handle and roll out, I microwave the dough for like 10 seconds and it's perfect.
Also, I've quite sucessfully used 1/2 corn syrup and 1/2 molassas mix in place of the molassas- if you do that you need to add 1 1/2 tsp of water to the melted mixture. Oh and another thing I add is cinnamon and cloves to make it smell nice
Can i use honey or 3/4 c brown sugar to a cup of molasses instead?
I don't see why you couldn't use honey(except for the expense), and maybe the brown sugar is worth a shot, but you'd have to mix the brwn sugar with a little water to match the consistency of molasses. one thing to consider is if you use honey the dough won't be that gingerbread brown color, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing i guess. I'm feeling experimental and may try doing a similar type dough but using straight light cornsyrup instead of molasses and ommitting the spices to see if the dough can bake up with the look of a sugar cookie- but strength of the construction gingerbread.
OMG thank you Cake wiz for that link and your recipe which was 10 times better than the one I found on here. It worked wonderful and I had lots of fun with it. I did a double batch since my gingerbread houses are larger than normal and I still have some dough left. Thank you thank you thank you so much
I am so happy my blog posting helped you christina
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