10 Декември 2015

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House Votives - The View from Great Island

These little graham cracker cottages are the pre-fab version of gingerbread houses, and they’re the way to go if you want a quick and easy project to kick-start the season — you get to skip right over the fussy cutting and baking of traditional gingerbread construction and get straight to the fun part, the candy decorations! It has to be one of the most magical holiday projects you can do with kids; they always eat more candies than they glue on, they make a huge mess, and the memories sink in for a lifetime. Even though my girls [...]

Порции:makes a dozen gingerbread house votives

Необходими продукти:

30 full sized graham crackers separated into 60 squares
assorted candy and edible decorations such as candy canes, sprinkles, pretzel sticks, sunflower seeds, jelly beans and gumdrops
1/4 cup meringue powder
1/2 cup cold water
4 cups (more or less) confectioner's sugar

Стъпки:

1. First make the royal icing. Put the water and meringue powder in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until stiff peaks form. Start out slow and scrape down the bowl to get everything incorporated, then let it go on high. This can take 15 minutes or so.
2. Add in the sugar and continue to beat until smooth, glossy, and spreadable.
3. Spread the frosting in a thin and even (more or less) layer on each graham cracker square. If you are going to decorate the house AFTER assembling, then just let the squares dry until hard.
4. If you are going to decorate BEFORE assembling, do one square at a time, and put the candies right into the wet icing. Let dry.
5. To assemble the base of the houses, take 3 squares, and pipe some icing at the corners to create a box shape, with one open end. Let the base harden completely before putting the roof on.
6. To add the roof, add a line of icing along the top of the base on each side, and set the roof on. Gently pipe a line of icing along the roof peak. The crackers are light weight and the icing is thick so the roof should stay in place easily while it dries. If you have trouble, add more icing, and hold it for a minute in place. Let dry completely.