Merry Belated Christmas & Daring Bakers Challenge - Gingerbread House

Merry Christmas from the family! :)

Monkey 1 and Monkey 2

It's been a crazy and hectic month! Time seems to fly at HIGH SPEED when it comes to year end, doesn't it? Well, I'm once again late for posting my Christmas wishes to all of you AND for my Daring Bakers challenge (don't think THIS is ever gonna change! :P) Anyhow, I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Holiday!! =)

This year, I didn't feel as excited as I usually did....I think mainly because Nd (Lee) had to travel to Taiwan for work for the first 2 weeks of December. However, I have also notice that usually by the time we get to Christmas, I am already so exhausted with the kids' and Nd's birthdays, Thanksgiving and all the school parties. However, I am glad that, at least this time I wasn't late in the holiday baking. I managed to deliver all the treats to friends and neighbors the weekend before Christmas! Woohooo!!

Before I forget...
The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

So, Gingerbread House made from scratch was the challenge, and boy, was THAT a TRUE challenge for me. We have only made gingerbread house ONCE, and from A KIT. At first, I was all excited, thinking of all the possibilities to decorate the gingerbread house, and that I would make a house for each of the kids, so they can decorate their own, and not mess with MINE! :P I started off by reserving gingerbread house books from the library. It was a little overwhelming ~ what design should I choose? Should I copy from one of the books, or should I make one of my own?? Then came the busy schedule that keeps building up, while I kept on pushing off the challenge. There was a week where we were forecast to have snow (we don't get a lot of snow fall in Portland, Oregon, some years, we don't even get ANY snow), and after last year's Arctic Blast, I was worried we were gonna get snowed-in and nothing to do. So I picked up all the candies --- but which candies to buy? How much do I need? I end up spending twenty something dollars JUST on candies itself, and we didn't even have ANY snow!!! Argghhh!

In short, I end up making the dough 3 days before Christmas ( I used Y's recipe)....thinking I could maybe have it done by Christmas. NOPE ~ THAT was just a thought! I only started rolling and cutting them out on Christmas night. I knew I was late, so I just picked a classic template from Gingerbread Houses: Baking & Building Memories by Nonnie Cargas.

I have read a lot of comments in the DB forum that the dough seems very dry. Mine seems ok, at least that's what I thought...until I started rolling them out. It cracks and tears like crazy! I added water, try to pinch them back together. Sometimes that help, but still it wasn't easy to work with.

Doesn't look too dry, right?

See how it cracks like crazy?

Anyway, I was ready to get it done...I cut out the template, planed on having one house for myself and one house for the 2 monkeys to share. As I was putting up the walls of my house, I realized I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE ROOF!!!! %$#*&#@!!!!! Talk about Challenge!! ~ No problem, no problem, I CAN be Bob Villa .I can fix THAT ~ the kids just have to sacrifice THEIR walls! ;P I trimmed the sides of my walls, and two of them cracked - no problem, just a little royal icing will fix it, and using the kiddos side walls, with 2 windows on each wall, WHICH could be the skylight for my gingerbread house! ;) Pretty proud of myself, I have to say.

See the two "holes" on the roof?? That's the skylight! ;)

However, there's still A problem. The walls weren't tall enough to fully cover the whole roof, so I had to patch the roofs with licorice. BUT before that, my other problem was...I had left the empty jar that I had used to support the walls while the royal icing dries, INSIDE the gingerbread house...and the roofs are already on!!! D-U-H!!!! So, I removed the roofs, take out the JAR, replace the roof, then patched the roof! Hmmm.... I wonder why I don't care about making gingerbread houses...especially from scratch??!!

See the jelly jar in there??? Bet you can tell which brand and what flavor huh?! :P

Anyway, that was really THE challenging parts of building a gingerbread house from scratch. The rest was the fun part, and was up to your imagination :)

Front view

Details on door

Side of house

Back of house

Top of house

Side of house

Despite all the interesting challenges I had, I was glad to have participated. Visit the Daring Kitchen for the recipes and other details in this challenge. And don't forget to stop by HERE to see how other Daring Bakers gingerbread turned out! You might get inspired and make one too! :)

Oh, by the way, there's always the question of to eat or not to eat the gingerbread house. And Nonnie Cargas has included in her book this poem for eating your gingerbread house, which I think is so funny and appropriate...

New Year's Poem for Eating Your Gingerbread House
by Nonnie Cargas

Eating this house so fair and sweet
Brings insight to the year you'll meet
For every bite has a tale to tell,
So eat for luck and wish you well.

If the front door is your choice to eat,
Far-flung visitors soon you'll greet.
But if on the pathway you choose to dine,
A trip afar will soon be thine.

Consume the roof if you want security,
For love and shelter will be a surety.
Tho' if it's adventure to which you aspire,
Devour the windows to achieve your desire.

From the warmth of the chimney true love will come;
A taste of it and a pair you'll become.
Or if, by chance, you're already a pair,
Eating the chimney will recharge the air.

Trees and buses bring money your way,
While lawn decorations bring laughter and play.
Fences bring projects at which you'll succeed,
And people bring kindness and help when there's need.

But indulge in some pieces that aren't mentioned here,
You'll have special surprises throughout the New Year!

Thanks Anna and Y for the challenge and thanks Nonnie Cargas for the great book and poem! :)

P/S Since I have LOTS of left over candies, I MIGHT, try another recipe and make up for the kids.

Newsletter Sign Up --- Ebelskivers

What happens after I sign up to receive news and deals from Williams Sonoma?? I get an e-mail saying they're having a one day deal - 50% off on the Ebelskiver (pronounced as "able-skeevers") pan (they are filled pancakes originally from Denmark) !!!! Aaaahhhhhhh!!!! What am I gonna do??? I have previously seen it on their catalog, and like always, was eying on it! But I figured we have spend so much these past few months, that I should forget about it. But, but, but.... it's 50% off!!! How the hell am I supposed to stick to my logical decision??

I told myself, I'd make Williams Sonoma my last stop, and have all the time to think if I SHOULD really get it...plus, they have mentioned that quantity is limited, so if by the time I get there, and they're out, it means I'm not meant to have it...if the pan is still available, then I can think about it.

Ebelskivers filled with Gingerbread butter

So, after doing some Christmas shopping for the kids and the hubby...I went to my last stop. The store was crowded with Christmas shoppers~ and I thought I'd be the only crazy one there! :P I looked at it, observe the other shoppers ...some of them were grabbing like 2-3 pans!!! Ahhhhh!!!! Even then, I was still pretty sure that I could stick to saving money. Then guess what?! Of course! Of course they have this lady standing there, demonstrating making these delicious Ebelskiver, and handing out samples! Now, I have NEVER had a Ebelskiver in my life...I can't even pronounce that name! Why, why oh why do they have to do this to me??? I've been sooo good, trying my best not to buy stuff for myself, cos' I do that too often, and with all the kids birthdays the past months and Christmas around the corner...so why, oh why now???

The moment I pop that sample into my mouth with my right hand, I was grabbing the pan by the counter with my left hand. However after that, I still hung around..thinking twice...looking at the recipe book Ebelskivers: Filled pancakes and other mouthwatering miniatures by Kevin Crafts...I know I probably can Google the recipe online...but, this book was filled with a whole bunch of recipes from simple to sweet to savory...and although Williams Sonoma sold the mix too...I'm all about making things from scratch, plus I LOVE collecting cookbooks.... I negotiated with myself that these will be my Christmas presents. There, I have a great excuse now ;) Later when I told Yesmin that I've already gotten my own Christmas present and that I'm gonna use the pan before Christmas, then we'll wrap it up on Christmas and put it under the tree ---- she thought I was silly! :D LOL.


Basic Ebelskiver Batter by Kevin Crafts
Makes about 21 filled pancakes

1 C All purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, separated
1C whole milk (I used fat free milk)
2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (I didn't used this, cos' I missed the step of adding it to the batter)

Whisk together the dry ingredient in a large bowl. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks then whisk in the milk and melted butter. Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir until well blended. The batter will be lumpy.

In a clean bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg whites till stiff peak, but not dry. Gently fold one third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it, then fold in the rest just until no white steaks remain. Use the batter right away.

Note: I have totally missed the step on combining the melted butter to the milk/yolk mixture. I thought it was for brushing the pan! It still turned out GREAT! By the way, I didn't get the Ebelskivers turning tool. You could just use 2 wooden skewers, I used toothpicks... you have to cook your filled pancakes on medium flame to prevent from burning, so it wasn't that hot to handle :)