Gingerbread belong to Christmas since the 14th Century.
Nowadays the gingerbread doesn´t contain any pepper, not since
the 18th Century.
There is a saying one gets kind and gentle by eating gingerbread,
a nice saying, but most lightly not true.
To make gingerbread houses is a German tradition, it´s now wide
spread over the World.



Build your own gingerbread dream house.

Ingredients:
3 dl/1½ cup sugar
2 dl/1 cup molasses
100 g/3½ oz margarine or butter
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
3/4- 1 teaspoon minced cloves
3 dl/1½ cup milk
1½ tablespoons bicarbonate
1 kg/35 oz flour

For the garnish:
A lightly whipped egg white, not to be foam
2 dl/1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 drops vinegar essence (12%)

To cement:
2-3 dl/1-1½ cup sugar
Melt sugar, molasses and butter over low heat,add the spices
Poor the milk, let the mix cool off.
Mix it with flour and bicarbonate to a a piece of dough.
Let it stay over night in the refrigerator.

Time to start building.
Heat the oven to 200°C/392°F 

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm/0.2 inches.
Put the out rolled dough plates on a baking plate and cut out the pieces
after the schablon you want to work by.
Fry for 10 minutes until the pieces got nice color.
Mix the garnish and decorate all the pieces just as you like, if you don´t
have a cookie pipe, just take a plastic bag and cut a little hole in the corner.

Melt the sugar in a roasting pan in the oven, it get´s very hot so be careful.
Dip the edges in the sugar and pull the pieces together, one by one.
Don´t move the house until the sugar is stiffed, otherwise it might fall apart.

On the roof it looks fine with confectioner’s sugar, then just need your
imagination, that´s your only limit for how your house will look.

Good luck