What's a good recipe for gingerbread construction materials?

December 8, 2008 6:35 PM

I'm thinking about building a gingerbread house this year, and as usual for food topics that have yet to show up on Good Eats, I'm at a loss for where to find a good recipe.

I'm looking for something that balances structural integrity with taste because I think it's utterly ridiculous to build something out of edible materials and then not eat the thing. Besides, eating the roof off of a gingerbread house must be at least twice as much fun as biting the head off a gingerbread man.

If you can also point me to a good recipe for the frosting stuff that you use to stick things together. I think it's called "royal frosting", but I'm not positive on that.

posted by ErWenn to food & drink (5 answers total)

I like the recipe in the Joy of Cooking, it definitely gets hard over time, but its flavor is unmistakably gingerbread. I've been using it with my family to build our gingerbread houses for the last 3 years.

As for taste, the flavor is the easy part, balancing texture and structural integrity is a whole 'nother ball game. You have to give up texture (which in my opinion can impact the experience of taste).
posted by pokeedog at 7:38 PM on December 8, 2008

Oops, I should include I use the Joy of Cooking royal frosting recipe too and I make it with powdered egg whites, rather than the real thing.
posted by pokeedog at 7:39 PM on December 8, 2008

I've found it's not worth the effort; as pokeedog says, there are major compromises. Make it structurally sound, and eat a few scraps while they're fresh, then, as we do, hang the stale house from your birdfeeder.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:04 PM on December 8, 2008

I should clarify that, while super-tasty would be fantastic, I'm not expecting it to taste as good as gingerbread cookies baked primarily for eating.
posted by ErWenn at 9:14 PM on December 8, 2008

This Gingerbread House seems to have very similar ingredients to a normal gingerbread man, and includes the frosting. (Australian measurements on that site, not sure if that's a problem).
posted by harriet vane at 11:32 PM on December 8, 2008